Green Tea Facial Scrub

I really should be menu-planning so that I can go grocery shopping so that I can get to work on tonight's dinner (spinach ricotta pie in honor of Pi Day... hehe). But instead, I just gave myself a little facial. My face has been acting funky for a few days, so I decided it could use some TLC.

To start, I made this nifty little face scrub, cobbled together from a few different recipes.

Ingredients:

• 3 T sugar, divided
• 1 T strong green tea*
• 1 t olive oil
• 2 drops tea tree oil (optional)

*For the green tea, brew 1 tea bag or 1 teaspoon loose leaf in about a half of a cup of boiling water. Let it cool down until it's only lukewarm.

Put 2 T of sugar in a bowl, pour 1 T of the green tea on top (save the rest for later!), mix together--the sugar might dissolve a bit, that's ok. Then add the third tablespoon of sugar. (Is it important to add the sugar in sections?? I have no idea.) Then I added the teaspoon of olive oil (alternatively, you could add a wee bit of honey). Then I added 2 drops of tea tree oil. Stir stir stir!

Before using a face scrub, it's best to get your pores nice and wide open. I did this via showering. You could also do this by holding a steaming hot washcloth over your face for a few minutes. Apply the face scrub to your face gently with your fingertips or with a cotton pad, then give your face a nice massage with your fingertips. Rinse your face, being certain to remove all the sugar especially around your hairline. (The extra face scrub goes into the fridge and is good for a week or so.)

Next, tone your face with a bit of the left-over green tea. Just pour a bit onto a cotton pad and rub it onto your face.

Lastly, don't forget to moisturize! The moisturizer I used is something I whipped up last night. It's just coconut oil with 3 drops of sweet orange essential oil and 5 drops of tea tree oil mixed into a couple tablespoons of oil. Coconut oil exists in a solid state at room temperature, so before mixing in the oils, I microwaved it for less than a minute to get it liquid. Mixed in the essential oils and put it aside. By morning, it was solid again. To use, just rub two finger tips into the solid oil to loosen a bit, then rub this onto your face. NOTE: a little goes a long way with coconut oil, so apply sparingly, my friends.

Et, voila! My awesome facial! And now, back to menu planning.