Tutorial by Carrie.
Do you have people that you want to give a little something to, or you’re looking for a gift to supplement a gift basket for Christmas? These homemade body scrubs will serve perfectly as that “little something”. I want to give to my aunts, cousins, the babysitter, and my ladies Bible Study.
Best of all, making homemade body scrub involves ingredients you already have on hand or that you can easily find in the store. In fact, just last week, I saw Peppermint Extract for around $2 a bottle at Aldi. You can find orange, lemon, and peppermint extracts in your baking aisle at the grocery. And you probably already have vanilla, sugar, salt, and oil on hand.
Ready to get scrubbing? Here are four of my favorite recipes:
Lavender Vanilla Salt Scrub
- 1/4 c mineral oil (I prefer to use Sweet Almond Oil, mainly because its odor blends well with everything, and it’s in body scrubs you can find at Bath & Body Works or the Body Shop. However, you can also use Mineral Oil because it’s less expensive than Sweet Almond Oil.)
- 1/2 cup sea salt (I add about 1/8 cup more because I like my scrub a little more grainy.)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 15 drops Lavender essential oil (I bought this at The Body Shop.)
1. Mix the sea salt and mineral oil together until all the salt is incorporated.
2. Add the vanilla extract and essential oils. Stir them into the salt/oil mixture until they are thoroughly incorporated.
3. Add a few drops of blue food coloring to pretty it up. So far, I haven’t had any trouble with the food coloring staining my skin or my shower.
4. Store in an airtight container. Use 2-3 times a week in the shower.
Brown Sugar and Honey Body Scrub
- 2 Tablespoon honey
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup mineral oil (see note in the recipe above)
Mix all the ingredients together very thoroughly. This scrub will be much thicker than the salt scrub above. I can tell you, my skin is literally glowing and beautiful after using this scrub. Use it 2-3 times a week, and make sure you rinse off really well. Note: This will make your shower floor a bit sticky so make sure you rinse it well.
Peppermint Foot Scrub
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup mineral oil
- 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 10-12 drops of lavender essential oil (optional)
- A drop of green food coloring
1. Mix the sugar and mineral oil together.
2. Add the peppermint extract, essential oil (optional), and the food coloring. Mix until the food coloring is completely incorporated.
Orange Vanilla Sugar Scrub
- 1/2 teaspoon orange extract
- 1/3 cup sweet almond oil
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1. Mix the sugar and almond oil together.
2. Add the orange and vanilla extracts and stir until they are incorporated.
Carrie is married to her best friend, and high school sweetheart. Together they have three children. Her life is fabulous because everything she has is a gift from God.
It seems like it smells somewhat of alcohol. I know that the extracts are done with alcohol I just didn’t realize that they would smell so strong. Anyone have any suggestions to make this better.
I recently made a batch with olive oil, sugar, and lemon essential oil but I wasn’t happy with the overall scent. I will try using the sweet almond oil for the next batch. I used jars I had collected during the year and also the 8oz. wide mouth Ball jars from Wal-Mart. I think they were 4/$7. I was hoping to find them at ACMoore or Michaels and use a 50% off coupon but they didn’t have any. I cut circles of scrapbook paper and put them on the top of the lids with a label and tied a ribbon around the rim. Very happy with the way they turned out – now just have to perfect the scent!
I get my mason/canning jars at thrift stores…usually around 29 cents!!!
PS- they also have very cute little metal carriers that hold two little jars!
Our Wal-Mart has some left over canning jars, in the clearance isle. they are made by Better Homes and Garden. They are different size canning jars with red gingham lids. They also have matching hanging os sticky gift tags!
thank you!!! I dont have much to spend for gifts this year, and this will be PERFECT!!! Cant wait to make!
I love that you posted these recipes. However, I would encourage your readers to avoid using mineral oil. I know that it is good for people with nut allergies but the rest of us should stay away from it.
Mineral Oil is derived when crude oil polymers are refined. It is a byproduct that is not useful for any thing so they sell it REALLY cheap to body products companies. They throw it in their lotions and call it good for you. Unfortunately, the mineral oils act like a plastic barrier on your skin preventing anything good (like all those wonderful additives such as shea butter and healthy oils) from helping your skin and prevent your body’s natural detoxification process. It aggravates skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis. It also contributes heavily to the nasty ring around the bath tub.
Olive oil is the closest oil to your skin’s natural ph. I always recommend people use that instead. Sweet Almond oil is also wonderful. Jojoba is another great oil but it’s becoming more and more expensive.
OK, now I want to do a nice foot scrub. Time to pull out the ingredients and make another batch!
Yes, that is so true! I used mineral oil for the first few I made, just to see how making my own scrub would work, and because I have it on hand. I now use only grapeseed oil or sweet almond oil. If you use olive oil, use the absolutely lightest you can find…..for odor reasons AND for dye. It’ll make your scrub look kind of “dirty”, so I add a very small amount of food coloring in my peppermint one and in the orange one. It doesn’t stain or leave a color on my skin or in the shower. I just add a teeney bit for color purposes.
Where would you find the mineral oil and almond oil in the store? Dose anyone know if Nicole got us the link to to the foot scrub? I am so excited I can’t wait to try and make a gift basket with the scrubs some candles and a few other girlie things.
The mineral oil is where the laxatives are, and the sweet almond or grapeseed oils are with the other cooking oils. You can really use ANY type of oil. It might just depend on your budget or what you have on hand as to what type of oil you choose. I prefer grapeseed and sweet almond oils, but i don’t always have them on hand like I do mineral oil.
