Homemade Moisturizing Body Scrub

Homemade Moisturizing Body Scrub, that I am going to share with you today, is probably my absolute favorite! It leaves your skin feeling SOFT and SMOOTH like you’ve never experienced before! (At least like I had never experienced before! ) It is meant to be used in the shower, and you honestly don’t even need to use any moisturizer when you get out. You will absolutely be glowing!

To get started on making the body scrub, you will only need four simple ingredients. If you don’t have some of these ingredients on hand, a great place to purchase them from is Mountain Rose Herbs. I highly recommend their products, and I know that Stacy does too. (And yes, all of these ingredients are edible, although I don’t think I have ever actually eaten shea butter!)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup Shea Butter
• 3 TBSP Olive Oil
• 3 TBSP Coconut Oil (melted, but not hot)
• 1/2 cup Brown Sugar

METHOD:

Begin by filling a 1/2 C measuring cup with shea butter, making sure to pack it down tightly. Transfer the shea butter to a small pan, and gently heat, using the double boiler method, until the butter is nice and soft. You don’t want to melt the butter, but just soften it to make it easier to work with.

Next, transfer the shea butter to a stand mixer, and beat on high speed until it has a whipped consistency and doesn’t feel grainy when rubbed between your fingers. This will take around 3-4 minutes. It should look like firm whipped cream when it is done. (If you think your tempted to eat it now, just wait till later!)

Combine the olive oil and melted coconut oil together in a small container with a spout. SLOWLY pour the oil into the bowl of shea butter, while beating on high speed. You may need to stop and scrape down the sides as you go.

Once all of the oil is incorporated into the shea butter, continue mixing on high speed for 1-2 minutes until it is nice and fluffy and looks like a soft, delicious whipped cream. If desired, you could also add some essential oils now. I usually don’t, because I like the smell of just the coconut oil and brown sugar, but you could experiment with adding some if you would like.

At this point, you really could just stop, and use this as an after-shower moisturizer. I have done this before, but my favorite way to use this is as an in-shower moisturizing body scrub. It is just so nice, and makes your skin feel AMAZING! (Have I already said that? Please excuse me if I’m repeating myself!)

To turn this into a body scrub, you just need to add something that will exfoliate. This step is very flexible, and there are many things that could be added here. My favorite thing to use is brown sugar. It gives it a wonderful smell, and it does a great job at exfoliating. Some other things that you could consider using instead of sugar would be salt, coffee grounds, ground up oats, etc. Anything that will provide you with a gentle scrub can be used in place of the sugar. You could even do a combination of exfoliators if you would like.

So add the brown sugar (or whatever you decide to use) to your whipped butter and gently mix it in. (If you use brown sugar, make sure that there are no clumps of sugar before you add it to your bowl. It will be a lot easier to mix in this way, and you will not end up with any big sugar clumps in your exfoliator.)

That is all there is to it! And although, you could eat this, I think it would serve it’s purpose better on your skin! To use, simply rub the body scrub all over yourself while you’re in the shower, rinse off, and dry. You don’t need to use a lot – a little bit will go a long way. When you get out of the shower, your skin will feel like silk, and you will be glowing!

This recipe makes around two cups of moisturizing body scrub. I like to store mine in glass ball jars. For a simple gift idea, fill up a 1 cup ball jar with your homemade body scrub, sprinkle a little brown sugar over the top (just for fun!), seal it with a lid, and decorate the jar with a cute ribbon and/or a homemade gift tag. Everyone loves receiving handmade gifts! I made some recently as a special treat for my friend who just had a baby, and she loved it! But make sure to save some for yourself, so you can have beautiful, glowing, soft, smooth, radiant skin too! Enjoy!

http://adelightfulhome.com/homemade-moisturizing-body-scrub/

Benefits of Honey

Honey is probably the oldest known sweetener for human kind. A healthy replacement for sugar, honey also has tremendous nutritional value and health benefits. Honey can also be used as a beauty aid and has medicinal value too. Honey is obtainable all through the year but is special in summer and fall when it is collected fresh. Read on to find out how you can partake of the benefits of honey.

