Easy Grapefruit Lavender Sugar Scrub for Smooth, Radiant Skin

Ah, the first golden glimmerings of spring! They’ve been felt at last. Not only does this weather put a hop in your step, it is a gentle reminder that soon you will shed your additional layers and be able to show your pale, Vitamin-D starved skin some golden rays (and I am talking about gentle golden rays here, like delicate morning sun).

And when you finally show that skin, it would be nice if it were glowing, smooth, and healthy-looking, no?

So here is a recipe for a very simple sugar scrub that you can whip up in short order, slather on in the shower, and feel pretty virtuous about – no bad chemicals, no dubious fragrances – just simple kitchen ingredients.

Sugar is great for your skin (topically, that is) – the glycolic acid it contains is a kind of natural alpha-hydroxy acid (AHA), which you would normally pay big bucks for at the store. The granules of sugar also make it a fabulous physical exfoliator.

So you have the chemical exfoliant, the physical exfoliant, the moisturizing oil – get excited, because it’s all happening. And if that weren’t enough, golden sugar is just really pretty. And lavender smells good.

So enjoy the spring smell of earth, the kind of moist damp feeling in the air, the lightness in your step when you are no longer weighed down by 10 pound boots and a 10 pound jacket.

It’s the kind of weather that makes total strangers laugh giddily together as they point and gawk at a faded green patch of grass, because there is something marvellous in remembering that something else really does lie beneath the three feet of dirty snow that has otherwise been part of the landscape for the past four months. Do I exaggerate? Actually no. That really happened to me. Yesterday, in fact. It was glorious.

Easy Grapefruit Lavender Sugar Scrub

• 1 cup golden turbinado or demerera sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar (or an additional 1/3 cup of the same sugar as above)
• 2 tbsps grapefruit juice
• 1/2 cup oil (I used sunflower, but you could try olive oil, jojoba, almond, etc.)
• 5-15 drops lavender essential oil (or vanilla, lime, bergamot, lemon, orange, cinnamon, lemon – or any combination of the above. Go where your nose leads). The amount depends on the odiferous strength of your particular essential oil.

Mix the ingredients together until paste-like. Scoop into glass jars (I like to use oversized jam jars). When showering or bathing, massage firmly into skin and then rinse well.

Important Notes:

1. The oil may separate from the rest of your mix – not to worry! Just stir it up and continue on your merry way. Also, because this contains oil, use some caution in the shower. I’d hate to see anyone slip and cause injury all in the name of radiant skin.
2. Also, you can basically add whatever fragrances, juices, zests, oils, or sugar you like. The key is to make a paste that has a bit of heft, so it won’t just fall off your skin immediately. In addition, the more ‘real foods’ you incorporate, the shorter the shelf-life. Use these scrubs in a month or less, I’d say. If you don’t add any grapefruit juice, I think you can just use the scrub at your leisure.

Scrub it up!

© Emily Joldersma, RHN, Eat Well, Live Vibrantly