Sometimes I have the most random natural skin care ideas in my head… I was thinking about a body scrub the other day. The spring is finally here and it’s warmer and sunnier. Soon enough it will be the flip-flop, shorts and t-shirt season! We still have some time to get ready and here is one random DIY body scrub I thought of a few days ago. It’s quick to make, easy to use and feels very nice. And, I think, it’s my new favourite! 

Coconut, Honey & Ground Rice Body Scrub

you will need approximately:

20g ground rice

40g coconut oil

40g honey   

The amounts can vary, you can put more/less coconut oil, the same with the honey, just see what works best for you. Weight the oil.

Add the honey.

Gently mix the honey and coconut oil until you form a smooth paste.

Add the ground rice and carefully combine all the ingredients.

Massage the scrub into your skin. Exfoliate for a few minutes. The coconut oil will nicely melt and moisturise while honey slough off dead skin cells leaving your skin soft and fresh. Wash the exfoliator off and enjoy your evening!

You can use salt or sugar instead of ground rice, feel free to experiment. You can also add a drop or two of your favourite Essential Oil or mix in fresh strawberries. That should work extremely well here. Your scrub will smell like summer! 

This exfoliator is very gentle. If you want it to be slightly rougher, just soak the rice in water and then grind them.

SeaSource products

Aaah, the end of the long Easter weekend.

The time for too many chocolate Easter eggs, good food all around and good wine. So at the end of the four-day weekend I felt somewhat bloated from too much food and my skin looked tired.

And so I decided to end the weekend trying my newly arrived seasource Detox Spa products. And now I feel soooo cleansed and relaxed… Here’s what I used.

First I had a good scrub in the shower with the Foaming Sea Salt Scrub. This gently lathers into a rich foam as it gently exfoliates the skin’s surface, helping to release toxins, increasing microcirculation and stimulating skin to promote a healthy-looking radiance. My skin felt incredibly smooth and silky after the scrub.

For the face I used Detoxifying Rescue Wash as a few spots have appeared on my face after eating too much chocolate. The unique formula protects against free-radical damage and lays down a protective moisture barrier on skin’s surface.

Next I smothered my face with Sea Mud Face Mask. This contains stimulating ingredients and marine botanicals that help detoxify and condition the skin. It works, you can feel the tingling as it starts to dry and my face was positively glowing after I washed the mask off. It literally felt like new. I then used the 5-in-1 Oil to moisturise my face after the mask.

While the face mask was setting I rubbed 5-in-1 Essential Massage Oil all over my body. The oil can be used for body massage, facial, bath oil, facial steam bath or for aromatherapy. A versatile oil that smells divine. And it doesn’t leave your skin oily. It is easily absorbed and makes you feel as if you have just had a proper salon spa treatment.

And now that I’m feeling soo relaxed it is time for me to turn in for my beauty sleep as tomorrow is a normal working day and I need to be sharp to learn new beauty tricks to share with you all

I’m always about new projects. I think I may be a chronic multi-tasker. I think there are two main driving forces behind this: first is that I love learning new things. The second is that I get bored easily.

I like to have little side hobbies. But hobbies can be expensive, so I also like my hobbies better if they can earn me a little cash on the side I try not to approach them too business-like; for instance I never assumed that when I started making jewelry that it would turn into my full-time job where I would be selling wholesale. Instead, I do it in my spare-time, I enjoy making one-of-a-kind pieces, and I enjoy selling it at local markets where I can engage with customers.

On the other hand, I don’t do anything half-ass. I purchased supplies in large quantities in order to get the highest discount level (as well as going in with partners), I researched how to price handmade goods, I calculated the price of all my beads, headpins, eyepins, etc., and I’m always on the lookout for new ways to display and market my jewelry.

Buuuut….I’ve started a new project: handmade body scrubs, body butters and face masks. A few years ago I began hearing about how conventional products are so bad for us for numerous reasons and I slowly started making the change-over. And every once in awhile I’d go back to regular products and then I’d make the switch again. One of the things I liked to do was make my own scrubs (once my sister showed me how easy it can be). And then I did some reading about making your own body butter. I thought to myself, well why shouldn’t I branch out and try making a few new things?

I’m sure many of us have heard of the term “greenwashing.” In case you aren’t familiar it basically means that a product can advertise that it is “natural,” “organic,” or “green” and not actually be any of those things. Big brands caught on quickly that people a) want green products and b) will buy anything that claims it is “green” without doing any research. A product might say “paraben-free” which might be true, but there might be a whole lot of other bad stuff in there that you don’t want on your skin.

