Salt face scrub: benefits for skin and recipes

Effect of salt on skin

A salt scrub will be more beneficial if you use sea salt, as it saturates the skin with beneficial microelements and minerals. Iodine, iron, magnesium, which are included in its composition in large quantities, increase tone, normalize metabolism, remarkably moisturize, make the surface softer and silkier, and the color even.

To avoid damaging the epidermis and causing irritation and microtrauma, fine salt should be used, especially if you have dry or sensitive skin. To do this, use a coffee grinder or look for a ready-made one in stores.

Sea salt helps accelerate metabolic processes in cells, tightens them and stimulates blood circulation. Therefore, nutritionists even recommend replacing regular sea water when preparing dishes. If you haven’t done this yet, and you don’t get to do sea baths often, start the healing process with body and face scrubs with sea salt.

Salt and soda recipe

Our skin needs regular care. It is very good if such care includes getting rid of blackheads. To get this effect at home, you can use the same salt with the addition of another active substance - baking soda. We have selected several recipes for such products:

For blackheads and pimples for oily skin: mix a teaspoon of baking soda and salt, add a little clean water or lemon juice to make a paste. Treat the skin very carefully with a cotton swab soaked in the composition. Then immediately rinse off the residue with water and apply a thick layer of nourishing cream.
For acne: mix salt and soda in equal proportions, dilute with olive oil to a paste. Leave on the skin until a slight tingling sensation appears, but no longer than 5 minutes.
Gentle scrub: mix a pinch of salt and soda with 2 tablespoons of baby or organic soap. Add some moisturizer.

This procedure perfectly prepares the skin for other caring procedures (nourishing mask, compress). But the combination is quite aggressive for the skin, so test it before use by applying it to your wrist. If severe burning and redness occurs, do not use this product.

Apply the scrub and lightly massage the skin with your fingertips. If you have sensitive, thin skin, apply only to problem areas (T-zone). Rinse off first with warm and then with cold water. Use this scrub no more than once a month, provided that there are no burns on the skin. You are guaranteed to get rid of blackheads for a while.

How to cook

There are several ways to make a sea salt scrub at home. It already contains many minerals and trace elements: zinc, magnesium, calcium, sodium, sulfur, chlorine, etc. But for a better result, it is necessary to prepare additional useful components. Moreover, unlike masks, the scrub can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2-3 weeks.

Additional Ingredients

You can enhance the beneficial effects of salt by using additional ingredients, which are perfect:

Natural vegetable oils: olive, coconut, peach, flaxseed and even regular sunflower. Salt does not dissolve in them and retains its abrasive properties. At the same time, oils significantly soften its aggressive effect on the skin and nourish it with vitamins, and also protect it from severe drying.
Essential oils. They have pronounced antibacterial and antifungal properties, which allows you to very quickly improve the condition of problem skin. Cosmetologists consider the most suitable scrubs to be: pine, eucalyptus, tea tree, geranium, juniper, lavender, mint. It is enough to add only 3-5 drops to the scrub.
Honey. This unique product contains more than 200 chemical elements and their compounds. It has powerful anti-aging properties and is very beneficial for mature skin. But honey is a fairly strong allergen and before using it for the first time you must do a test.
Lemon juice. Adding lemon juice gives it peeling properties. The acid perfectly dissolves fat and loosens dead dead cells, which greatly simplifies their removal and enhances the cleansing properties of the scrub. You can use high-quality apple cider vinegar for the same purposes.
Soda. The combination of salt and soda is quite aggressive and can only be used on completely healthy and very oily skin. But it allows you to deeply cleanse the pores and almost completely remove sebum from them. After this procedure, blackheads completely disappear, and the skin becomes very smooth and pleasantly pink.
Cosmetic clay. Perfectly relieves inflammation and irritation caused by sea salt. Provides deep but very gentle cleansing of pores. Dries out pimples and prevents recurrence of breakouts.
Oat flour. The addition of this ingredient allows you to well moisturize the epidermis during cleansing. A scrub with this composition is suitable even for thin and sensitive skin. In addition, oatmeal is rich in vitamins and helps smooth out fine wrinkles.

If desired, other components can be added to the home scrub. But in order for them to enhance each other’s effects and not compete with each other, there should not be more than 3-4 of them in total.

Tools and accessories

Contact with metal can destroy vitamins and other useful chemical compounds. Therefore, it is better to mix all the scrub ingredients in a glass or plastic bowl. It is more convenient to do this with a wooden or plastic spatula, and to apply the mask with a wide brush with artificial dense bristles.

If you plan to store the composition, then you need to prepare a glass container with a tight-fitting lid. It is advisable to pre-sterilize it, especially if the scrub is oil-based. Salt itself, lemon juice and essential oils are pretty good preservatives. But still, after a couple of weeks, the composition begins to quickly lose its beneficial properties.

Best Recipes

The easiest option for home scrubbing is to use clean and dry sea salt. A small amount is taken onto wet palms, distributed along the massage lines and gently massaged onto the face for 3-5 minutes, and then washed with cool water.

