The Kitchen Cosmetician: Experiments in Exfoliation
Cooking up beauty products with sugar, salt and baking soda!
image via Etsy: Baking on Sunday print by dear machine
Welcome back to another edition of The Kitchen Cosmetician! This Green Monday we’re continuing to test the hypothesis that common and natural kitchen ingredients can be used to make beauty products that are comparable to drugstore and department store products.
This month I put away all of my expensive and inexpensive exfoliators for face and body, in exchange for the kitchen staples of sugar, salt and baking soda. For 30 days, I compared and contrasted these kitchen staples. To keep an even playing field, I used the same gentle cleanser (Sebamed was my constant) for face and body and mixed it with three kitchen staples; baking soda, sugar or salt.
Since I have only one face and one body I had to rotate which of the three “scrubs” I used. I did this by maintaining a regime of exfoliating every two to three days. I would rotate scrubs by using scrub ingredient #1 on my face and scrub ingredients #2 and #3 on my the left and right side respectively of my body. (For example, I would use the baking soda scrub on my face, while the left side of my body would get scrubbed with salt and the right side with sugar).
images via Etsy: sugar jar from Jadite Kate ~ salt shaker from Forest Day Dream
All in all, I feel sugar and salt scrubs are fairly comparable to one another. Their granules do a good job of exfoliating the dead skin off without being harsh or irritating. I do admit the sugar scrub has the better sense experience – the sweet scent shines over the salt. These two were my favorites, as both the sugar and salt worked well for my face and entire and body.
Baking soda is a bit tricky and I cannot make a quick generalization. This scrub was more intense, almost harsh on my skin. Bear in mind, I have sensitive, combination skin.
For me, baking soda is best used as a “deep treatment” scrub once a week (or even every two weeks) on my face. However, if I was younger or had different skin I may be able to do tolerate it more frequently. (image at left via Etsy: baking soda booklet from Langley House)
Before you consider submitting my name for the Congressional Beauty Act of Bravery, please know the main ingredient in many commercially sold scrubs is sugar, salt or baking soda. If you do not believe me check the labels and make sure to look for the correct name. The scientific name for salt is sodium chloride. Baking Soda is also known as sodium bicarbonate, hydrogen sodium bicarbonate or bicarbonate of soda. There are lots of names for sugar because it has many forms. Table sugar is known as a disaccharide. Other names of disaccharides are maltose, cellobiose, sucrose, and lactose.
Pros:
• All three have granules that dissolve into the cleanser and skin. (They do not tear skin like some exfoliating products that have seeds).
• Accessible and Affordable.
• Completely Customizable – you can decide how many “scrubbies” you need.
• Great way to give new life to to cleansers and shower gels you already have.
Cons:
• The sugar scrub needs a thorough rinse – or your skin will be sticky
• Salt will sting any cuts, blemishes or wounds.
• Baking soda can be harsh on dry or sensitive face.
I thoroughly enjoyed this experiment and actually realized I do not need commercial body and face scrubs. I can get a similar effect making my own with a cleanser and sugar, salt or baking soda. But, I will probably still purchase them for fun!
The Kitchen Cosmetician highly recommends that you start cooking up some beauty potions with grocery staples! Readers – do you use any kitchen staples in the name of beauty?
Holly is a Midwestern gal living in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. She loves gardening, animals and is a skin care junkie. Holly is always on the quest to try something new or old and live the best life possible.
Filed in: green monday
Your results are very interesting, @hao9703 – and I didn’t realize that most commercial scrubs are made with sugar, salt or baking soda! Thanks for enlightening us!
I’ve made sugar scrubs before that I like. My best concoction was a sugar scrub with grapeseed oil and the contents of a chai tea bag. It smelled great.
The contents of a chai tea bag? Interesting..and smart! I’ll have to remember that one.
I love the idea of using tea bags and grapeseed oil! I looked into writing something about the beauty uses of chamomile tea. Sadly, after some research I found out that chamomile is in the same family as RAG WEED, which I am very allergic to. So, I had to mix that idea. But, it did explain why after I drink something with chamomile in it, I feel sick and itchy.
I’m a big fan of DIY brown sugar scrubs in the wintertime. In the summertime, I can’t deal with a shower that smells like fresh baked cookies. :-)
Welcome to wht Ally!
I am obsessed with brown sugar scrubs (and spend waaayyy too much on my fave brand). What else goes in your scrub?
thanks for including my sugar canister!
You’re very welcome jaditekate!
And readers – go check out her store! It is full of gorgeous stuff – lots of incredibly hued glass kitchen and housewares. It’s pure eye-candy!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/jaditekate?ref=pr_shop_more
There is nothing like a cute container! I love Jadite in Green.
I love making a body scrub of my leftover coffee grounds and sugar. Add a little bit of olive oil for moisturizer and voila! Scrub heaven.
A friend introduced the idea of using baking soda as a facial scrub on a camping trip and I use it now and again. More often I will soak a cotton pad in lemon juice, sprinkle some sugar on top, and scrub my skin with that. The citric acid in the juice coupled with the grains of sugar make a great exfoliant! It burns a tiny bit, and it totally sucks if you get even the tiniest bit in your eyes when rinsing off but man are the results worth it!
P.S.- There should TOTALLY be a Congressional Beauty Act of Bravery award! Hahaha! Great post.
I was totally thinking about coffee grinds while I reading this, ala the Juara product we just tested.
Great post @hao9703 – love this series!
Stef recently posted..Boscia Pore Purifying Black Strips – Green Monday review
I love the idea of using a fresh lemon or lime. I am going to have to test this out and report back.
Great stuff Holly!! I love these articles. So informative and interesting!!
Whenever I bake (which is rather infrequent, but when I bake, I BAKE), I make sure to use the sugar that’s inevitably gotten all over my hands to good use. I like to make dough with my hands as opposed to using a mixer/blender/fork/whisk/et cetera, so my hands are slimy and full of sugar afterward (and I’m usually full of flour because I’m just that clumsy), so when I’m washing my hands I use the sugar particles to exfoliate my hands! I always have smooth hands, but when I bake, they’re extra soft and smooth afterward.
I love making home remedies like this! For one, you know what you are putting on your skin and the bottom line.. it’s a fraction of the cost of retail items and works often better too.
@irene -I am so with you on this. I like to know what I am putting on my skin and what food I am putting in my body.
This post has me thinking about sand, am I crazy? A coconut oil, suntan oil kind of smelling foot scrub with sand as the base…
Stef recently posted..Illamasqua Summer 2011 – Toxic Nature Review
In theory it sounds good Stef! However, I am not sure about the long term effects of the sand with the bathroom plumbing since it does not dissolve.
Holly, this is a FANTASTIC article. I’ve learned so much! And reading everyone else’s comments about their at-home scrubs got me excited to make my own :)
I’ve tried various salt/sugar/other commercial body scrubs, and different facial scrubs, but I’m pretty picky. I looove Giovanni’s Hot Chocolate sugar scrub for my body (it smells like brownie batter). But for facial scrub, I love baking soda. Holly recommended it to me, since my face needs some tough love. It worked way better than Dermalogica’s expensive exfoliant, and is SUPER CHEAP (you can buy a 4lb box of baking soda for about $4–that’ll last you forever)!
Marilyn @ Lipgloss and Spandex recently posted..REVIEW: MAC Wonder Woman Collection