Scrub your way to beautiful skin
As you make healthy, positive changes to the way your body looks and feels, it only makes sense that you might want to improve the appearance of your body’s largest organ: your skin. Stretch marks are a common concern, caused by rapid change in skin growth. They can appear after pregnancy or excessive weight gain or weight loss. Although they seem to be on the top layer of our skin, stretch marks are actually in the middle layer. That makes them difficult to remove with topical treatment alone. Luckily, we learned about a DIY coffee scrub for fading stretch marks that may affect tissues beneath the surface.
Coffee has been gaining ground for its beneficial skin care properties. This DIY scrub has two simple, everyday ingredients that are probably already in your kitchen. Like any treatment, it takes time to see results, so be patient! As an added bonus, if you use this scrub early in the morning, the aroma of the coffee will wake you up and start your day off strong. So what are you waiting for; let’s get to scrubbin’!
The Ingredients & Why They Work
Ground Coffee – You have two choices when it comes to using ground coffee. You can take it directly from the package, or you can repurpose the used coffee grounds from your coffee machine. Your choice! Either way, the caffeine in coffee stimulates blood flow and circulation when directly applied to the skin, improving cell regeneration. The ground coffee’s texture is also an exfoliant, removing dead cells and loose skin. This process gives new skin cells the opportunity to receive proper moisture from the next ingredient.
Olive Oil – Olive oil moisturizes, cleanses, and protects your skin. Most importantly, it’s capable of penetrating the skin to work on different layers. Since stretch marks are located beneath the surface of our skin’s outer layers, olive oil works wonders to get to the location of the actual skin damage.
How to Use This DIY Coffee Scrub for Fading Stretch Marks
For best results, start with clean skin. If you’re using spent coffee grounds from the machine, you’re ready to go and you can skip the first step. Otherwise, start with step one and move on from there.
Step 1: Prepare the Coffee
If you’re using coffee straight from the package, you’ll want to moisten the coffee first. Pour about 1/2 cup of coffee grounds into a large bowl and moisten them with warm water. You don’t want to drown the grounds, but you do want them to be wet.
Step 2: Create a Paste
Add olive oil to the bowl with coffee and stir the mixture until it has a paste-like consistency. This should take anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 cup of oil, depending on how moist the grounds are. Ideally, the ending mixture should produce a paste that can stay on your skin for an extended period of time.
If you prefer, you can use coconut oil instead of olive oil. The coconut oil will be easier to work with if you melt it, first.
Step 3: Rub it Into Your Skin
Once the paste is ready, gently rub it into the area where the stretch marks are present. Apply it on the skin around the area, too, as stretch marks extend past the area we can see. If the stretch mark is the size of a golf ball, apply to the area as if it were a tennis ball. Continue to rub it in light, gentle strokes for 3 to 5 minutes.
Step 4: Let it Sit
Once the paste is applied, leave it on for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, use a damp, non-abrasive cloth to gently remove the mixture from your skin.
Step 5: Moisturize
After removing the paste, apply a natural moisturizer to the affected area two or three times throughout the day. We love using 100% African Shea butter because it’s a multi-purpose moisturizer that treats stretch marks, stimulates cellular growth, and repairs damaged skin.
Step 6: Repeat
Repeat the process once a day until you see a noticeable difference in the area. Everyone’s skin is different, and some stretch marks are more severe than others. Fading can take longer than you anticipate, but be patient! It will work over time.
Don’t feel like you have to make the scrub daily, either. You can place the paste in an air-tight container and store it at room temperature. It will be ready to use whenever you are ready!
Sources: Mayo Clinic, Global Healing Center, Livestrong, Frank Body
Want more tips on radiant skin? Read some of our other beauty tips:
5 DIY Summer Glow Skin Masks
Treat Yourself to a Spa Day at Home!