Ugh- I looked down at my legs yesterday and thought- "time to exfoliate".  That's how I know spring is coming.  All winter we might be using lots of nourishing lotions but if we don't occasionally exfoliate we get a build up of old and dry skin- which actually makes it harder for our lotion to do it's job.  Ideally we should exfoliate about once a week but I get winter lazy so now is the time to up my self care routine.  An added benefit of exfoliating is it feels good.  Spending a little extra time in the shower can help you feel better, both inside and out.

Scrubs are actually easy to make with common kitchen ingredients.  It's also fun during the summer months to dry flowers and herbs to add to your scrub.  Adding bits of summer can really help battle the winter blahs.   

Your base can be either a sugar or a salt.  Sugar is gentler with smaller particles and I like sugar for hand scrubs.  Salt is bigger and a bit coarser so I like salt scrubs in particular on my legs after a long stretch of winter.  Salt also has healing and antiseptic properties and it can really leave your skin glowing. 

To make your mid-winter scrub you need about 1 cup of either salt or sugar.  You can use what every you want except for coarse salt.  Brown or white sugar, table, sea or even a bit of pink salt.  Put in a bowl and add a bit of oil.  You can add up to 1/2 cup but I don't like my scrubs to be overly oily.  It's best to add your oil by the spoonful until your scrub is moist and lovely and resembles wet sand.  

All kinds of oil work great for scrubs.  Olive is handy, coconut oil will give you a summer/beach scent, sweet almond oil is light and absorbs easily into skin.  You could also use a massage oil.

You can adds lots of pizzaz to your scrub by adding other ingredients including ground coffee, tea either loose or open a tea bag, bits of flower including lavender, rose and calendula, raw honey, oatmeal and small seeds like poppy or flax and dried citrus peels.

In general if you add fresh ingredients your scrub will not last very long but it will be delightful. 

Have fun scrubbing!