We’re counting down the days til spring arrives – and equipping you with everything you need to be fully prepared for a new season! Shed that winter layer and embrace warmer spring weather (fingers crossed!) with this dermis-loving DIY from vegan apothecary Meow Meow Tweet. This homemade scrub socks a double whammy to winter skin – exfoliating for speedier skin cell turnover and a brighter glow and tempering sugar cravings with it’s lemon cookie scent. Here are Jeff and Tara with the details on their DIY concoction. (Not a DIY kind of gal? Buy meow meow tweet’s bottled version for easy access.)

The homemade scrub recipe we’ve created uses organic demerara cane sugar as the main exfoliating ingredient (which means that you can nibble a little in the shower and it’ll be tasty). If you are a savory person, you could use sea salt in place of the sugar, though sugar is better for sensitive skin since it’s a little gentler on the skin. These recipes call for virgin coconut oil, which soaks into your skin quickly, is naturally antifungal, and helps to lock in moisture and promote skin hydration. Virgin coconut oil also lends its sweet scent and taste to create dessert-like recipes. You could use another pure oil in place of it, like olive, walnut, avocado or sunflower oil. Keep in mind that some oils have a stronger savory scent or might feel oilier on your skin.

This recipe requires the oil to be in liquid form for thorough mixing. The easiest way to melt coconut oil is in a saucepan on your stove, over low heat. Keeping stirring the oil while it is heating until it’s just melted then take it off the heat to cool to room temperature. As oils are heated their healing properties change, so the less heat used, the better. To melt oil in the microwave, heat for 10 seconds at a time until liquefied.

The best place to use a scrub is in the shower. After an initial rinse, scoop out a handful of scrub and massage it onto wet skin. You might step out of the water stream as you do this to keep the scrub from dissolving as you spread it over your entire body. Rinse the scrub off thoroughly and pat your skin dry when you exit the shower.

We wanted to share a recipe using ingredients that can be found in most grocery stores. You can store the scrub for up to three months in a sealed jar.