Have you 'Scrubbed' today?

Okay so lately exfoliating has become a really huge deal for me!
Mainly because I got rid of my token facial scrub by Aveeno sometime in April (I looooooved that scrub!!) One day after using it & boasting to my husband about how great it made my skin feel, he bought up the investigative question of, "What are the ingredients?" So of course, no matter how much I adored this product I couldn't let this question go...heck, even if I tried he wouldn't let it go away that easily anyways (gotta love him!) So, I looked into my beloved products' ingredients and found the following: SLS (which we discussed in "You Put WHAT on Your Skin!?"), PEG-16 Soy Sterol (which has organ system toxicity concerns attached to it), Phenoxyethanol (which acts as a preservative & fragrance. This ingredient was the scariest of all to me as it's known for cancer concerns & irritation of the eye, skin & lungs). It's also been deemed to be a great alternative to formaldehyde by Wikipedia...needless to say, this was enough for me, I didn't even need to research the rest! I guess the hubby asked a pretty beneficial question after all, huh?
So, with that disaster behind me, I was now on the search for a facial scrub that I thought would work well for my combination/oily, sensitive and acne-prone skin (in my most sarcastic tone: aren't you just jealous that you aren't me? lol) and be as 'chemical-free' as possible. Of course my first inclination was to conjure one up myself, but the face was an obstacle that I had not yet taken on; the skin on the face is just different, the cells on the top layer of skin are smaller on the face and overall that skin seems to be more sensitive than on the rest of your body. To be completely honest...with an extra-sensitive face like mine, I was a little intimidated. Then I got to thinking, sensitive skin or not, this didn't have to be a super scrub; I just needed something with very few ingredients that would help to slough that top layer of dead skin cells off of my face and aid in revealing the fresh, supple, new skin underneath! After mulling it over for 15 mins or so, it finally came to me-I ran into the kitchen, sprinkled about 1 Tbsp Raw Brown Sugar into the palm of my hand & added about 1 Tbsp of jojoba oil, along with about 4 drops of Tea Tree Oil to it. I then placed the mixture into a glass cup, took it into the bathroom where I moistened my face with warm water & proceeded to scrub (very lightly in an upward, circular motions). I rinsed the mix from my face and completed my beauty regime with cleansing and moisturizing. My face couldn't even tell the difference! It was just as bright & dewy-looking as it was when I was using the Aveeno, but now it had a bit of a fresh, tingly sensation from the tea tree oil-which was just an added bonus! I made my goal of using as few ingredients as possible and (to add a dash of accomplishment) those ingredients were better than 'chemical-free', they were All Natural!

One certainly does not have to be a chemist to come up with effective beauty products!

So, what homemade miracles have you made lately?


I recommend the following:

-If you have Oily Skin (like me) Combine:
1Tbsp Jojoba Oil
1 Tbsp (raw) brown sugar
3-5 drops of Tea Tree Oil

-If you have Dry Skin Combine:
1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Tbsp (raw) brown sugar
1 capsule of Vit. E (squeeze the oil out)

-If you have Sensitive Skin Combine:
1 Tbsp Light Sesame Seed Oil
1 Tbsp (raw) brown sugar


Choose the one that best suits your skins' needs and let me know how it goes!