Coffee scrub

Difficulty: Beginners
Time: 30 mins
Yields: 3 pots (120 ml each)

Last Christmas I was given a little pot of coffee scrub and I totally loved it. Body scrubs are exfoliants for the skin, which remove dead skin cells through polishing, leaving the skin looking and feeling soft and smooth. The mechanical exfoliation (as opposed to chemical exfoliation, see further below) also increases circulation and blood flow to the skin, which has an boosting effect on skin cell renewal and rejuvenation.

Coffee grounds have become a popular additive in body scrubs lately, and not without reason. Coffee, or actually the caffeine in the coffee, is said to boost fat metabolism and tighten the skin, and the use of caffeine in skin care is not new, and there are many products containing caffeine, such as cellulite creams, anti-acing creams etc.

Me being me, I had to check out the ingredients in my coffee scrub and saw that it only had coffee, salt, oils and fragrance in it. Actually quite simple and very surprisingly very natural. And easy to make yourself, I thought. However, I did make some changes to what I think is an even better version of the standard DIY coffee scrub that you can find on the web.

Some scrubs contain salt and some sugar. I decided to go with sugar for this scrub, because sugar crystals are generally more gentle on the skin than salt, and I wanted to make a gentle scrub that I could use every time I shower. As an exfoliant, sugar also has the added benefit of containing glycol acid, also knowns as AHA in cosmetic and skin care, which removes dead skin cells by dissolving the ‘glue’ holding them (chemical exfoliation) and leaving your skin look radiant and rejuvenated. AHA is very popular in facial skin care. And lastly, sugar is also natural humectant, meaning it draws moisture to the skin, unlike salt, which detoxifies and leaves your skin feeling dry and dehydrated.

I also added liquid soap to the scrub, because when I used the other scrub, it left my skin a little too greasy for my taste and I ended up washing my skin with soap afterwards. The idea for this scrub is that it’s an all-in-one: scrub, wash and moisturise. There’s only a little bit of liquid soap in the scrub, just enough to remove the excess oil and still leave your skin well-moisturised.

Just a heads up: this is coffee, so you do need to rinse down the walls of your shower afterwards!

ONE: Measure out the sugar, coffee and coconut oil into a bowl and, using a spoon, mix everything together.

TWO: Add one tablespoon of liquid soap, I’m using liquid castile soap, to the mix, and give it another good stir.

THREE: The coffee scrub I was given had this faint coconut scent to it, which I really loved, so I tested out some of the coconut fragrances I had, and found that the Island Coconut fragrance from Candlescience was a perfect match to the full-bodied coffee aroma. I only added 1 teaspoon, because I wanted to compliment the coffee and not overpower it with coconut fragrance.

If you want a completely natural coffee scrub, you can either leave out the coconut fragrance, or add an essential oil. I can imagine sweet orange or cinnamon would go well with coffee!

THREE: After one final stir, scoop the scrub into your pots. There should be enough to fill three 120 ml pots.

To use: scoop a little of the scrub in your hands and rub in circular motions over wet skin. Wash off.

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