During the winter months, it’s easy to maintain your looks.  Pedicures can wait because boots are in season.  Tanning/self-tanning is optional because the masses are as pasty as you are.  Hair color darkens, skin dulls and if you don’t shave your legs for a couple of days, no one will notice because you’re wearing tights.

Maintaining your appearance in the warm weather months is quite a bit more work.  Luckily, you can do most of the heavy lifting at home saving yourself time and money.  And one of the best things that you can do for yourself is to get your skin back into shape.

Pink Grapefruit Scrub (The Body Shop, $16)

Scrub away the dull, winter months to revive your skin for spring.  All you need is a washcloth and a good body scrub.  The scrubs at The Body Shop smell fantastic and are great for sensitive skin like mine because the beads are pieces of corn cob.  But you don’t have to spend money on scrub, if you don’t want to.  You can actually make body scrub at home.

The recipe is actually really simple.  All you need is a half cup of brown sugar and a half cup of white sugar.  Mix them together in a bowl and add a quarter cup of vanilla-scented liquid soap, two tablespoons of avocado oil, and two tablespoons of vanilla essential oil.  

Most of the oils can be found at Whole Foods or at a natural grocer.  And I like to store my scrub in a glass or plastic canning jar.  It should also be kept in the fridge so that the oils don’t spoil.