Homemade Sugar Scrub

So does anyone else look at their personal products ingredients and get a little freaked out? I can't pronounce half of them, much less know what they are. I just keep thinking "does my skin actually need this?!?!". I mean, I have acne, I try to watch what I put on my body and especially on my face. Which is why I also dislike wearing makeup, not only do I believe that it is used as an unhealthy crutch for women, it is just plain bad for your skin. Why do you think so many aestheticians tell you to WASH OFF YOUR MAKEUP BEFORE BED. Seriously, they are practically yelling at you to do it.

(not that I, or most other women, do)

So after getting worried about all these ingredient I didn't know and having a growing awareness that half of them were bad for my skin, I decided to do... nothing.

You didn't see that coming, did ya?

No really, I didn't do anything. I'm not an organic vegan type who wants to live off the earth and wear only what God gave me. It just isn't my style.

But I did start on one little journey- last night I made some homemade sugar scrubs. Here's the thing, I LOVE sugar scrubs. They do amazing things for my skin and I feel totally all polished up (and smell delightful) after using them. But they are not cheap. Well, the good kind isn't ;)   About $12 will buy you a 12oz tube which will last you around 5 scrubbings. For $15, you can make your own and have around 40 scrubbings. Quite a bit of savings, yes?

So here we go, my The Ultimately Easy Way To Homemade Sugar Scrubs

Here is the recipe:

3 Tablespoons of Olive Oil (I used extra virgin but I have heard you could use Jojoba Oil, Coconut Oil or even Baby Oil. I wanted my scrub to be entirely edible so I went with Olive Oil)

2 Tablespoons of Honey (this is up to you, I liked the antibacterial nature of honey for my acne and skin tone issues)

1/2 Cup of Sugar (Cane sugar or regular brown sugar, I experimented with both. I've been told organic sugar is a no-no for this)

So I went shopping and came home with these items:

(left to right)

Pure Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Fischer's Honey

Domino Dark Brown Sugar
Domino Sugar

Cinnamon Extract

Mint Extract

And then I splurged on these, a lovely glass container to put my scrub in whilst it is sitting in my shower and some plastic craft jars so I could share my concotions with a few friends.

Yellow is my signature color and of course I wanted my containers to look nice when I was done, so I HAD to invest in some pretty ribbon to wrap around the top





So here we go, I swear I spent more time getting all my brand new products open than I did actually making my scrub =)

Oh, before you attempt to do anything remotely crafty or with cooking tools I suggest you find yourself a decent music playlist for those inevitable "what the crap did I just do?!?!" moments

Trust me, if you are getting down to Bite The Dust, slipping up won't hardly matter nearly as much if all you had in your mind was the echoing failure you just committed.

I also suggest grabbing your refreshing beverage of choice to glug as you are creating genius.

Can you tell I try to turn projects into some kind of weird minuscule vacation?

Tools you need.

~A bowl to mix in

~A spoon or spatula to mix it with (my Mom would be so proud if she knew I used this Pampered Chef spatula for the first time since I got it at Christmas)

~1/2 measuring cup and a tablespoon

In general, I was taught to eyeball everything but because this is new to me, I went the old fashioned route and actually measured my ingredients.

I'm sorry Grandma!!




 So measure out 1/2 cup of sugar, pour in 3 tablespoons of Olive Oil, then add 2 tablespoons of honey. Word to the wise (and me), this stuff will s.l.o.w.l.y seep into your sugar so you will be tempted to think "this looks a bit dry, more oil/honey!"- DON'T FALL FOR IT   Those measurements are perfect, just mix it well and then let it sit for a minute or two.

I was too impatient and started adding more left and right and I ended up with a bit too soupy a mixture that I had to fix.

At this point, feel free to add in any various smell ingredients. I chose mint and cinnamon extract as those are two fragrences I adore. They were out of lemon at Walmart :(
You could add in vanilla extract, orange extract, coffee grounds or really any kind of spice you like.

This is what my white sugar/honey/oil with mint extract looked like after mixing:

This is what the brown sugar/honey/oil with cinnamon extract looked like:

Now, toward the end, I got a bit crazy and mixed my sugars together. Sue me.

Frankly, I wasn't sure if I wanted to just eat it at this point or go ahead and do it right. I resisted the temptation and added in my honey/oil. Turns out, mixing sugars is a fine idea but really the only change is the color.

So this is what I ended up with for my personal stash. Mixing sugars with various flavors was fun for my small containers for my friends but I just threw all of mine in one jar to use. I figure the only thing setting them apart is color and smell at this point so I didn't mind mixing it all up together.

I was feeling pretty smug about my success with these sugar scrubs (I mean, I hadn't tried them yet but I figured they sure look pretty)

So I went ahead and got crazy. I made up a sugar/honey scrub for my face. I found (and by "found" I mean I dug out of my trash can) an old powder makeup containter and cleaned it out. Then I put some sugar and honey in it. I stirred and added more honey or more sugar until I got exactly what I wanted. I used this that night and it was AM.AZ.ING on my skin. I felt weird at first to scrub my face with admittedly painful sugar crystals but then the feeling of glorious CLEAN set it. It was totally worth a bit of harsh rubbing to feel how smooth and clean my skin felt after using this concoction.

So there you have it, a way too wordy lesson on sugar scrubs. But wait! There's more.

After all that work.... alright, after spending 15 minutes doing this, I decided one cute ribbon wasn't enough for my handiwork. So I dug out (literally) all my old scrapbooking supplies and finished up the look by adding some ribbon around the sides and a note on the top of the jar. Behold my Martha Stewart moment:

(I put the plain jar with the fancy one side-by-side so you could see how much nicer it looks all dressed up)

So there is the true end. Honestly, I feel so good about doing this that I am thinking about making my next project be homemade lipgloss.

Oh! And as a bonus, try using your olive oil as a makeup remover or moisturizer. You will be pleasantly surprised if you put a light coat on your face at night and wakeup to smooth skin the next morning.

(as a side note- I did use the sugar scrub and it felt awesome! Just like *maybe even a bit better* than my $12 professional salon scrub)