Christmas Happy #2 - Sugar Body Scrubs

I did a lot of experimenting with this homemade gift. There are dozens of ways to make a sugar scub! A lot of them used ingredients that weren't easy to find, a lot used ingredients that required them to be refrigerated (which would make them useless to me, as I'd never remember to take them out and use them). But there were a few basic similarities and ingredients that served a purpose, so I made up a few different varieties and used them until I decided what I liked. Those were the ones I made as gifts.

First, even the brown sugar scrub includes half brown and half white sugar. The brown sugar is more abrasive than white, so the white keeps it from being too abrasive. I ended up using safflower oil in these, although olive oil works too. Safflower is cheaper and has no smell or color to interfere. You can use coconut oil or a variety of others, but this worked for me. I also bought a small bottle of Vitamin E oil from the vitamin section at Walmart and used a little in each one. While the safflower oil also works as a moisturizer, the Vitamin E oil also works as a preservative, which keeps these from having to be stored in the fridge! I also used honey in both because it also provides moisturizing, acts as a preservative, and I just like the hint of honey smell. And the lemon juice in the last one is also great the skin.

Here's the recipes I used.

Brown Sugar Scrub (Approx. 1 cup or 1/2 pint jar)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
3 Tbsp safflower oil
1 Tbsp vitamin E oil
1 Tbsp honey


Lemon Sugar Scrub (Makes more than 2 cups, closer to three 1/2 pint jars)
2 cups white sugar
1/3 cup safflower oil
2 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsp lemon juice

For each recipe, combine in a bowl until well mixed, then store in air tight container. I used 1/2 pint canning jars in the "gift jar" collection.

I wanted to fancy up the jars a bit, but didn't have the materials I needed (fabric, fancier ribbon, wooden sticks for stirring) on hand and didn't have the opportunity to hike across town to the nearest craft store to get some, so I made do with what I had. The tags for the scrubs:

The liquid in your scrub will separate. Just stir before use! To exfoliate dry areas or face, massage about a tablespoon onto skin and rinse well with warm water. Cleanse or wash as normal. Pat Dry. Moisturize with your favorite lotion.

For a dryer scrub, add 1Tbsp of white sugar and stir. To make a wetter scrub, add 1tsp at a time of either oil (olive, safflower, vitamin E, coconut) or honey.