It makes me pretty angry when I see greenwashing, but not very surprised – after all, big brands are all about making money.

However, it makes me extremely angry when I see a local person selling handmade products at a craft fair and advertises them as “all-natural” when they’ve decided to put in synthetic fragrances and preservatives that may cause cancer.

So I’m making it my new mission to create some really cool, wholesome products (with an actual shelf-life), that are awesome for my skin. And if it works out, then maybe it will be helpful for someone else’s skin too!

So that’s my new little project. I’ve been doing lots of research and I just made a supply order on Monday. I’ll keep updating here as I go, whether I made something really cool or whether this all turned out to be a really expensive mess in my kitchen

Turkish bath towel ► bathstyle.

Natural sea sponges ► NaturalSeaSponges.

Sea scrub ► FIGandYarrow.

White cotton kimono robe ► choisette.

Natural soy sea salt candle ► sydneyhaleco.

Time for some summertime pampering! Happy Friday everyone! xoxo

What are your plans for this weekend?

And it’s a great way to treat yourself to some TLC. So run a nice hot bath and depending on the required outcome chose one of our gorgeous Sugar Scrubs Lavender (to help you relax and unwind) or Lemon & Orange (to uplift and revitalize you). Taking a small amount of the scrub and apply to your skin in a circular motion, take care to avoid the face and neck areas as they are more sensitive. Once you have finished lay back and allow the water to wash away the sugar.

The problem I had with body scrubs (before I made my own) was how dry my skin was left afterwards so for me it was really important that the scrub moisturised. It’s also really good for removing fake tan gradually without the snake skin appearance!!

The residue of the oil will be left on your skin, which has great moisturising properties and saves you time as you don’t have to apply a body cream or butter. When you finally manage to drag yourself from the bath pat your skin dry and let the oils carry on moisturising!

Verite Collins – Having Fun After Cancer – has also reviewed our Lavender Body Scrub

http://after-cancer.com/body-skin/fight-cold-winds-with-good-skincare/

And here’s what one of our customers had to say

Hey, Ive tried your Lavender Sugar Body Scrub and I just wanted to let you know that I loved it! Not only did it leave my skin smooth and refreshed, but it left a beautiful smell in my bathroom too. I shall be purchasing again!

Se necessita:

Azúcar; sugar is the devil but only for the inside of your body. For the outside it´s an excellent natural exfoliation product. (Salt tends to be slightly dehydrating which is why sugar is preferable.)

Olive Oil; my favorite beauty product of all time, good for your inside as well as your outside. Of course any vegetable oil of choice is fine, sometimes I like to use sunflower oil since it is, unlike olive oil, odour free, and you don´t have to walk around smelling like food for the rest of the day. (Just as long as your not using baby oil or any other synthetic petroleum product aka mineral oils.)

Como hacerlo:
Take a jar, glass or plastic, whatever you have around and pour the sugar into it. Then blend in the olive oil and stir thoroughly so that it mixes well.
Then get naked and hop into the shower! Start massaging the sugar/olive oil mix all over your body in circular motions. When done just rinse the sugar and the oil off. No need to wash off all of the oil though, when your skin is moist it goes quickly into your skin as your skin is drying. And your left with nothing but baby smooth skin.

The scent of lemongrass is just what you think it would be, lemony and grassy. It’s bright, green and crisp and is the perfect addition to bath and body products if a pick-me-up is what you’re after. But lemongrass is more than just a grassy-lemon scent, it’s also herbaceous and kind of spicy. Because of its use in cooking, lemongrass can easily conjure up culinary references, but in Naturopathica’s Lemongrass Mimosa Body Scrub, we are taken down a different path.

Lemongrass is far and away the dominant scent in this gently invigorating scrub, but the inclusion of mimosa, ylang yang, rose and jasmine lend complex floral notes which heighten its spicy and herbal qualities. While massaging the Lemongrass Mimosa Body Scrub onto my skin, the shower fills with its uplifting and unique fragrance. And while it’s difficult to discern the floral notes as separate essences, they swirl together beautifully. As I sit here with some of the scrub on the top of my hand, there is a note that suddenly stands out, one that I have not noticed previously, and that’s vetiver. Vetiver, like lemongrass, is herbaceous and green, but with a sweet woody character rather than a citrus one. Like in perfume, vetiver melds seamlessly into floral blends and helps to bring out the earthy side of lemongrass.

