Hi Ladies,

I thought I’d write something a bit different today; so we are going to talk beauty. I don’t know if it is just me or does the Dubai summer do unspeakable things to your skin? Last year I suffered from severe acne, like big red welts all over my face. Cry with me girls, just cry. Thank God my face has fully recovered but I do struggle with occasional acne here and there and if you know me you know I’ll always try a home remedy before I try anything pharmaceutical.

Over the years I’ve built a nice collection of home remedies for pretty much everything and this summer the topic of my skin woes is dry. No literally, I have dry skin. I don’t how or why but my feet and arms get dry, white and scaly and that is NOT a good look at all. One of the remedies I’ve been experimenting with is exfoliating with a sugar scrub. I make mine with a base of coconut oil and the results have been amazing. My skin is back to its silky supple state and I couldn’t be happier.

Thank you coconut gods.

I’ve been doing this twice a week but if you have sensitive skin you might want to do it just once. It is really simple to put together and I’m sure you have these ingredients sitting at home. It smells super good too.

You’ll need:

½ cup melted coconut oil

1-cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. lemon zest

3 drops of rosewater

A wooden spoon

An airtight jar

Optional: You can swap out the lemon for grapefruit or use a mixture of both.

In your jar simply stir in all the ingredients till the sugar is completely saturated. My routine is simple, I take a very hot shower so my skin is wet and my pores are open, then I scoop out the mixture with the wooden spoon and gently massage the mixture on my skin with my palms making sure to get at all those dead dry skin cells especially around my elbows and knees. This usually takes 15 minutes, then I rinse off and air dry. You don’t want to towel dry all that goodness off. After drying I might go over my skin with some more coconut oil but usually I don’t because my skin is already well moisturized.

Tip: Lemon juice makes your skin photosensitive so it’s best to do this at night.

With dry skin comes dry feet. I’m all about treating yourself to a pedicure ever so often but that can begin to break the bank. So to save money, I put together a home pedicure kit, that way I can give myself a pedicure as often as I want. My friend Zainab got me a super fabulous file from Tweezerman and it has not only become my summer favorite but the solution to my calloused feet. It’s made with stainless steel but feels very gentle on the skin and it works wonders with dry skin cells and callouses. The file has a dual function so after you file off your the callouses on your feet you can use the other side to buff your skin to pillow softness and smoothness. I’m an ergonomic design freak and dual function excites me as you saw here with the Kenwood Multione. Well that and the fact that I love pink :)

The file is called  “Sole Mates Dual Sided Foot File” and is available in Harvey Nichols, Bloomingdales, AREEJ, Tavola, Salam Studios, Boots Pharmacy and Zwilling J.A. Henckels stores across the GCC for AED 115.

I hope you can use these tips in your summer routine.

With love, Gbemi x