Nutritional value of honey

Honey contains sugars like fructose and glucose, minerals such as potassium, magnesium, calcium, sulphur, chlorine, sodium, phosphate and iron. Vitamins B1, B2, B6, B3, B5, and C are predominant in honey. Based on the quality of the nectar and the pollen, these values keep differing. Several hormones are also present in honey and apart from all these small quantities of copper, iodine and zinc are present in honey.

Benefits of honey

Health benefits

• Honey is broadly used as an anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal.
  
  
• Honey has wonderful wound healing capacities. It can cure burns, ulcers and wounds and is used as an antiseptic curative agent.
  
  
• Honey can improve performances in athletes. The ergogenic aid present in honey helps in this.
  
  
• Honey improves blood quality by keeping a check on the free radicals.
  
  
• Honey is great substitute for sugar in people with type 2 diabetes and is good for cholesterol patients.
  
  
• Honey relieves nasal congestion, helps digestion, gives relief from cough and helps in conjunctivitis. It acts as a sleeping aid when taken with hot mug of milk.
  
  
• Honey is known to soothe tissues and help retain calcium in the body.
  
  
• Honey is known to be effective in countering anemia.
  
  
• Consumption of honey can rev up your immune system.
  

Honey as a beauty aid

• Pat your skin with honey while you go for a shower and keep patting till the honey gets really sticky, this helps improve blood circulation and lends a glow to the skin.
  
  
• Rinse your hair with honey and lime; this will add shine to your hair.
  
  
• Add ¼ teaspoon of honey to your bath and this will bring a glow to your skin.
  
  
• Mix honey with oatmeal and ground almonds, this will make for an excellent face cleansing scrub.
  
  
• When apple and honey are blend together and applied on the face for about 15 minutes, it acts as a brilliant moisturizer while also making the skin firm and soft.
  
  
• As a facial mask mix 2 tsp. of honey and 2 tsp. of milk and leave it for 10 minutes, this will get your skin glowing.
  
  
• Honey acts as a lotion for dry skin, mix ¼ tsp lemon, 1 tsp vegetable oil and 1 tsp honey and leave it for 10 minutes.
  

Flavor deserts and fruits using honey

• Honey is widely used to flavor deserts and fruits. The acidity prevailing in honey helps the fruit retain its original color. While using honey for fruits ensure that you use mild one lest the honey overpowers the fruit flavor.
  
  
• To preserve fruits for the coming winter season, add honey to the crushed or sliced fruit and freeze it. For whole fruits, add 1 cup of water and two cups of honey till the fruit is covered.
  
  
• Honey can be used as a topping for fruit puree.
  
  
• Yogurt and honey make for a great desert.
  
  
• Substitute honey for sugar while you make pancakes, it will taste great.
  
  
• Banana with some honey to top it makes for a great pudding.
  
  
• Mix honey and butter and sprinkle over your desert like cakes, this gives it a sugary and glossy look.
  

Recipe for a quick desert with honey

Fried bananas and honey

Bananas cut lengthwise
Almond flakes
Butter
Clear honey
Lemon juice

Drizzle lemon juice over the bananas. Melt butter in frying pan and cook bananas till brown on both sides. Transfer to serving plate, add almonds to the remaining butter in the pan and cook till light brown. Mix honey, heat a little and spread over the bananas, serve hot.


Buying honey and storing it

• Buy honey that is labeled 100% pure.
  
  
• Darker the color of honey, the better will be the flavor and quality.
  
  
• Buy honey that has not been pasteurized, clarified or filtered. Get it straight from the farm.
  
  
• Honey should be stored in airtight jars lest it absorb any moisture from the atmosphere.
  
  
• Store in a cool dry place.
  
  
• Honey exposed to cold temperatures tends to thicken. Honey exposed to high temperatures tends to get darker in color.
  

http://www.targetwoman.com/articles/benefit-honey.html