You are on vacation on a beautiful, heavenly beach but you didn’t mind bringing your exfoliators with you and now you’re probably regretting that choice. Don’t panic. Don’t waste money on costly exfoliants at the supermarket. You can find one of the best natural exfoliants that exist for your skin right on the beach: beach sand.

Yep, you read that right: beach sand provides an excellent fine grain for removing all dead cells and it leaves your skin looking completely renewed, cared for, and much more beautiful. You should exfoliate your skin at least once a week to prevent it ageing prematurely and losing brightness over time. We have collected a series of cool ideas on how to exfoliate your skin using beach sand as the main ingredient!

beach sand

One-ingredient beach sand exfoliant – difficulty level: super easy

This natural body scrub is so much fun to do!  Whenever you are on a sandy beach, make use of this simple technique. Sit on the sand, bathing in the nutrients of the sunshine while you slowly use the sand to scrub your entire body.  Work your way up from your feet, up your legs, on your stomach and back, your fingers, hands and arms, your armpits, your neck (back and front) and then finally your face.

Be as gentle as you need to be so that this feels pleasurable and not at all painful. After this beach sand exfoliation, walk into the ocean and allow the nourishing sea water to rinse off all of the sand. Soak in the sea water for several minutes and enjoy how amazingly soft and silky the skin is.

Honey-based beach sand exfoliant – difficulty level: easy

This easy beach sand exfoliant is made with simple ingredients you can easily find around you. For this exfoliant you will just need beach sand (of course!), a carrier oil of your choice to transform the beach sand into a great body scrub and some honey. Sounds easy, right? Sift ¼ cup of sand to make sure there are no chunks that cause harm. Place sand in a mixing bowl. Slightly heat ¼ cup of almond oil, or other carrier oil.

Be careful – the carrier oil has to be heaten slightly, not boiled. The oil should be warm enough to help the honey mix. Add 1 teaspoon of honey and mix ingredients together. You can use it on wet skin, or for even better results soak in warm water so the skin can absorb water and retain moisture after exfoliating. Rub desired areas with this beach sand scrub for 5-10 minutes. Allow the scrub to sit on the skin for a few moments.

5-minute beach sand exfoliant – difficulty level: medium

In only five minutes you can have a lovely foaming beach sand scrub that is an amazing exfoliator. All you need are beach sand, oil (you can use both sweet almond oil or just plain olive oil), essential oil of your preference (for instance, eucalyptus essential oil) and some body wash base. Put a quarter of cup of beach sand into a bowl. Next, add your choice of essential oils – 30 to 60 drops will do. Add another ½ tablespoon of your choice of oil and mix everything with a spoon. Mix your sand with the oils until everything is well incorporated.

You want sand that is damp and will hold together when squeezed without any excess liquid oozing out. Now add 1 tablespoon of body wash base to your sand and oil mixture and gently fold it into the sand mixture without stirring. Pour your beach sand exfoliant into a shower safe container and use as needed. This quantity will last for 4-6 showers depending on how heavily you use it.

Beach sand body and foot scrub – difficulty level: medium

The first thing to do is to get some beach sand and clean it. You can pick out bigger pieces by hand, then run your sand through a colander just to be sure it’s free of nasty stuff. Then choose a carrier oil with extra benefits to soften up your sand for use. For instance, you can use one tablespoon of sesame oil and a quarter cup of sunflower oil. Then, add half a cup of sand in a medium sized mixing bowl.

To get your sand smelling like a bouquet of loveliness, add some of your favorite essential oils (juniper berry, vetiver, and clary sage) that are excellent on dry skin and antiseptic by nature. Mix everything together with a spoon and then put your new scrub in a sealable container. You could use a blender to make it smoother if you are using this scrub for your body. If you are using it on your feet, though, you can skip this step as you shouldn’t have to worry as much about a little roughness.