Pomegranate Body Scrub

Winter is not the best season for fruits. But pomegranate saves the day when I get sick of eating clementines. After all, pomegranate is more than just the burst of sweet-tart juice but it's also full of vitamin C and potassium, as well as polyphenols, the same cancer-fighting and heart-healthy antioxidants found in red wine.

So why not make a body scrub with it? After all, it's good for the inside, so it's good for the outside, right?

Here is a simple body scrub I made with, you know, not-so-fresh looking pomegranate.

*Note: if you want to use fresh fruits for my Kiwi scrub, Avocado scrub, as well as Pomegranate scrub, by all means, that is the best way to get all the nutrients. I only mention the part about using "past their prime" fruits is because I think it's better than chucking them into a compost.

You can reduce the recipe to the portion you like but I like using up the whole fruit - what are you going to do with the rest, especially if they are not fresh to begin with anyway?

Pomegranate Body Scrub

Ingredients

1 Whole Pomegranate with skin and all
1 ¼ C Organic Olive Oil
1 C Raw almonds - skinned
1 Lemon wedge - peeled
½ C Sugar

Instruction
Cut the pomegranate in quarters, skin and all. Skin has a lot more antioxidants than even the seeds or the juice so you're going to use the whole fruit. Use a blender to blend all the ingredients except sugar. Blend until the mixture is a little coarse. You can add more olive oil as you blend. The mixture will be thick and you may have to use a scraper to scrape the sides and loosen up the mixture so the blades don't get stuck.

Pour the mixture into a bowl and mix in the sugar.

Store the scrub in a glass jar with a tight seal in the refrigerator. The scrub will change its pretty pink to a not-so-pretty brownish color as time goes by (one thing I don't' like about using fruits in scrubs) but the nutrients are still intact so don't let the color scare you. Refrigerated pomegranate scrub will last about a week.

I use a smaller jar for my bathroom and refill it when needed.

Let your winter skin glow!

[CC Images notahipster and empressofblandings via Flickr]