As far as it’s performance as a scrub, it gets my highest recommendation. Although it is important to note that this is not a foaming scrub, it’s a thick walnut shell powder and shea butter based paste that’s creamy and does an excellent job of exfoliating. Naturopathica has succeeded in creating a scrub that does what it’s supposed to do, but without the unwanted side effect of feeling too rough. The walnut shells are very finely ground and the shea butter gives it a soothing creaminess that I really like.

Naturopathica Lemongrass Mimosa Body Scrub is $28 for 5oz. Available at Naturopathica.com

Visit Now Smell This for a past review of Lemongrass Mimosa by Jessica.

Watercolor image of Seaside Mimosa by The Joy of Color at etsy.

INGREDIENTS: Aqua/Water/Eau, Juglans Regia (Walnut) Shell Powder, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetearyl Glucoside, Glycerin, Cetyl Palmitate, Lactobacillus/Arundinaria Gigantea (Bamboo) Grass Ferment Extract, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Cymbopogon Flexuosus (Lemongrass) Oil, Rosa Damascena (Rose) Flower Oil, Jasminum Grandiflorum (Jasmine) Flower Oil, Acacia Decurrens (Mimosa) Oil, Citrus Hystrix (Combava) Peel Oil, Cananga Odorata (Ylang Ylang) Flower Oil, Litsea Cubeba Fruit Oil, Pelargonium Graveolens (Geranium) Flower Oil, Vetiveria Zizanioides (Vetivert) Root Oil, Urtica Dioica (Nettle) Leaf Extract, Silybum Marianum (Milkthistle) Leaf Extract, Filipendula Ulmaria (Meadowsweet) Leaf Extract, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract, Xanthan Gum, Potassium Sorbate, Dehydroacetic Acid, Benzyl Alcohol

Disclosure: Samples were sent to me for consideration by Naturopathica. The opinions in this review are my own. I was not financially compensated for this review or any other.

It’s the simple things in life that often give us the most pleasure and at age eleven (in 2005), inspired by her mom’s request that they hand make something for xmas, a girl called Lani Lazzari decided to make a bunch of all natural body scrubs. Fast-forward to the future and this young entrepreneur is now CEO of her own company called Simple Sugars, with a full-line of completely natural, handmade, foot, face and body scrubs. As a well known olfactory obsessive, what I LOVE about these scrubs is that all of the scents use pure essential oils – ok, not particularly compelling – but what sets them apart is that the smells actually reflect the real thing.

With 20+ fragrance profiles including lemonade, strawberry, almond, chocolate, lime, and the newly launched pumpkin (just in time for Thanksgiving!), each one alights your senses with delicious pleasure and leaves your skin smooth as a babies.

Loved by beauty editors everywhere including Teen Vogue and Lucky Magazine (as well as moi!), and second place getter in a nationwide entrepreneur competition, Lani understands the notion that simple is best; but simple done well is even better.

Writer :: Emma Pezzack – www.futurenatural.com: the best organic beauty products in the world.

Some of us need a little extra love in the shower to get kissably soft skin from head to toe. As the largest organ of the body, the skin is thick, resilient and also a pain when it comes to erasing dead cells and maintaining that buffed and shiny glow.

But it’s not what you put on your skin that will keep it soft and healthy looking. It is what you take off!

Exfoliating the body is one of the greatest beauty rituals that began centuries ago. We can get some of the same effects with products and tools like exfoliating gloves, scrubs and pumice stones.

Here are my tips for getting your scrub on…
Step 1. Start in the shower with the water off. Scoop a finger full of scrub (my favorite is Adiva Natural an amazing all-natural scrub I picked up at a Harlem street festival a few weeks ago this summer). On
dry skin, work your way up from the bottom to the top, starting at the feet and finishing to the arms adding more of the scrub as needed.

Step 2. Rinse off the scrub with tepid water. Put on the exfoliating gloves, add some of your favorite hydrating soap.  Again, work your way from toes to fingers. Rinse and repeat.

Step 3. At the end of the shower, brush the pumice stone along your heels and softly along the ball of the feet to remove calluses and soften the soles.

Pat your body dry, add your favorite lotion or oil (I prefer olive oil or cocount oil) and congratulate yourself on skin well-done!

Love and beauty,

OBV

Do you have any tips or recommendations for total body exfoliation?
Please leave your suggestions. I’d love to hear from you!

Today, I am going to share with you my sugar scrubs experience.  I started researching sugar scrubs last year when I wanted to bring a new product to the “In’Fusion” range.  I understand today that exfoliating the skin is primary to the health and well being of the skin.  Basically, if you want healthy, radiant and glowing skin, you need to exfoliate it.  It is not by using scrubs alone that your skin will be healthiest as possible; however, scrubs create the perfect base to start with.  It’s a bit like putting make up.  If your skin underneath is unhealthy and uneven, it will show no matter the amount of base you use, there is only so much that make up can do.  To obtain the best results, you want your facial skin underneath the make up to be healthy.  It’s that simple.  The same applies to your body.

