Strawberry + Pomegranate Glowing Skin Exfoliant

This gentle exfoliator will leave your skin looking fresh and healthy with just a few simple, all natural ingredients that are probably already in your kitchen.

Exfoliation is an essential part of any healthy skincare routine. If it isn’t a part of your current beauty routine, it needs to be. You can start exfoliating tonight by making this Strawberry+Pomegranate Glowing Skin Exfoliant right at home! It’s going to liven up the skin, and leave your face glowing! You’ll want to start off using it only 1-2 times a week, then eventually everyday. How often you should exfoliate depends on your age and skin type. Start off slow and see how your skin reacts. You never want to over exfoliate, because it can leave the skin looking dull, and make any flaws in the skin more exaggerated!

I exfoliate every night, before I apply any products or moisturizers. A good general skincare rule to follow is to always only add one new beauty treatment or product at a time, and give it a month to work it’s magic. By doing this, you’re able to give your skin enough time to adjust, see if your skin likes it, and what effects it’s had on your skin. It would be hard to pinpoint any of these if you added multiple new treatments/products all at one time. Before I share with you how to make this amazingly easy and beneficial exfoliant, I want to talk about the importance of exfoliating and go over all the ingredients with you.

Why Exfoliate?

The older we get, the more important it is to exfoliate. As we age, the process of our skin’s cell regeneration slows down. This means it takes longer for the dead skin cells on our face to naturally “shed” and for fresh skin cells to appear. When old skin cells pile up, our skin starts to look dull and dry, pores become clogged, and the appearance of any lines or wrinkles are exaggerated. By exfoliating, we not only help speed up the body’s natural process of removing dead skin cells, but also of generating new ones. Exfoliation improves the skin texture by making it smoother, softer, brighter, preventing breakouts, and helping skincare products penetrate deeper into the skin, which makes them work better! Regular exfoliation leaves you with a beautiful and youthful dewy complexion.

The Ingredients & Their Benefits

OATS – deeply cleanses and soothes

RICE – a gentle exfoliant that buffs and smooths skin texture

STRAWBERRY POWDER – a cleanser and astringent; contains salicylic acid that gently exfoliates and removes impurities to brighten skin and shrink pores

POMEGRANATE POWDER – rich in antioxidants, speeds healing, stimulates collagen production, and soothes skin

BENTONITE CLAY – absorbs and removes toxins (heavy metals, impurities, and chemicals), shrinks pores, tightens skin, and rejuvenates skin tissue to diminish wrinkles

What Is Fruit Powder?

If you’ve never heard of fruit powder before, you’re probably asking yourself, “what is strawberry and pomegranate powder?” Fruit powder is simply dried fruit that’s been finely ground, with no added ingredients. It can be used in baking and cooking to add natural flavor, as a natural food coloring agent, or to add color and health benefits to DIY beauty products! You can either buy pre-made, freeze dried fruit powder (which I did with the pomegranate powder), or you can make your own (which I did with the strawberry powder). To make homemade fruit powder, thinly slice the fruit, place it on a parchment lined cookie rack (that’s on top of a baking sheet), and leave in the oven for 6-8 hours (or overnight) at 200 degrees F. When you can break the fruit in half without it feeling gummy, place it in a blender, and blend until smooth.

I used both so I could compare the two, the light pink powder above is the store bought, freeze dried pomegranate powder, while the darker red powder below is my homemade strawberry powder. The consistently is pretty much the same, but the pomegranate powder is a little softer. If the fruit you want to use is in season and readily available, I recommend just making your own fruit powder. Not only is it cheaper, but it makes your entire house smell amazing the entire time it’s baking! Our whole apartment smelled like strawberries all day and I loved it! If you do decide to make your own, I recommend blending it twice. Once, right after it’s dehydrated, and again with the oats mixture, to make it as smooth as possible.

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Strawberry + Pomegranate Glowing Skin Exfoliant Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup oats
• 1/3 cup brown rice
• 1/4 cup bentonite clay
• 1 1/2 Tbsp pomegranate powder
• 1 1/2 Tbsp strawberry powder

Instructions

1. In a food processor or high speed blender, blend oats and rice until it is very close to the consistency of powdered sugar. Pour into glass mixing bowl. Stir clay, pomegranate, and strawberry powder into oat mixture using wooden spoon or rubber spatula until fully incorporated.
2. Store in air tight container. When ready to use, pour a nickle size amount of exfoliant in the palm of your hand, mix with a few drops of water to create a creamy paste. Apply to face and neck using circular motions, then wash off with water.

You can make this exfoliant even more nourishing by mixing it with coconut milk instead of water. Mixing it with water is more realistic for daily use, but mixing it with coconut milk is great when you want to give your face a little extra TLC. If you would like to use it as a nourishing face mask, simply mix it with coconut milk, and leave on for 20 minutes.

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Notes

• Use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to mix clay. Do not let the bentonite clay come in contact with anything metal (blender blade, bowl, spoon,  jar, lid, etc). Contact with metal effects it’s ionization, which can diminish it’s effectiveness.
• 1 lb of strawberries (regular size you’ll find at the grocery store) will yield about 3-4 Tbsp of fruit powder.
• To ensure that the exfoliant lasts, don’t let any moisture get into the container.
• Buy all organic ingredients to avoid applying harmful chemicals to your skin. Making your own beauty products is all about avoiding dangerous ingredients (and saving a bit of money) 🙂