Exfoliation is a practice recommended by dermatologists to remove dead skin cells from your body but using a textured bathroom product such as a body scrub or a loofah. Extremely important for keeping the skin tight, hydrated and fresh looking, exfoliation can also be quite relaxing and will leave your skin smooth with a healthy glow.
However, experts do recommend that you do not over-exfoliate, limiting the task to once a week. Those who suffer from over-exfoliation often experience dry skin, rashes, irritation and overall skin tautness. Remember, it’s everything in moderation.
For that once a week exfoliation session, it’s nice to have a luxurious product to indulge yourself with but high end brands can often be extremely costly. Luckily, however, it is relatively simple to produce your own exfoliating body scrub with natural ingredients that is a fraction of the price to make yet resulting in just as soft skin.
Try one of these recipes.
Banana Sugar Body Scrub
Banana sugar body scrubs have a very simple formula comprising of one banana, 3 teaspoons of sugar and a quarter teaspoon of vanilla extract. Mix this all together into a paste and rub it onto the skin to exfoliate.
Bananas have several positive effects on skin due to their abundance of nutrients such as potassium, vitamin A and vitamin C. Bananas are said to reduce the appearance of wrinkles when absorbed by the skin due to their moisturising and emollient properties. They also help to remove dead skin cells as their consistency is particularly sticky.
The sugar in this mixture creates a course effect which helps to remove dead skin cells and stimulate blood flow to repair broken cells. Deep sugar exfoliation also helps to increase collagen production to reduce the appearance of wrinkles.
The vanilla extract acts as an agent to give the scrub a paste feel as well as an inviting smell. On a health level, vanilla extract is an antioxidant which can have benefits on the skin by counteracting damaging oxidizing substances that the skin has been in contact with.
Coffee Brown Sugar Body Scrub
Coffee brown sugar scrubs are very simple to make by combining half a cup of ground coffee beans, an eighth of a cup of brown sugar and half a tablespoon of vanilla extract.
Despite public conception that coffee has negative effects on health in general, it is surprisingly good for the skin. Due to its coarse nature, it makes an excellent exfoliating product, and the high levels of caffeine stimulate the blood flow in the body to increase the rate of skin cell repair. As caffeine is a vasodilator, it also constricts blood vessels which helps to tighten the skin. Coffee is also an antioxidant.
The benefits of using brown sugar over white sugar are that it has a more courses texture and doesn’t contain unnatural preservatives. It’s also a great source of vitamin B which reverses the appearance of aging on the skin.
Peach and Brown Sugar Body Scrub
Using one large peach which is extremely ripe mashed in with two thirds of a cup of brown sugar and one third of a cup of olive oil, you can create a moisturising body scrub to combat dry skin.
This scrub is extremely beneficial to the skin as peaches are a natural skin care remedy in themselves. They contain ten vitamins and a handful of minerals as well as being an antioxidant and a tissue builder. This makes it an excellent ingredient for a body scrub. The tissue building qualities help skin repair while the vitamins ensure good blood flow, anti aging effects and skin protection.
Olive oil is an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory helping to bring down any swollen areas of skin. Also a moisturizer, olive oil leaves a protective film over your skin which locks in water to ensure hydration. Furthermore, olive oil in itself is an exfoliant as it helps to remove dirt from the pores without clogging them.
Exfoliating is a very important part of your weekly skin routine and helps to ensure skin is free from dead cells, stays firm and taut and is moisturized. Remember not to over-exfoliate as this can have detrimental effects. As a final point, sugar can be replaced in any of recipes with sea salt which is a natural detoxifier as it absorbs toxins from the skin.
Melissa Cameron is a freelance writer from Austin, Texas. Mother of a two, she prefers to teach her children the importance of using natural products in order to live an ecologically-friendly life. Utilizing tips from www.mysensitiveskincare.com, Melissa uses all-natural household products and cosmetics in order to teach her lessons through example and to stay healthy through using the natural world.