Explanation:

The outer layer of your skin holds countless dead skin cells. Underneath these dead skin cells, your skin creates new cells and that is why the old ones surface.  A small amount of these dead skin cells will slough off on their own. This natural process happens all day everyday.  These dead skin cells build up on the outer layer of your skin and, that build up makes your skin look dull.  These dead skin cells can also clog your pores whilst trapping dirt and oils inside them, creating blackheads, pimples, and other facial blemishes.  Removing these dead skin cells therefore promotes healthy skin by revealing the new, soft and healthy skin underneath.

What is important to know here is that exfoliating is best when the product itself is natural.  Since the skin underneath is new, soft and healthy, it is more sensitive, therefore, chemicals are likely to be too strong and too abrasive for it.  Natural ingredients are softer on the skin and are healthy to use and when used properly, cannot damage your skin.  Also, whatever is absorbed in your skin thereafter is not damaging to your body.

When using natural scrubs, there is a variety of options.  I am focusing mainly on sugar scrubs, and these are only for body use.  I choose sugar scrubs as they are more versatile and suitable for everyone skin type.  Salt scrubs are also very effective; however they are coarser and less versatile as they do not suit everyone’s skin type.  Remember, when exfoliating, Facial scrubs and Body scrubs are very different. The reason for that is simply that Facial skin is softer and delicate whilst Body skin is stronger and robust.  Sugar scrubs should be used at least once a week or twice, depending on your skin type.

As a soap maker, I engaged the scrub making journey last year.  There is a large amount of information available on the net, which made my research so fascinating and full.  I am incredibly grateful for the soap makers out there that share their work: as it has hugely assisted and inspired me and STILL IS.

Sugar Scrub with Oil at the surface

During my initial research (I am still researching, forever, I think!! There is just sooooo much to learn) I discovered the excitement of creating sugar scrubs and developing my own recipes.  Testing them was magic (I tested them of course!!!).  As time went by, in all of my attempts, the oil always surfaced and created a layer on top and, even though in my research most of the recipes mentioned that this would happen, it frustrated me.  Furthermore, some scrubs didn’t do that but there were no indications on what was different.  I revisited my recipes as I created them based on my research and thought I might have missed something but nothing showed up.  The comforting reality was that I was using my scrubs and my skin was glowing, so I knew nothing was wrong.

Rich, Creamy and Moisturising Sugar Scrub

In any case, this year, determined as ever, I decided to make some tests with various changes in my recipes and leave them to sit for a few weeks.  I made lots of notes and checked on them everyday to see if the oils separated.  Some did but 2 didn’t and I now have a rich, creamy and moisturizing scrub recipe.  So, for those of you who have been searching for that, it is possible and works!!!  It is all about trying, experimenting and balancing your ingredients until you get the results you choose.  Remember though that the results are only reliable after a few days as the ingredients have settled by then.  This is what confused me at first as when I made them they were perfect and the next day, the oils separated and my jar looked emptier as the sugar compacted and sat at the bottom!!!

Here is the successful test!!!  All natural ingredients…  Rich, Creamy and soooooo attractive!!!

Thank you for your visit today!!

See you soon

Sarah

It’s obviously not because the people in Brooklyn are a particularly dirty bunch, but you have to admit with Jolene’s post on Brooklyn soap makers and now The Bubble Roome coming to our attention, it’s hard not to wonder what’s up?! One thing’s for sure, there’s no shortage of verdant creative energy and dynamic spirit in this NYC enclave, and The Bubble Roome bath & body products are yet another example of why we love Brooklyn. David E. Johnston is a self-confessed ‘Purveyor of goodness and product junkie’ who began The Bubble Roome by making soaps as gifts for friends – needless to say those friends loved them so much, he has now expanded his skills & product lines to include such skin-tasty treats as Brown Sugar Scrubs, Triple Butter Creams and 100% Goodness Bars. Reading more like your favorite candy selection it’s hard to resist the delicious, handmade line-up and the great news is, you don’t have to. Chock full of organic & natural ingredients with nothing artificial or harmful (and with 50′s influenced packaging that looks just as good on your shelves as the products feel on your skin), you don’t have any excuses not to indulge. Writer :: Emma Pezzack – www.futurenatural.com: the best organic beauty products in the world.