There are plenty of face scrubs commercially available, but Ifind many of them either too expensive or not too my liking – for example, some have scrubbing particles that feel like boulders, others don’t have enough particles to feel useful. There’s also the fact I’m a little wary of products containing ingredients I can’t even pronounce.

The best facial scrubbing material I’ve found is FOOD GRADE diatomaceous earth. FOOD GRADE is extremely important – the kind for swimming pool filters or other industrial use has undergone treatments which make it unsafe to use for other purposes.

Diatomaceous earth, or DE, comes from diatoms, which are algae fossils. DE is a fine powder, but gently abrasive. You don’t want to get it in your eyes, and should avoid breathing the dust. You may have ingested DE – it’s been used in foods, grains, etc., to prevent bugs. (Yes, it’s an all natural insecticide, too, but that’s for another article. This stuff has a lot of uses.)

The simplest scrub would be to mix DE with water to form a paste but you aren’t limited to using only water.
There are tons of good recipes for homemade facial scrubs, cleaners and masks available on the interne tand you can add DE to any of them, or even to commercial smooth products and turn them into a scrub.

You don’t have to scrub hard- in fact, if you rub to hard you may end up looking a little sunburned. This stuff packs a lot of punch for something that feels so fine. I usually leave the mixture on my face for two or three minutes , then rinse well with warm water.

One of my favorites is DE, water and glycerine. Sometimes I’ll add a drop of two of oregano oil. This one is quick and easy to whip up and works great – leaves your skin soft and smooth, but don’t discount more involved mixtures for special treats. For example, make a cup of rosemary tea – use tea in place of water – you can use the leftover tea for a hair rinse. Or, use a morter and pedestal to finely grind oatmeal – use half oatmeal and half DE. Honey, milk, various teas, yogurt, cucumber….. You get the picture – the possibilities are endless.

Best of all, you know exactly what is in your product, there are no preservatives, and you can adjust the ingredients to suit your own personal preference.