Hands holding homemade sugar scrub
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Lingering dead skin cells can make tanning applications show up streaky or uneven on the skin. Exfoliating smooths the skin and buffs away dead skin cells for more even tanning. Store-bought exfoliating scrubs can get costly over time and may not always work within your budget. Your kitchen cabinet has everything you need to make a simple exfoliating body scrub that is suitable for before- and after-tanning exfoliation. With a few pointers, you can get smooth skin with your own homemade body scrub.

Pour 1/2 cup of sugar into a medium bowl. Even though the amount of sugar is minimal the medium sized bowl will prevent sugar fall out when stirring. White sugar is loose and tends to fly out of a container when stirred with force.

Make a well in the sugar. Add 3 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil into the well of sugar and stir with a spoon. Stir until the consistency appears paste-like and you can't see any dry granules of sugar. Mix for at least 1 full minute to be sure all ingredients are mixed well.

Add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract to this mixture and stir for 30 seconds or until the vanilla evenly coats the sugar and olive oil paste. The vanilla will help mask the smell of the olive oil and promote a more pleasant experience upon slathering and rinsing of this mixture.

Apply this mixture before tanning and even after if you find the results too dark or streaking. This is a single-use mixture, so after mixing apply immediately to the skin and do not try to store.

Tips

  • Exfoliating can dry out the skin, so make sure to apply lotion to the skin when finished.