I’ve been pretty open that I’ve been having some health hardships recently and had surgery a little while ago.  Sometimes, despite all our hard work and best intentions, our health isn’t what we want it to be…and that can be really hard.

What’s more is that we usually link our health to things like our diets, supplements, or medicines. Which is fantastic! And really important.

But health is also all about our actual lives and how we’re living them.  That means that things like having fun, making connections with loved ones, and enjoying your body in ways that makes “good health” worth having also come into play.

For this reason, I’ve recently started to place a much greater focus on a broad health category for myself that I’ve internally termed “pampering”. These are the things that I do for myself that makes me feel good.  This includes things like acupuncture, grilling out in the side yard with my husband, going a walk with my girlfriends, and watching Friends reruns.

Maybe “pampering” isn’t the best word since it connotes that this is something special and non-essential in our lives. Or maybe it comes across as a little selfish.  Why should we pamper ourselves when we have work and home obligations to take care of?

On the contrary, I think these things make up the cornerstone of our health and our lives.  After all, if we aren’t able to enjoy life in our fabulously functioning bodies, what’s the use of sticking to our strict elimination diets or spend money on all those fancy supplements?

With all these ideas floating around in my brain, this recipe was born.  My very good friend Megan sent me a surgery care package with some Fat Face skin products in it. With one whiff of the Fat Stick, I was instantly obsessed with the combination of lavender and peppermint essential oils.

I made this mixed salt and sugar scrub for my body and this gentler scrub for my lips, face, neck, and chest.  And I had me a fabulous girly spa experience that cost me a grand total of about $2 and watched some Sex and the City reruns.  Not a bad deal in the name of health, right?

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar (I like organic cane sugar or coconut sugar)
• 1/4 cup salt (I like Redmond Real Salt for all the minerals)
• 3/4 cup Unrefined Coconut Oil
• essential oils of choice: I used 10 drops lavender, 5 peppermint

Steps:

1. Combine the sugar and salt into a medium-sized mixing bowl.
2. Add in the unrefined coconut oil. If it’s too hard, you can submerge the can of coconut oil in warm water to make it “smooshier”, if that’s a word.
3. Using a hand mixer, blend all of the ingredients together.  It’ll get fluffy but because of the sugar/salt content, it won’t get totally whipped in the traditional sense.
4. Transfer to a small glass jar. I like reusing old ghee jars for projects like this…love that two-for-one!

Storage:

I store mine in my bathroom but away from the shower (I move it closer right before I hop in) to keep it from all the humidity and water. I haven’t had it go bad in any way but if you have any concern at all with storing it for a long time, you can stores yours in the fridge.  If you do that, you might want to rewarm it before using in a bowl of warm water so that the coconut oil isn’t too hardened.

Using:

I use this stuff to exfoliate pretty much everywhere (but I use this honey mix for the gentle skin of the face, neck, and chest instead).  I especially like using it on my legs in the warmer months as a pre-shave exfoliant. I get a really close shave that way! Because of the salt in the scrub though, I wouldn’t recommend it as an after-shave thing! It’ll sting.

XOXO,