Coconut Oil + Coconut Sugar Body Scrub

Is anyone else's skin looking rather gray and chalky? Do you get the urge to take sandpaper to your feet and dip your entire leg into a lotion bottle this time of year? Just me?

Last week I continued my tireless search for a chemical-free golden ticket that would keep my skin soft during these moisture sucking winter months.

I thought I was onto something last year with the coconut oil-as- moisturizer. It worked pretty well and was economical and chemical-free. A few of you mentioned that you tried it and you kind of liked it, in a "Well, I guess it's better than rubbing petroleum products into my skin" sort of way. I confess that I, too, grew weary of the coconut oil's oiliness. There is a reason why commercial skin care products tout their "absorbs quickly with no greasy feel!" magic. Coconut oil works pretty well, and the lotion bars were handy and fun to make, but I haven't been able to shake the thought that we can do better.

On a whim, I bought some Coconut Sugar from Trader Joe's a couple of weeks ago. Most interweb sources assert that it is one of the most environmentally sustainable sweeteners around (Kitchen Stewardship has some great info about it), and I thought I'd add it to my grain-free baking experimentation. It is fairly coarse but not as clumpy as regular brown sugar.

All the DIY Christmas gift pins with homemade bath products inspired me to try the Coconut Sugar with water or honey as a scrub for my crusty feet. And then it hit me: Coconut oil + Coconut sugar = Natural Moisturizing Body Scrub?

Friends, let me tell you, I've been using this concoction every few days for two weeks now, and I am really amazed by how well it works, how un-greasy it is, and how my skin actually feels soft for days. Days!

Les even commented that my skin is "much nicer than usual" all of a sudden.

Our two star ingredients.

It's ridiculously easy to make this scrub. 

1. Scoop a heaping spoonful of coconut oil into a small dish. Coconut oil is solid at room temperature, so you can get a nice hefty glop of it with a regular spoon. 

 2. Dump a roughly equal amount of coconut sugar into the oil and mash it around with the spoon.

Here's the best part:

3. Take your dish of coconutty body scrub into the shower with you, and give your limbs a good scrubbing with it after you've finished your regular washing and hair doing and ballad singing. Yep, slather this stuff right in the shower just as if it were a body wash. I use my hands, but you could put it onto a washcloth or poof if you prefer. You're wet, and you're sloughing off dead skin as you go so it absorbs in a totally different way. Plus you're rinsing off any excess oil as you finish up your shower.

4. Get out of the shower, dry off, and get on with your day with your soft and lovely skin.

I find that my skin only needs this extra step every few days, but if you want to do it everyday, go for it.

One word of caution - your feet will be really slippery if you use this scrub on the bottoms of your feet, so be careful in the shower! You could also just use this as a treat for your feet after your shower if you don't want to risk a slip.

Let's review the awesomeness of this scrub.

1. All natural ingredients = No nasty chemicals being rubbed into your skin.
2. Slather it on right in the shower. No need to stand shivvering in your cold wintery bathroom rubbing lotion or coconut oil into your skin until it absorbs. 
3. Smell like sweet coconut! Your chihuahua may decide he wants to lick your legs and hands, but that's not a problem, right? 
4. Soft skin that lasts for days. 

Bonus:  Edible shower scrub! No commentary. Just pointing that out...