The Most Amazing DIY Body Scrub 💕

A few weeks ago I noticed some rough little bumps on my upper left thigh that just refused to budge.

After a quick google I’m pretty convinced that it’s keratosis pilaris, also known as chicken skin, which causes numerous small, rough, tan or red little bumps around hair follicles on the upper arms, thighs, buttocks, and cheeks.

Not wanting to avoid shorts this summer I once again took to google to see if I could find something to sort my lumps and bumps.

The Lush Buffy Body Butter has been praised by many sufferers of KP, some even claiming it sorted their skin instantly. Now I tried this product a few months ago and although it was a good scrub, it wasn’t very moisturising and quite overpriced considering it only lasted a few showers.

Not wanting to spend a lot of money I instead opted to go down the DIY body scrub route and so started researching body scrubs and natural ingredients.

Let’s talk about base, the main purpose of a body scrub is to exfoliate and remove dead skin cells, leaving you smooth and soft. The two most popular base ingredients for body scrubs are salt (mineral seas salt) and sugar.

Salt (mineral seas salt) is the roughest exfoliant due to it’s very coarse texture, but it is great for detoxifying the skin and as it has anti inflammatory properties it both soothes the skin and helps calm irritation. Salt also contains minerals to soften skin and restore hydration, which makes for a great scrub.

Sugar is a little less harsh on the skin than salt, as it has a softer texture, but it still works great as an exfoliant and is suitable for people with sensitive skin. Sugar is a natural humectant, drawing moisture from the environment into your skin and is also a natural source of glycolic acid for fresher, younger looking skin.

There are a number of other good ingredients that can be used as scrub bases, like coffee, brown sugar or even oatmeal.

I decided to use sugar, as I have quite sensitive skin. So after a bit of trial and error mixing a variety of different ingredients together I finally managed to create my perfect body scrub!

Recipe

• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons of honey
• 1 – 2 tablespoons of coconut oil

Lemon juice for its cleansing and exfoliating properties. The citric acid of a lemon also helps reduce the appearance of marks and evens out skintone.

Honey, I used manuka honey but regular honey works just as well, is naturally antibacterial so makes for a fantastic cleanser. Honey is also soothing, moisturising, hydrating and has anti inflammatory properties.

Coconut oil works great as an all natural moisturiser, helping replenish the skins natural oils. It also helps ease irritation, contains antioxidants and has anti-aging properties. Coconut oil is also something that kept popping up during my KP googling, so I had to include it in my scrub.

I recommend mixing all the ingredients in a cup just before you hop in the shower, mix well and use ASAP. If you don’t use this scrub straight away the sugar will start to melt into the honey, lemon and coconut oil, so you won’t get as rough a scrub as you would if you used it straight away.

I popped an old towel down on the bathroom floor, wet my legs and then really worked the scrub in for a good 5 minutes. Then I shook the sugary towel out in the shower, turned the shower on and then hopped in to rinse off. It can get messy, so make sure to clean up after yourself, no one wants to be stepping on sugar bits.

Immediately after my finishing my shower and patting myself dry with a less sugary towel I noticed that the back of my left thigh felt much softer and smoother, the bumps were a bit less noticeable too. And thanks to the addition of the coconut oil I didn’t need to moisturise after my shower.

So far I’ve been scrubbing every other day for a few weeks and my legs are incredibly soft and smooth, no more lumpy bumps on my left thigh! This DIY scrub recipe has worked wonders for my legs, I can’t recommend it enough.

If you suffer from KP or just dry skin I recommend giving this scrub a try, you can find most of the ingredients in your kitchen cupboard.

Got any DIY body scrub recipes of your own?  Let me know xx