Coffee again.... for External Use Only

Here in sunny southern California, I exercise outdoors everyday.  Walking, hiking and yoga in the sunshine.  My skin is tanner than it has been since I was a little girl, playing outside all day long in the summertime. But with the healthy-looking color comes the unfortunate side effect: dry, dry skin. There is no humidity in the air here, and as a result, I'm rubbing what seems like gallons of moisturizer onto my body to keep from shedding like a snake.

My dear friend, Dr. Margaret Henry, mentioned to me a remedy that she had heard about and tried. Coffee grounds mixed with olive oil, she said, would return my skin to baby softness. Intriguing. Since my husband makes coffee for himself every morning, I asked him to reserve the grounds for my experiment.

I took a wonton soup container full of coffeegrounds into the shower with me, sans oil. I just didn't want to have to slip and slide around the tub, or scrub that oil out when I was through. But I exfoliated my entire self with those coffee grounds, and when I was through, my skin felt miraculously soft! It had never felt better.

The shower, however,  had looked better. It looked as though I washed a muddy horse in there, but a quick spray with the hand-held showerhead cleared everything right up. Bonus: according to the internet, coffeegrounds down the drain help reduce odors and clogs.

Thanks to Margaret, my skin and my shower drain are in the best shape of their lives.