But to enhance the effect, you can use more complex recipes:

Honey. Add a teaspoon of sea salt and 2-3 drops of geranium oil to a tablespoon of liquid high-quality honey. This scrub can be left on the face for up to 10 minutes, then it will serve as an excellent anti-aging mask.
With liquid soap . Add sea salt to a small amount of liquid soap and gently massage your face with this mixture for 2-3 minutes.
Oil. A scrub made from fine sea salt and olive or other vegetable oil is not very suitable for oily skin. But it perfectly cleanses thin, dry and fading skin. In addition, it can be prepared for future use and consumed gradually. But before each use, the composition must be mixed well. The proportion of salt and oil is approximately 1:3; if desired, add a few drops of essential oil to the composition.
Soda. A good scrub is made by mixing a small amount of salt and baking soda with a quality moisturizer. This composition is able to deeply cleanse the pores, but at the same time not dry it out or cause severe irritation. For oily and problem skin, you can use cream soap.
With protein and lemon. This scrub also has the properties of a mask. It perfectly cleanses the skin, slightly tightens pores, and helps smooth out fine wrinkles. Beat the egg white with a teaspoon of lemon juice until it forms a homogeneous white foam. Half a teaspoon of sea salt is introduced into it and the finished composition is distributed over the face. Massage for 2-3 minutes and leave for another 5-7. Wash off with summer water without soap.

Which recipe is best suited for your skin will most likely have to be determined experimentally. The advantage of homemade scrubs is that you can slightly change the proportions of the ingredients, focusing on your own feelings.

Salt scrub recipe for face

As for the face, you need to be extremely careful when using various scrubs. Otherwise, instead of the desired effect, you can get skin stretching, accelerated aging and loss of elasticity. In this case, only very fine salt is suitable, which must be mixed with substances that are maximally nourishing and moisturizing, for example, honey, cream, yogurt, and oils.

Salt scrub for dry skin: mix 2 teaspoons of salt with 50 milliliters of olive oil. Instead of butter, you can use high-fat cream.
Salt scrub for oily skin: add 2 teaspoons of lemon juice to the mixture from the previous recipe.
For all types: Mix 2 teaspoons of oatmeal with a teaspoon of salt and a spoonful of melted honey. Add a little oil if the skin is dry and kefir if it is oily. Apply to wet face, massage for 3 minutes.

You can scrub your face no more than once every 7-10 days. If you use a soda scrub, no more than once every 10 days.

Pros of homemade scrubs

A salt scrub for the face and body with the addition of honey, prepared independently, has undoubted advantages:

Using completely natural ingredients. Homemade honey scrub does not contain harmful preservatives, dyes or fragrances.
The nutritional value for the skin of homemade scrubs is many times higher than that of purchased products.
The composition of the scrub is selected taking into account the specific “requests” of the skin today.

The composition is prepared for one or two servings and stored in the refrigerator.

Secrets of using salt and soda scrubs

To ensure that the body and face peeling procedure has maximum effect, listen to these recommendations:

A soda and salt scrub should be applied to damp, preferably slightly steamed, skin.
Salt scrub should be used after preparation, until the substance dissolves.
On the face, scrub the skin for no longer than 3 minutes. For the body, the time period is up to 15 minutes.
You need to massage without pressing, but with gentle circular movements.
Avoid using salt scrub on the décolleté and neck area, and never use the product on the area around the eyes.
Contraindications for use are acne and inflammatory processes. In this case, salt should be used as a cleanser in diluted form. Better - in mineral water.
In summer, the product can be used once a week for those with oily skin and once every 2 weeks for dry skin. In winter, this period increases by a week.

What could be easier than exfoliating at home using such an affordable product as salt or soda? And if you take into account the extreme degree of effectiveness of such a scrub, then it can easily count on a permanent place in your list of favorite home care treatments.

What will cosmetologists say?

Competent experts recommend this procedure to smooth out wrinkles, lighten age spots, and increase skin firmness and elasticity. To achieve a high-quality result, the peeling procedure must be carried out in a complex and consist of several stages.

Removing makeup and steaming skin. For makeup removal, cosmetologists advise using gels with a similar composition. A product containing extracts of the Dead Sea, sage, chamomile, allantoin, and ascorbic acid will be useful. Also a plus will be the presence of vegetable oils in their composition. Steaming is carried out over a water bath or under a hot towel - this will allow the pores to open and microelements to penetrate deeper into the layers of the dermis.
At the next stage, they arm themselves with a lotion based on fruit and plant extracts, glycolic acid and oils. These components provide gentle cleansing and removal of sebaceous secretions from the pores.
Direct application of the peeling composition involves evenly distributing the product over the face, without affecting the area around the eyes and mouth. The drug consists of two parts: proprietary Sea Needle powder and Serum Thinner diluent serum in a 1:2 ratio.
Then the treated area of skin is massaged.
Chemical peeling, also called Starfish, is washed off using cotton pads soaked in warm water. Free radicals are fixed in the thickness of the skin using a soft emulsion that provides protection and neutralization of harmful elements.

The duration of the procedure depends on the type of problem and the size of the treated areas. Sessions range from 20 minutes to 1 hour. Over the next couple of days, there is a large-scale shedding of dry skin, but visible traces of redness disappear very quickly. During this period, cosmetologists insist on refraining from using decorative cosmetics. The course consists of 3 – 5 sessions with an interval of 1 week.