For today’s beauty project, I chose to make an exfoliating body scrub out of coffee grounds. Coffee is a secret ingredient used in many spas throughout the world, and after making my Coffee Body Scrub and using it to exfoliate with in the shower, I can definitely see the allure.

First, I brewed some organic coffee for myself, and two cups later, was awake enough to get started on “my creation”. I saved the coffee grounds and put them into a bowl. I added about a table spoon of olive oil, a teaspoon of vanilla, some brown sugar and a little bit of cinnamon to make the scent a little spicier. I then added sea salt, which is also used to exfoliate the skin.

 Because I hadn’t used a specific exfoliant in a long time, I spent a long time scrubbing my skin, using my hands to spread the coffee mixture over my body. When I was finished, my skin felt about 1,000 times softer, and some small bumps I had on my arms had miraculously disappeared. I also used a tad of the mixture to wash my face, and again, was unbelievably surprised with the results that I got.

In addition to smoother skin, some believe that applying coffee grounds to the skin can actually reduce cellulite by somehow redistributing fat cells. Another claim is that coffee can prevent or even make varicose veins go away for good. I’m not sure about either of these claims, but since making a Coffee Body Scrub isn’t too labor intensive and doesn’t cost any money, it’s always worth a shot, right?


Before I began, I failed to account for a couple of things. First, I used quite a bit of the scrub because it was costing me basically nothing, and the coffee grounds did not wash out of the shower as well as they should have. Second, I am not sure that my coffee to vanilla ratio was enough- I felt like I smelt a little bit more like a burnt coffee bean than a vanilla bean (if you know what I mean.), so I would definitely recommend testing a little bit on your arms before you decide that you want to smell like coffee grounds all day.

I did, however, find this site, which lists several alternative uses for your coffee grounds in the morning. I am a little skeptical about some of the uses, including as a self-tanning mixture, and as a way to lose 5-10 inches “all over your body in an hour”,  but most are seem pretty useful.  

Pic from Creative Commons here.