How to: Salt and Pepper Shower Shaker

I've been making loads of bath products this year – partly for

the course I taught

this summer and partly for another project I'll be sharing with you soon (insert little squeal of excitement because I'm almost bursting at the seams!)

In between everything else I have been working on, a few side projects have popped into being. Today, I'm going to show you how to make something a little different: a salt and pepper shower shaker.

I know this sounds a little weird, but stick with me and all shall be revealed.

Dry Scrub in the Shower

We all know exfoliating scrubs, emulsified scrubs and other scrubby things, but have you ever made and used a dry scrub in the shower?

I hadn't either until this idea popped up. In many ways, it sounds a little bonkers to bring a dry scrub into a shower. But I've been experimenting with a few ways to make it work, and this one turned out quite well so I had to share it with you.

Spoiler alert: despite what it looks like, there's no pepper in this product.

Packaging: An Integral Part of the Formula

Part of getting this product to work is finding/making appropriate packaging. For this batch, I am using small take-away cardboard coffee cups with a plastic lid that I punched holes in to create the 'shaker'. It works like a charm.

These cups hold 100 dl / 3.38 fl oz and are the perfect size for a single use. Even though they are sold as single use, I reuse them a few times. The plastic lid can be reused over and over again.

Shower Shaker Ingredients

There are only 4 ingredients to these shakers and you can pretty much put them together any way you like.

Choose salts or sugars that function well as exfoliants (no flaked salt or anything with sharp edges that might scratch the skin). In the pictured batch I am using fine Himalayan Pink Salt.

The 'pepper' in this shaker is coarsely ground hempseed flour I bought at a local supermarket. You could also use ground hempseeds (

check this post for a peek at my hand-ground hempseeds

), or you can replace it with another herb that gives the mixture a peppery look.

Milk powder is added because it adds a little luxurious extra to the mix. I use powdered skimmed milk (from a local supermarket). You can omit this ingredient if you like. I've tried this mix with and without the milk, and my skin prefers the addition of milk.

Grated cocoa butter is a little bit of skin-loving magic that gives this mix a fabulous moisturizing boost and leaves skin glowing.  There's just enough added to moisturize the skin yet not enough to create cocoa butter build-up in your pipes (you're welcome, plumbers).

I've made numerous shaker mixes (both with and without cocoa butter), and every time I've left out the cocoa butter, it exfoliates just fine but just doesn't have that 'fabulous factor'. If you try it yourself, I'm guessing you'll agree.

The cocoa butter should be grated quite finely and distributed as evenly as possible throughout the mixture for optimal results. I know it's a bit fiddly to make grated cocoa butter, but it's worth the trouble. Tip: store grated cocoa butter chilled if you want it to remain finely grated and not turn into a lump that needs to be grated again.

So, are you ready to give this a try? The following is enough for about 5-6 scrubs.

LisaLise’s Salt and Pepper Exfoliating Shower Shaker

Ingredient	Grams	Ounces
Salts of Choice	255	9
Coarse Hempseed Flour	15	0.53
Powdered Milk	15	0.53
Grated Cocoa Butter	15	0.53

Method

1. Weigh out all ingredients
2. Place in bowl and stir to incorporate thoroughly
3. Transfer to air-tight container for storage

Now all you need to do is find/make your ideal shaker that you can fill when it's time to exfoliate. If you use cups like the one pictured above, it's easy to measure out a few portions by filling a few cups and storing them dry until use. 

How to use a Shower Shaker

Start by running the water and stepping under the shower to get thoroughly wet. Now, turn off the water and grab your shaker. Sprinkle enough mixture into a hand for one limb and scrub to your hearts desire. Repeat until you have exfoliated everywhere and the shaker is empty. Run the water again to rinse off. Dry off as usual.

Not only are you exfoliating and moisturizing in one go, you are also saving water and sharing a bit of sustainable love for the planet.

How can that be anything but win-win?

How to: Salt and Pepper Shower Shaker syndicated from LisaLise Blog - Natural Skin Care
October 28, 2019 at 04:00AM