Divine coffee & vanilla bodyscrub

Who doesn’t love the smell of coffee in the morning?

Even if you don’t drink it, that smell of fresh coffee is hard to resist. We all know the benefits a hot cup of coffee has in waking us up ready to tackle the day ahead, but did you know the benefits coffee can have on your skin?! Coffee is full of powerful antioxidants that can help to remove dead skin cells, release toxins and brighten your skin. It has also been found to help dilate blood vessels which can improve blood circulation and help with the appearance of cellulite by tightening the skin. This only works temporarily… but even so, who doesn’t want to temporarily reduce the appearance of cellulite before getting beach ready?!

Below is a coffee body scrub recipe that is just amazing and by making it yourself, you know it doesn’t contain a bundle of chemicals you might otherwise have know idea you are applying to your skin. Better for the environment and your health! With the addition of coconut oil and your favourite vanilla scent, it leaves your skin feeling silky smooth and smelling divine! 

What you need:

• 1 cup of coffee beans
• 3 tablespoons of organic coconut oil
• 2 tablespoons of organic raw sugar
• 1 tablespoon of pink Himalayan rock salt
• A couple of drops of your favourite vanilla oil* (be sure to use something that is suitable for skin)

Process:

• Grind your coffee beans – make the grind size a bit coarse if possible for a rougher texture. Not possible with your grinder? No need to worry as we are adding some sugar and salt to make it coarser.
• Melt or soften your coconut oil if it has solidified and then pour it into your ground coffee.
• Stir through the coconut oil to form a thick almost cake mix consistency.
• Add sugar and stir this through.
• Crush the Himalayan rock salt. If possible, try to avoid grinding this down to a fine powder to give you some extra coarseness.
• Add the salt to the coffee mixture and stir through.
• Add a few drops of your favourite vanilla oil.*

Sniff Test – Doesn’t it smell delicious enough to eat?!

Spoon it into a sealed jar and store it somewhere handy to rub all over your body and get those antioxidants working on your skin!

Hint – The scrub contains coconut oil, so if stored in a cool location, may solidify, just run the jar under warm water and this will soften up again so it’s easy to apply!

*Just a quick note on vanilla oils – It is not possible to produce a vanilla ‘essential oil’. An essential oil is defined as being produced by extracting the natural oils contained within the plant through distillation, however this is not possible with the vanilla bean which requires other methods to extract the vanillin (the chemical responsible for that delicious smell) from the vanilla pod (or vanilla bean). These other methods can get quite technical ranging from using supercritical CO2 as a solvent, to other carrier oils to separate the vanillin from the pod. A more thorough description of vanilla extraction methods can be found here. So to keep your scrub natural, avoid synthetic vanilla scents that claim to be vanilla essential oils, and of course if in doubt read the label. Or use a different scent that is a true essential oil! I’d love to hear what combos you come up with to pair with the coffee! Enjoy!