HEALTH & BEAUTY: Credit Crunch Proof Beauty Recipes: Face and Body Scrubs

Today we are pleased to bring you a couple of recipes for some home beauty pampering by Emma Heathcote-James, founder of the fantastic Little Soap Company which provides 100% pure, natural handmade soaps to local Waitrose, National trust and health food and farm stores as well as internet orders nationally. Emma also runs Little Soap School days offering one on one or small group luxury days in the workshop in South Worcestershire teaching you how to make your own soaps and natural lotions and potions.

Emma Heathcote-James, founder of the Little Soap Company

Over to Emma...

Whether circumstances mean we suddenly need to be careful about spending – or simply that we’re trying to incorporate the eco green lifestyle into our skincare regime, to me, there is nothing more fun, rewarding and indeed empowering than being able to mix up my own completely pure, natural beauty products in the comfort of my own kitchen. By getting back to basics we realise the simplicity of what goes into the lotions and potions we put on our skin by whipping up our own… Let’s start with the base of all good skin care – exfoliation – which is essential to anyone’s skincare regimen.

Body scrubs are one of the simplest and most cost effective treatments to make yourself, yet if you go to buy a ready made up scrub from either a department store or spa they are extremely costly and sadly often anything but chemical-free. A good scrub or body polish is a treatment which exfoliates the skin leaving it feeling fresh, smooth, moisturised and soft. An abrasive product is rubbed vigorously, and massaged across and into your skin, and is then rinsed away to reveal a moisturised layer of fresh, clean and smooth skin.

Little Soap Company Soaps

Sugar Scrubs polish and moisturize your skin, massaging off dead skin cells and rubbing away hard and flaky skin, leaving it feeling soft and smooth. Scrub or polishing products usually include an oily base which moisturises and soothes your skin as it is scrubbed. A scrub can be really invigorating as well, and improve the circulation of blood and lymph to the surface of the skin, helping to fight cellulite and improve your skin tone. It also prepares your skin for an even tan – so perfect to do pre/during and post-holidays as well as opens the pores and wakens the skin before a wrap or mud/face mask treatment that you may choose to do afterwards…

Honey and Lemon Body Sugar Scrub (ideal once a fortnight)

• 2.5 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup sweet almond oil (smaller quantities available from all good online stockists, such as Aromantics, Of a Simple Nature etc)
• 4 teaspoons lemon juice (fresh lemon ideal or Jif if desperate)
• 4 tablespoons honey (ideally runny honey or
• 4 drops lemon essential oil (if required for fragrance)

Stir the sugar into the sweet almond oil in a large bowl. Add the lemon juice and stir again. Finally, add the honey and lemon essential oil and stir again to mix. Stand in the bath or shower and rub on in circular motions

Basic Baking Soda Facial Scrub (perfect for everyday use)

• 2 to 3 tablespoons of Baking Soda
• A small amount of water.

Mix the ingredients into a paste. Tie hair back, wash and cleanse face. To open pores, steam face over hot water or press warm cloth to skin for a few minutes. After preparing scrub, apply it to face (and neck if desired) using a circular motion and gently scrub avoiding the eye area. If desired, you can use a facial loofah, sponge, or brush to maximize exfoliation but it is adequate to just rub in with fingers. Rinse off with warm water.

* Precautions - Scrubs and body polishes are suitable and safe for just about everyone. It's not an invasive treatment. However, you should not have a scrub if you have cancer or if you have a fever. You should also seek expert advice if you are allergic to anything or have a skin condition of any kind. Anyone with fragile, broken or sunburnt skin is well advised to skip this treatment as well, as a very vigorous scrub may hurt more than heal.