Oatmeal Spice Body Scrub

I was all set to blog about my experience with henna, but yesterday I whipped up a batch of body scrub and it was just SO AMAZING that I had to gush about it first. Now, I've never bought a body scrub as I didn't quite understand the point of one. Mum never used one, so it just wasn't something I had much exposure to. Recently, though, Lilly mentioned liking a Victoria Secret body scrub, I was really attracted to this Burt's Bees Cranberry and Pomegranite Body Scrub, and I've seen so many fabulous DIY recipes for body scrubs popping up on Pinterst. The other reason why I decided to make one is that my chest and back acne has really been acting up lately and I had the thought that since I use a scrub on my face to help with breakouts, why not use one on my body to the same end? After looking at a bunch of different recipes for body scrubs, a couple of which were supposed to help combat breakouts, I came up with the following scrub. I'll probably continue to experiment and make several different ones as there are endless options to explore.

Oatmeal Spice Body Scrub

1/3 cup ground oatmeal

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground clove

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup grapeseed oil

1) Measure out the oatmeal and grind it lightly. I used my coffee grinder (clean of any coffee!). I didn't grind it into a fine flour (like when I made the dry shampoo), but just ground it enough for it to no longer be whole oat pieces anymore. 

2) Mix together all the dry ingredients until they are combined completely. Add the oil and mix it well.

3) Put it in a freshly sterilized jar and use it! 

I tried it yesterday and, while I don't know yet if it is helping my acne, it felt positively luxurious. The scent is amazing (and totally natural!) and wherever I put it felt so delightfully exfoliated and moisturized. I put it on my chest, back, and legs, though I'm totally putting it on my arms too next time. The one thing I realized while using it is that I either need to scoop out how much I'm going to use all at once or I need to get something to scoop it out with, because I got a bunch of water in the measuring cup (I used the remnants out of the measuring cup in order to get all the goodness out). It wasn't a problem since it was just the measuring cup, but that much water in the real jar would not be a great plan. So I think I'm gonna steal the jam spoon out of the kitchen drawer for my scrub since I never use it for food things.

The best part is, body scrubs are so easy to make! The magical proportion I found somewhere is that when making a scrub you want two parts sugar (or salt, or oatmeal) to one part oil. You can add whatever extracts or spices you like to scent it or give special benefits. In this one, I used oatmeal instead of just sugar as it is supposed to be good for reducing acne. You can use white sugar, brown sugar, oatmeal, sea salt, or some combination of those things as your dry base. For my oil, I chose grapeseed oil as it is supposed to be a good oil for combination/break-out prone skin. But you could use any carrier oil, even coconut oil, though I'm staying away from coconut oil since it is comedogenetic (aka can clog pores). Tea tree oil is something I thought of putting in for acne fighting purposes, but I wasn't sure what else to add to make it smell good, so I went with the fall spices instead this time. In any case, this is only the first of what I'm sure will be many different body scrub recipes!