My skin is unnaturally soft. Anyone who has held my hand will tell you so. Soft, silky skin from the tips of my toes to my neck. Baby soft everywhere except the first place people see and remember.
My face, in contradiction to the rest of my body, is rough. It looks like it needs to be exfoliated all of the time. This is aging and annoying and fluctuating hormones only make it worse.
I have spent no small amount of time and money on smoothing products for the face. I have had varying degrees of success, but my current obsession is here to stay: Vitamin E oil makes my skin appear healthy and glowing (even if the issues underneath the skin remain).
I was tipped off to the Vitamin E oil earlier this summer during a routine facial in the small town where we have a lake house. The facialist suggested I scoot right on over to Walgreens for their brand of the oil, which was less sticky than others. I did as I was told, and after just one application I was hooked.
Another suggestion she made was that I mix the oil with sea salt to create my own exfoliant. This rang some distant bells in my mind as something I had tried before - not creating my own, but using a product with those dominant ingredients. Sure enough, a trip to Trader Joes reminded me of the long lost Lavender Salt Scrub that I received in a gift basket ages ago.
The ingredients are primarily sea salt and various oils. The consistency is rough, but not hurtful, and leaves skin feeling smooth and moisturized.
Just for kicks, I wanted to try and make my own scrub from the Vitamin E oil and sea salt, as suggested by the facialist. Once again, I hit up Trader Joes for their brand of both ingredients.
First I put a decent amount of sea salt in a shallow bowl.
Then I poured in one of the bottles of Vitamin E oil.
That might have been too much oil. I added some sea salt to balance it out.
The consistency felt about right, but I wanted to let it soak together before I tried it out.
For the next two weeks, I alternated between the homemade scrub and the Trader Joes Lavender scrub. The coarse sea salt I used for the homemade concoction never softened in the oil as much as I wanted, so it was always much rougher than was comfortable on my face. I think if I used a grainier salt it would feel better. I do love the way the straight Vitamin E oil feels on my face after exfoliating. With a little more experimenting, this is an inexpensive and effective way to exfoliate.
But in the end, I still preferred the Trader Joes Lavender Scrub best. The Lavender oil gives it a nice smell and the sea salt is much softer. Currently, I using this exfoliant regularly and moisturizing with the pure Vitamin E oil overnight.
Do you make any of your own beauty products? Do share!
first photo by erbephoto
