Brown Sugar Coconut Oil Foot Scrub

I haven’t shared an Eco-Friendly Friday post for a couple of weeks (last Friday was a Charcutepalooza posting day), so today I’ve got something cool for you…a DIY all-natural foot scrub you can make with ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen!

I’ve been into making my own “beauty” products for as long as I can remember, and I do this for a few reasons:

1. I try to put only healthy stuff on my body (just like I try to put only healthy stuff in my body)

2. I like saving money

3. It’s fun

Sugar and salt-based body scrubs like this one are crazy easy to make at home. I posted a simple homemade salt body scrub a long time ago (so long ago in fact, that I purchased a stock photo to go with that post because I did not know how to take pictures back then), but I’d sadly gotten out of the habit of making stuff like this as of late.

I was inspired to start up again when I purchased EcoBeauty. I am completely in love with the book, and there are SO many recipes I want to try. My 9 year old daughter Maddie is excited about the book, too- she particularly loves DIY hair treatments :)

In Eco-Beauty, there is a recipe for Summer Sandal Scrub. It’s that time of year when ugly feet just won’t fly, so I tried this scrub out and I really like it. If you cook with organic coconut oil as much as I do (this is the one I use), then you probably don’t even need to go to the store to make this.

Sugar is an excellent all-natural exfoliant. Any kind will do, and raw sugar is probably best, but brown is what I had in the house so that’s what I used.

To make my scrub, I spooned brown sugar into a 1 cup glass jar, then poured in some organic coconut oil (coconut oil is solid in cooler weather but it’s completely liquid here in the summer). I accidentally added too much oil: you really only need a few teaspoons. Mix the brown sugar with the oil to create a paste, then add a few tablespoons of lemon juice (I used organic bottled lemon juice). Mix again: if your paste is too oily, add more sugar. If it’s too dry, add a little more oil. In the book, the recipe contains aloe vera gel, as well. I didn’t have any, but if you do, you can add a little.

This scrub smells fantastic and works great. I even used it on my face (I don’t do this with salt scrubs, because salt is too drying). If you have really sensitive skin, it might be too abrasive for your face so consider mixing in some rolled oats to tone down the exfoliant action. Note that if you use a good deal of coconut oil in here like I did, you will notice a bit of an oily film on your skin even after you’ve rinsed the scrub off. Coconut oil is an excellent all-natural moisturizer with anti-bacterial properties, so don’t be alarmed by this.

Store your scrub covered tightly in a cool place and it should last several weeks.