Microbead Madness!

Do you think you can’t live without the dead-skin-sloughing microbeads in your favorite body wash or facial cleanser? Well, it looks like pretty soon you’re going to have to. It turns out that those tiny beads (a typical bottle of exfoliating facial cleanser contains 300,000 of them) are causing big trouble — they’re showing up on the surface of the Great Lakes, and in the bellies of fish that mistake them for food.

In the wake of the discovery that microbeads are too small to be filtered out by sewage treatment facilities, several manufacturers have pledged to remove the sloughing agents from their products and replace them with natural exfoliants like ground nutshells, salt, and sugar. You can even have your skin exfoliated professionally with diamond crystals if you want!

When you purchase a commercial body wash, there’s no telling what might be in it. But this Sugar and Spice Scrub is so safe, you could eat it!

Ingredients:

1 cup of brown sugar

1 cup of white sugar

¾ cup of almond or coconut oil

2 tsp. of cinnamon

2 tsp. of ground ginger

2 tsp. of nutmeg

Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl, and transfer the mixture to a plastic container with a tight-fitting lid. At bath or shower time, scoop out a small handful of the blend, and massage it all over your damp body. Then rinse with warm water.

And you couldn’t ask for a better facial cleanser than this one: In a bowl, mix ⅛ cup of finely ground sea salt and 1 to 2 teaspoons of finely chopped fresh mint. Drizzle in just enough unfiltered apple cider vinegar to make a thick paste. (An eyedropper is ideal for this job.) Gently massage the mixture onto your face and neck, and rinse well with warm water. Refrigerate any leftover formula, and use it within three days.