Ok, so I know this isn’t really a beauty blog and I’m not planning on making beauty tips a regular feature. HOWEVER,
I feel compelled, in the midst of the economic whatever, and at the height of the summer sun-burn-peel-repeat cycle, to share a little DIY beauty tip.
So, after the major sunburn I blogged about two weeks ago, this lil bufflo is shedding her skin, bigtime. Often, I just buy scrubs from places like the Body Shop (love them!) to speed up the skin-sloughing process. However, their delicious body scrubs usually set me back $20, which is a little hard to justify at this point (though seriously, that pink grapefruit body scrub smells so delicious you’ll want to eat your own arm). I’m also a huge fan of Bath and Body Works Aromatherapy sugar scrubs, which are $16 and also highly recommended. (Salt scrubs are less highly recommended as you might, like me, make the mistake of applying them post-shave and rubbing some serious salt into your wounds, which is a less than spalike experience.)
So, instead of parting with any of my cash in my quest to quench my lizard-skin, I did a little Googling and made my own sugar scrub. Seriously, it’s the easiest thing ever. Just use sugar, brown or white, and oil (olive, baby oil, almond, coconut, sesame…whatever you have will work) in a 2-1 ratio, with a couple drops of perfume oil or essential oil or even lemon juice or vanilla extract. I used 1 cup of sugar with 1/2 cup of olive oil and a couple drops of Body Shop Satsuma Perfume Oil (it’s $16 but one tiny bottle will last you forever). I put it in a lil tupperwear and tested it out in the shower today. It smelled as good as all my other Body Shop stuff, and let me tell you, my skin was super smooth and moisturized so I didn’t even need to put on lotion after my shower. It also worked great to scrub my legs with the sugar scrub, rinse off, and then shave while they were still all slick and oily– no shaving cream necessary, closest shave EVER. Caution, however, as the shower will get a lil bit slippery.
Sorry Body Shop and BBW, but I don’t think I’ll be buying any of your scrubs ever again.
erniebufflo's south & west kitchen 
how cool! i just bought some at trader joe’s (in california- we don’t have one locally) for $6 and it smells like lavender. however, i looooove the idea of making your own XYZ cosmetic/beauty stuff because the makeup/lotion/etc industry is BY FAR the least regulated put-into-my-body industry. they put some nasty carcinogenic super unhealthy stuff in sometimes! altho the body shop is pretty chill with low-ingredient stuff.
also, this might be TMDI but be careful where your sugar scrub goes… it can give you a terrible yeast infection because yeast reacts strongly (read: eats and multiplies) with sugar on a vulva. oy.
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Ooh, good call on the yeasties, there orlande! Those lil suckers are brutal.
And you could totally make your own lavender version- you can probs get the lavender essential oils at your local Whole Foods/natural food store/co-op.
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