To make your own skin sparkle, just buff way your dead skin cells – this is called called exfoliation, but you probably already know that.

There are two main types of exfoliants – physical (gritty bits that will scrub away dead skin cells) and chemical (compounds that will detach dead skin cells). Physical exfoliants work very quickly, and are great to use in the shower. Chemical exfoliants (like alpha- and beta-hydroxy acid) are very effective in serums and moisturizers, where they sit on the skin for long periods of time.

Shower scrubs can be very expensive – $36???? Yeah, right. Its very easy to make your own body scrub. It’s pretty simple:

Much like sandpaper, exfoliating scrubs contain gritty substances that slough off your dead skin cells. Sugar and salt scrubs contain rather large crystals (~1 mm), which work fast and deep. Some scrubs may contain crushed apricot pits, walnut pits, and coconut shells which perform similarly to sugar and salt.   Some exfoliants also contain synthetic plastic beads. Olay body wash, I’m looking at you! Plastic exfoliating beads get washed down your shower drain and eventually end up in the ocean, which is very bad.

This all-natural recipe costs less than 25 cents to make, and the olive oil will moisturize your skin, leaving you smooth and soft.

Natural Exfoliating Body Scrub – In a jar, combine:

4 parts sugar
1 part olive oil
(optional) Essential or fragrance oils

You can add any essential oils that you like, or none at all. For the recipe below, I added 20 drops of orange oil and 5 drops of peppermint. The scent is light and full of energy!

Feel free to play around with the proportions of the recipe, add a little more oil to make a more liquid scrub. Try using salt instead of sugar. Or, use different types of oils. Leave me a comment a let me know what your favorite combination is! I’d like to try brown sugar & ginger, or maybe lavender & lemongrass….