Margarita Salt Scrub

Materials

1/2 cup of Dead Sea Salt, Fine
1 oz Shea Butter Shower Gel Base
1 oz Fractionated Coconut Oil
2 ml of Lime, Cold Pressed, Mexico Essential Oil (40 drops)
Optional Colorant*
FD&C Yellow #6(3-5 drops)
D&C Green #8(1-2 drops)

Directions

In a small bowl, combine the Fractionated Coconut Oil and Shea Butter Shower Gel Base. Mix these well, until thoroughly combined. Next, stir in the Dead Sea Salt. Add the colorant and essential oil and mix once more. Spoon into a sterile jar.

Packaging and Storage

The best storage container for this recipe would be a jar made from high density plastic. A PET or HDPE container should do well. Due to the essential oil content in this recipe, the plastic may erode over a long period of time. Since this recipe contains natural ingredients, it should be used long before this becomes an issue. However, I thought it would be worth mentioning just in case. For safety's sake, don't leave this jar of scrub on top of any expensive linens. You never know.

Usage

There are many scrubbing techniques out there, but this is one I am particularly find of. Step into the shower and before turning the water on, scrub your body all over! (Of course, avoiding very sensitive areas or broken skin.) When you are thoroughly scrubbed, turn the shower on and rinse. When the shower is over, make sure to moisturize your skin with a body oil, cream, or lotion.

Preservation

I will leave the preservation of this recipe up to you. The scrub can be made without any preservative, but this will be prone to contamination. If it is left unpreserved, I would suggest handling it with extreme care. Do not take the jar into the shower. Instead, use a clean spoon to scoop one serving at a time into a paper or plastic cup.

If you are using the Shea Butter Shower Gel, please be aware that is does contain parabens. However, this recipe has not been challenge tested, and the preservative content in the shower gel base may not be enough to thoroughly preserve the entire scrub. You can add further preservative to the remaining ingredients, if you choose to. Liquapar Oil would be a good choice if you are going with a chemical preservative. It can be added to 0.3 - 0.6% of the fractionated coconut oil, which is 1 oz. This would be a very minuscule amount.

If you are creating a natural scrub, using Castille soap, you may also want to consider adding some Grapefruit Seed Extract. This will act as an antibacterial agent, but it will not "preserve" the ingredients. It can be added to the formula at 0.5 to 1%. In this recipe that would be 1 drop. While this will help to fend off bacteria, it may be wise to still handle the product with extra care. Exposure to water may still compromise the formula's stability.

*To achieve a green hue with natural ingredients, steep 1 teaspoon of Parsley Powder in 4 ounces of warm Fractionated Coconut Oil for 30 - 60 minutes. Strain the herb from the oil using a cheese cloth. Use this colored Fractionated Coconut Oil in place of the oil in this recipe. No additional colorant should be needed. The excess oil can be stored in a clean bottle for later use.

Source: http://www.naturalbeautyworkshop.com/my_weblog/2007/11/margarita-salt.html