Happy President’s Day and debut of Handmade Mondays on TheSkinDetective.com! For my inaugural DIY beauty tip, I decided on this super-easy recipe from Real Simple that I’ve been wanting to try.
As you can see from the pic, I mixed a half teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil and cane sugar together in a small bowl, then rubbed it onto the backs of my hands. Cane sugar is unrefined, which is why it’s not white; I prefer it since it’s minimally processed. The magazine’s recipe is spot on; you probably only need a quarter teaspoon of each, but the larger amount I used left enough for my hubby to taste a bit, since this scrub is totally edible. He thought it needed a little lemon juice (ha!).
We buy our olive oil and sugar in bulk, so it’s hard to figure out the cost of this treatment, but it has to be pretty nominal, even if you do this once a week. I loved the feel of it, slick and softening, not greasy; I wanted to keep massaging! I did get some sugar on my shirt as I scrubbed, and I wasn’t sure what to do when I was done, so I briefly rinsed off the sugar and some of the oil. I’m wondering if I should have rinsed even more quickly, or just brushed off the sugar, then really massaged in the oil.
I followed the scrub with a vitamin A night treatment from Eden Roc, also recommended in the article. I wouldn’t call it a green product in the slightest, but I’m intrigued to see the results of Vitamin A, aka Retinol, which is probably the most potent anti-ager. This is a great low-risk way to try Retinol, since lots of people complain of itching and burning when it’s used on the face. My hands are baby soft now.
