If your skin becomes extremely dry as soon as the weather turns cold, you’re going to love this DIY activated charcoal and coffee scrub!
This scrub is not meant to be used as a full body or facial exfoliate. A basic coffee scrub is a more suitable option if that is what you plan on using it for. However if you suffer from dry skin, activated charcoal is worth it’s weight in gold.
Activated Charcoal is often used in poultices for bee stings, mosquito bites and other bug bites. It helps to soothe the itchiness, as it adsorbs many chemicals, gases and toxins.
Coconut oil also helps to soothe dry irritated skin. In addition to helping to soothe the irritated skin, it’s also absorbed into the skin helping to moisturize dry areas.
The charcoal and coffee act as a natural exfoliate helping to remove dead, dry skin cells. While some coffee scrubs may make the problem worse by drying your skin out, the coconut oil helps to lock in moisture.
The caffeine found in coffee is a powerful antioxidant, which penetrates the skin barrier. It also helps to improve circulation.
If you have dry patches of skin that never seem to go away you need to try this DIY.
I recommend sourcing a high quality organic coffee and grind it up extremely fine.
I use coconut activated charcoal powder because it’s extremely fine, meaning it has more surface area to work with. If you already have hardwood or bamboo charcoal those will work too, as will capsules of charcoal.
Finally, organic coconut oil can be found everywhere these days, chances are you already have some in your fridge or cupboard.
Ingredients
- ½ tbsp. finely ground coffee
- ½ tbsp. activated charcoal
- 1 tbsp. coconut oil
Directions
- Mix the charcoal and coffee together and add 1 tbsp. of coconut oil. Remember when it drops to room temperature coconut oil solidifies so your mixture is going to also solidify making it difficult to work with. It’s best when the coconut oil is liquid.
- Note: It’s best to apply it in the shower because this mixture is messy!
- Place a pea-sized amount on your dry skin and gently rub it in. Let it sit for 3 to 4 minutes, before washing it off. Apply daily until the dry skin has healed.
It will be difficult to wash off, the charcoal may leave a grey-ish tinge on your skin but it’ll wash away. The mixture comes off completely with soap but I’d recommend using it sparingly because soap can actually strip your skin of moisture. I recommend that you use Castile soap because it’s extremely gentle, free of chemicals and it won’t strip dearly needed moisture.
Enjoy!
xo,
This DIY recipe was graciously submitted to Bloom & Spark by Megan Thompson of goldmountainbeauty.com. Megan is a DIY health & beauty addict. She’s committed to making her itsy-bitsy apartment chemical free and her diet as unprocessed as possible. You can find her work at Gold Mountain Beauty where she is responsible for the blog, Instagram and Pinterest.
