This invigorating and incredible-smelling vegan body scrub recipe comes from The Compassionate Chick’s Guide to DIY Beauty—a book packed with 125 do-it-yourself natural and cruelty-free beauty recipes by Sunny Subramanian from Vegan Beauty Review.
We don’t know about you, but we love making our own DIY vegan recipes in our plant-based kitchen. Not only does it give you the satisfaction of creating something completely on your own, but you also save money (now and in the long run) and save the planet by reducing the plastic packaging, as well as the impact of transportation. It’s a win, win, win!
Check your pantry for ingredients (including mason jars or cleaned out jam jars for storing your brilliant body scrub) before embarking on this delightful DIY recipe. You may have all of the ingredients already or you might have to take a quick trip to the grocery store to stock up. Once you have your mixture made up, get ready to scrub-a-dub-dub till your skin is smooth as toffee from the vanilla-scented coffee. Yum!
The superstar ingredient in this vegan body scrub is coffee, which is chock-full of antioxidants that squash nasty free radicals and prevent signs of premature aging, wrinkles, sun spots and fine lines. The caffeine in coffee also improves circulation in the skin and reduces swelling and inflammation.
Seriously, it’s so easy and fun to make a vegan body scrub out of coffee grounds. Just mix up one cup of fresh or leftover coffee grounds with one cup of sugar and a half cup of your favorite oil. In this case, we’re making a coffee coconut scrub, so we used coconut oil. Then, add in some favorite essential oils, mix, and store in an airtight jar with lid. Voila! Coffee as a body scrub complete!
You can also make a facial coffee scrub by substituting the coconut oil for a more facial-friendly oil such as:
If in doubt, go for jojoba oil. It’s the closest to your skin’s own natural sebum.
While not incredibly common, there may be possible disadvantages to using a coffee scrub on your body. These include:
Note: If neither of these applies to you but you’re still having a bit of irritation, there’s always a slight chance that the oil you’re using in the recipe may be the culprit. Best to use a base oil that you know works well with your skin. You can always leave out the vanilla powder, as well.
When you’re not up to whipping up your own body scrub, try these brands. They’re not only cruelty-free, but also completely vegan. These companies are rockin’ it in the beauty and skincare arena!
Though these brands are not 100% vegan, but they do offer many vegan-friendly products. Just double-check the ingredient list or look for the vegan symbol before purchasing.
For homemade coffee scrub recipes like this one, they should last about 2 months in the shower area or up to 6 months stored in the refrigerator. Just make sure to use clean fingers or spoon when scooping it out of the jar and always keep the lid close firmly. If you can store the coffee ground scrub in a dark and cool location, even better!
Commercial brands usually have an expiration date somewhere on the container, so keep an eye out for that. Otherwise, similar rules apply for long-lasting storage. Since many store brand scrubs contain some type of preservative (natural or chemical), they might last a little longer.
The most important thing is to take care to dispose of the scrub if it looks or smells weird. Sometimes, the oils will become rancid and might smell “off”. In other cases, the coffee body scrub may form mold or other bacteria on the surface. Definitely time to stop using it and either make a fresh batch of the recipe or buy a new container.
While you can probably eyeball the amounts for this recipe, it’s best to measure them out carefully to get the texture just right. As long as you use clean (better yet, sterilized) jars, you can use anything you like. If you only have plastic jars, that will work, too. Just make sure that the lid fits on firmly.
You can easily use this vegan coffee body scrub on your lips as well! Just scoop a small amount out and place into a very small jar with a lid. Use a clean finger or small spoon to apply to lips, scrub gently, and then rinse well. Always apply a nice layer of rich, moisturizing lip balm after using a scrub. If you find that your lips are getting too dry or chapped, discontinue use for a while or only use 1-2 times per week.
You certainly can, but the result would not be a vegan scrub. Find out more about honey here. It’s totally up to you what you feel comfortable with. But technically, yes, it is possible to swap the sugar for honey.
From all that we’ve read and researched, coffee is great for the skin. There are some antimicrobial properties in the coffee grounds themselves that help to cleanse the skin, while the inherently rough texture gives the skin an exfoliating treatment naturally.
If you try this vegan coffee body scrub DIY, let us know what you think by leaving a comment and rating below! Be sure to follow along on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook for even more vegan recipe inspiration.
Courtesy of The Compassionate Chick’s Guide to DIY Beauty by Sunny Submaranian & Chrystle Fiedler ©2016 www.robertrose.ca Reprinted with publisher permission. Available where books are sold.
This article about cellulite coffee scrub was written by Gina House and Michelle Cehn. Grounded coffee scrub photography and editing by Michelle Cehn. Please note that this article may contain affiliate links which supports our work at World of Vegan.
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Super cool to make homemade scrubs so good
This body scrub smells absolutely delicious! Love it!
This is so easy, and who doesn’t love smelling like coffee?!
I can’t testify to how this DIY Coffee Scrub works on the whole body, but it worked so well on my feet I’m almost embarrassed. I always wore socks because my feet were so dry and cracked (I work outside and spend a lot of time walking). Now I have fresh baby feet, and I don’t care who knows.
I love this DIY recipe! I already had everything in the house to make it and it makes my skin super smooth!
This scrub truly leaves your skin feeling amazing!
Love the smell of this coffee scrub! I had no idea it was so easy to make this at home!
This coffee body scrub is so easy to make and smells so good! I prefer it to store-bought, as I know all the ingredients going into it!