As a guy, you are more or less experienced in caring for your face and body. Finding the best body scrub for men is most probably a daunting task. But have you thought of looking into your kitchen pantry? Believe it or not, your kitchen cabinets are full of ingredients that you can use to remove excess dirt and skin impurities from your body. However, you’re probably not in favour of making your DIY men’s body scrub from things you eat daily. Therefore, you’ll search for body scrubs with edible ingredients either online or in your nearest beauty shop or drugstore. Before you take on the quest to dedicate to a full skincare routine, you need to know what are those typical edible ingredients that make the essential content of men’s body scrub jars and tubes. Let’s find out!
Body Scrub for Men Ideas: Time to Exfoliate Those Rough & Dry Patches with These Kitchen Essentials
Some of these good-enough-to-eat ingredients can be mixed into a body scrub as they come from the shelf. For others, you may need to turn on the blender if you decide to make them by yourself. In case you search shop shelves, look for the following ingredients on the product labels:
Coffee
Apart from removing dead skin cells, coffee beans are known to dilate blood vessels. Thanks to the antioxidant properties of coffee, coffee powder is used to treat cellulite, as well as exfoliate, making it ideal for dimple removal of any kind or for clogged pores.
The best coffee-based scrubs for men also have sugar as an ingredient. They can provide a double benefit if you find them combined in the same scrub container.
Salt
Salt is great for body detox. A salt scrub will eliminate dead cells by stimulating a lymphatic system that has fallen asleep. Due to its rich mineral structure, salt scrub will not only help with exfoliation but also let the minerals permeate your skin.
Most popular body scrub for men includes the Dead Sea or Black Sea salt, Epsom salt, and Himalayan salt. Salt exfoliators have larger particles so they are not ideal for sensitive skin or skin with allergies. Don’t put table salt in self-made scrubs as it doesn’t have rich mineral content.
Sugar
Sugar or cane sugar is another pantry ingredient that has found its place among men’s body scrub formulas. Sugar contains glycolic acid that aids with circulation and fights excess oil. The effects of a sugar scrub are more due to chemical peeling than to mechanical scrubbing.
Consuming too much sugar isn’t beneficial for your health. But sugar scrubs will definitely benefit when you use them topically as part of your cleansing and grooming routine.
Green Tea Powder
Though green tea powder won’t provide exfoliating benefits on its own, it has massive purifying properties and is excellent for spots and blemishes. Thanks to its characteristic anti-inflammatory effect, your skin will be glowing after you rub it with a home-made body scrub made of green tea powder, sugar, and organic oil such as virgin olive or coconut oil.
This combination will be good for sensitive skin, too. Just make sure you’re not allergic to one of the ingredients before applying it on larger surfaces. Perform a skin patch test on your forearm to ensure safe application.
Cacao (Cocoa) Powder
Another ingredient that may not be too healthy in sugary snacks but is completely the opposite when used as an organic component in a men’s scrub product is cocoa. Ideally, your product of choice should contain pure organic cacao powder in its most natural form.
Raw cocoa powder has similar skin-tightening properties as coffee so a cocoa body scrub can skin elasticity. And, thanks to flavonoids (good to eat moderately in dark chocolate, too), skin scars and wrinkles can get better, too.
Pumpkin Seeds
The pumpkin seed oil has many health benefits, but so does pumpkin pulp and ground pumpkin seeds. (Something to do with that pumpkin carving leftovers once you are done with the Halloween artistry, right?).
You’ll need a blender to grind raw and peeled pumpkin seeds to minuscule crumbs that you can later combine with pumpkin seed oil and other herbal ingredients. For safer and cleaner shop alternatives, without making a mess in the kitchen, check if your next purchase has the precious pumpkin as one of its ingredients.
Apricot Kernels
You need a solid blender or a pestle and mortar to blend or crush apricot kernels to produce a fine powder. For stronger exfoliation, you can add salt. Don’t forget to add some kind of plant oil, for example, coconut, to make an easy-to-spread mix.
(Be careful with consuming apricot kernels orally, as there are certain health risks that may be associated with that.)
But thanks to the essential fatty acids they contain, you will find that some of the best body scrubs for men contain apricot seeds and kernels.
How to Choose and Use Men’s Body Scrub that Won’t End in the Trash Bin
Follow this simple practise when choosing your personal body scrub favourite:
- Look for the label “body scrub”. If you have sensitive facial skin or a skin issue that needs specific treatment don’t use the same product on the face and the body to avoid worsening the issue.
- If you hurry, get a wash and body scrub that will cleanse and exfoliate at the same time. These products wil shorten the time but are also more lathery so they won’t remove dry skin patches as efficiently as a good body rub on dry skin.
- Moisturise. Yes, it can take more time and is boring and tedious but you shouldn’t avoid it if you have dry skin and use stronger exfoliants.
- Use a body scrub to remove ingrown hairs before shaving and manscaping. It will prevent follicle inflammation and help with hair removal.
- Don’t overdo it. Scrub maximum two times per week unless you use a gentle washing exfoliant that’s not overly aggressive to the skin. The skin has natural oils that shape a protective barrier. You must let it replenish before you repeat the scrubbing or you may end up with serious skin injuries that won’t look good.
Body and Face Skincare Recommended by AMR
We recommend trying out the following men body scrubs and skincare products:
- Vitaman Sea Salt Body Scrub – a handy jar full of sea mineral benefits.
- Vitaman Face Scrub – walnut shells and bamboo powder for removing impurities from your face.
- Vitaman Body Moisturiser – contains aloe vera, shea butter, and Kakadu Plum extracts to moisturise your skin after all that rubbing and scrubbing.
- Vitaman Gym Bag Essentials – have it all ready to take under the shower.
