What follows is a slightly-modified recipe for a homemade exfoliate I mentioned on last week’s podcast to co-hosts Julia and Cecelia. I hadn’t tried it before last night, but sweet luscious brains of Sagan do I recommend it.
You need:
1 Cup melted coconut oil
1.25 cups sugar
1 small bowl
1 spoon
I don’t want to tell you what to do, but:
Mix the melted coconut oil and the sugar into a small bowl, using a spoon. It needs to look to you like something you can successfully slather on yourself in the shower. You’re not applying for a permit to do this, so if it looks too grainy or too oily, adjust the amounts until it looks right to you. I served up about 2 Tablespoons into a smaller container for the shower itself, which was just enough for my…all of me.
If this doesn’t inspire you to take your clothes off and jump into a shower, well, then, I don’t know what to tell you.
Cost:
Search on amazon for “coconut sugar scrub” and the results for something similar to what I had range about $20-$40, plus shipping cost, plus delivery time of 2 days to a week and a half, plus trusting the company which made it that it’s the product they advertise it as.
A single cup of organic and extra-virgin coconut oil came out to approximately $4.25. Rounding up, the sugar was 30 cents. No shipping cost, about 10 minutes from melting the coconut oil to being in the shower, and I had trust in the quality of the product.
What happened when I did it:
It was awesome and more people should do this for themselves. Coconut oil is a great moisturizer and holds the sugar well enough. If I had promised myself a ~really~ great time in there and ended up eating any of this inadvertently, it’s perfectly safe to ingest–not at all similar to getting soap in your eyes. The sugar worked fine as an exfoliate. Hours afterwards, all the parts I know about still felt like they’d been awesomely and thoroughly pampered. The remainder can just be popped into the fridge and melted all over again for the next time. You can even add a small amount of an essential oil for a particular scent.
The only concern I recognized was that the oil ends up on the floor of the shower and slick to walk on. Be careful not to slip, then–one crack is probably enough for you. Also, the sugar worked immediately, and I found it very easy to apply too much force to my arms when I started. Calm down and be gentle on yourself.
So get off the internet and go lather yourself up in oil and sugar. And then, find something else to do.