 Coffee Body Scrub
I love coffee, especially the smell and I start every day with a lovely cup of black organic coffee made in my trusty bean to cup Gaggia coffee machine, which means that I have a lot of used coffee grounds to make use of! I hate waste and like to put everything to good use and it just so happens that coffee grounds are great for clearing cellulite! So this simple scrub costs pennies to make and has dual function, it naturally exfoliates and moisturises the skin and the lovely smell of coffee wakes you up in the morning! Don't use your best extra virgin olive oil for this, any oil will do, I tend to use olive oil. I like to add a few drops of vanilla essential oil to mine but you don't have to, its great as it is! One word of warning, it does make a mess of the shower! So here is the simple recipe
Simply mix the ingredients together. I reuse a glass jar to mix and store it in, just be careful you don't drop it in the shower! Add more sugar and/or more coffee grounds for a more exfoliating scrub. This is too harsh to use on your face so you can make a gentler scrub with softer brown sugar and add a tablespoon honey instead of the coffee grounds! Just use a handful of the scrub on dry skin and massage it in for a minute or so, it really gets your circulation going, then just rinse it off. Your skin will be soft and moisturised! Dry skin brushing before you go into the shower will also help to boost circulation and get your lymph moving! So put your coffee grounds to good use in your morning routine, your skin will thank you!! ......your health in your hands....
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 Since the weather has improved and we are all baring our arms and legs in summer shorts and dresses I thought I’d share my fantastically easy sugar scrub recipe. Using this will leave your skin exfoliated, moisturised and smooth as a babies bottom! It’s also great at preventing shaving rash on your legs. Sugar makes a wonderful scrub, its naturally exfoliating and you can use any kind from demerara to light brown or just standard white stuff, however that’s where the benefits of sugar end! If anyone ever sees me with a bag of white sugar in my shopping basket, I can assure you it’s to make this scrub!! I think we are all aware how bad for us refined sugar is. It really has no nutritional value, other than giving us a quick burst of energy which is quickly followed by a slump and a craving for more sweet stuff! It depletes our immune system, is stored on our body as fat, causes wrinkles, dulls our brain, causes inflammation and is linked with pretty much every chronic disease. It is also highly addictive, more so than cocaine, as a recent study found so really its best to avoid it as much as you can! Anyway I digress but I can’t resist the opportunity to spread the word on how damaging sugar actually is! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!  Health is about more than what we eat, it’s also about the products we use on our skin. Most people don’t really relate to body lotions and make up causing negative health effects but I can assure you they really do. What we put onto our skin is absorbed into our bloodstream and from there any artificial ingredients will be stored out of harms way in our fat cells, causing cellulite and eventually leading to other health problems. Both HRT patches and nicotine patches work in this way, the active ingredients are absorbed through our skin and enter our bloodstream, where they do their job. When you consider there are hundreds of chemicals used in beauty products, which most of us use daily, then you can see how easily using these products can start to impact negatively on our health. A list of the most damaging chemicals can be found at http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ A simple answer is to simplify your beauty routine and make a few products yourself using simple ingredients without any nasty chemicals. This sugar scrub couldn’t be simpler, it works, its cheap, smells divine, saves you time and you won’t be polluting the environment. It also makes a lovely gift, tied with a ribbon! Those wee nanoparticles which are used in many upmarket scrubs are awful for the environment and are polluting our oceans so please don’t buy them!! Nature always has a healthier alternative!  I’m sure most of you already have all the ingredients to mix up a batch of sugar scrub right now. All you need is granulated sugar, desiccated coconut, olive oil and some essential oils or some lemon and lime zest and a glass jar to store it in! Here is the recipe: 2 cups sugar 1 cup olive oil or sunflower oil 2 tablespoons desiccated coconut (optional) Finely grated zest of 1 lemon and 1 lime or 20 drops of your favourite essential oil Simply mix all the ingredients in your glass jar and use daily for soft and glowing skin! I generally have a shower first, then use the scrub, then rinse it off leaving lovely soft moisturised skin. My favourite essential oils are: …Lavender - relaxing and healing …grapefruit - detoxing and reviving and great for shifting cellulite …lemon - clears congested and oily skin, lifts the spirits, stimulates the mind and boosts concentration …rosemary - great for aching muscles and circulation problems, eases headaches and stimulates the memory Both grapefruit and lemon are phototoxic so avoid direct sunlight for 12 hrs after use. Word of warning, be careful you don’t slip in the shower after using your scrub! Dry body brushing is a great accompaniment to using a body scrub. It will boost your lymphatic system, reduce cellulite and start to shift toxins, which is always good and will also get rid of old dead skin cells. Do your body brushing on dry skin before you have a shower. Simply brush your skin briskly towards your heart, starting with your feet and working your way up your body, avoiding any sensitive areas like your chest. You will feel your skin tingling all over! It’s a simple and a great habit to adopt so give it a go, your body will thank you!! Here’s to a summer of glowing, healthy skin! ……..your health in your hands…..   |
Janice
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