Walmart has the small wide mouth mason jars that would work perfect for something like this. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ball-8-oz-Collection-Jars-4pk/16213253
Has anyone ever made a recipe like this with coconut oil? The brand we have is a semi-solid at room temperature and liquifies around 75 degrees or so. I bought a couple of big jars of it on Amazon when it was on sale and thought I’d use more of it by now. 😉
Thanks so much for these recipes! They would make great teacher gifts too!
Yes, I browsed your ideas from last year and I’m making something similar this year. While I was in Indiana, I stocked up on Indiana Glass…got the jars for 50 cents. Woot!
Carrie, any idea how well these fare if they’re not used up right away? Love the recipes, thanks so much!
As long as you don’t get water into the container they should last a few months.
I made some foot scrub this summer, and it lasted for longer than a month. See, my “problem” is, once I make them, I want to use them everyday! My Gingerbread scent I just made has lasted for about 3 weeks, and I use it every other day. They should last for a few months. Just give it a little stir with your finger before using. Since I usually make them for gifts, I mix them up and package them about 3 days before giving them. I don’t like have a “back stock” of scrubs hanging out in my gift closet 🙂
Any tips on where to find the airtight containers? Thanks for the great ideas!
I found some at the Dollar Tree. They were in the storage/kitchen section, towards the back of my store on an end cap. They are glass jars, with a rubber seal and a hinged lid. The ones in the picture are air tight, and I got them at Michaels. You can also use a canning jar/lid. I just hot glue the ring to the lid and it works fine.
Last year I ran into the trouble of no containers to put the scrub in.
This year I have been saving all year long any pretty container that got empty thru the year and now I have a number of gifts and I solved the container problem for the scrub.
I’m always tempted to make these but I get stuck on the packaging — it seems expensive to buy any sort of glass jars. Can I ask where you got yours?
I had this problem when I made some cranberry liquor a few years ago. I ended up using mason jars. I think it would be pretty to put it in small wide mouth mason jars with a sticker and some ribbon.
I got mine at Michael’s, but in hindsight they were expensive. Last week, I stopped at the Dollar Tree, and found some that I liked better, and AND They were only a dollar! They were in the storage/kitchen section at mine, on an end cap. They are glass, and have a rubber seal and a hinged lid. I was SO excited! I think they’ll seal better, and “travel” better in gift packaging. I hope you find some!
Thanks, I’ll check there.
I was JUST at Hobby Lobby and they have all their glassware on sale for 50% off…They had little glass containers with little wooden spoons for $1.99-2.99 depending on the size so you could score some glass containers for under a buck there!
-Meg
I am so excited. Something like this was the last part of my “make” gift list that I was planning on finding a recipe for. Yeah. One more thing off my list to organize. Now just to grab what I don’t already have from the store.
Do you think epsom salts would work as well as the sea salts?
I guess you could try it. I would try a small batch first. I think they might be a little too coarse, but you could always try.
Maybe try pulsing them in the food processor for a couple seconds?
Love that I can make these with stuff I have at home already.
I hope I can still find this link after Christmas because I do not have time now to make these, but they look great! Wow! …her life is fabulous because everything is a gift from God! That statement has really stopped me in my tracks…what a outlook, come sunshine or rain! Thank you for posting this!
Thanks, Laura. That is really sweet of you. I’ll put a link to this post on my blog under “Crafts and Gifts”. I also have a few more recipes to share, which I’ll be doing later this month.
That sentence really stood out to me too! Awesome lens to view life through.=)
I have a bunch of mason jars I might just put some scrub in those and tie a piece of pretty fabric with a pretty ribbon on top with a tag telling what it is =)
Thank you so much for posting this! It is a great idea and saves a lot of money! 🙂
just wish i would’ve seen this like a couple weeks ago to order the lavender essential oil bc with shipping it’d be cutting it pretty close for christmas but i love lavender too bad i don’t have a body shop around here.. but i saw u can get 35% off your purchase on the body shop….
Have you a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s? They might have the lavendar oil in the section where you can buy items to make soap.
Waterbeds and stuff may have it too, the have alot of essential oils
Beth,
Check your local health food stores, even if it’s not a national chain. I found essential oils at Sprouts (regional chain) and our not chain health food store.
I was in Michaels the other day and they have single bottles as well as a group of bottles. All with differnt oils, and it seems like they werent that much, about $5-$8 . I have been planning on doing this for months’, for all the girls in my family. I have found several jars at different thrift stores, bought some scrap material at walmart, some ribbon and that straw looking wrap for bows and what not. There are so many ways I could get more creative, walking around Michaels gave me so many ideas. Unfortunately, my pockets are very bare, but maybe next year. Although I like the idea of the candle and CD with it. I plan on doing 3 jars each, was hoping to find some cheap pretty baskets to put them in, but no luck yet….hmmm maybe the Dollar Tree
I’d imagine presentation helps a bit too….I smiled, thinking of giving my wife something like this in a Tupperware container.
Something that’s both practical AND edible…is a great idea. But I may not bust out the graham crackers with this one. Tempting, though.
That made me laugh out loud.
Great idea! Where does one buy Sweet Almond Oil? This is perfect for my aunt and cousin… thanks for the idea!
I found it at Giant Eagle, but Grapeseed oil (which I found at Kroger), works, too.
definitely trying the peppermint foot scrub!!
I am loving this idea! Thanks for sharing.
I love this idea- this is actually something I planned on doing. My christmas gift baskets will include the scrub, a Spa type CD that I will make from the computer, and a candle!!!
I want to be added to your gift list!! Sounds heavenly!!
I make a homemade foot soak every year for friends that I found on Martha Stewart years ago. If intersested I can share 🙂
please share NIcole.
I would be interested in having the recipe, Nicole.
I would love the recipe too!!!
Can you use baby oil instead of mineral/almond oil?
I’ve heard that you can. But, I think it would be really slippery. I did find some Grapeseed Oil at Kroger, and I”m using that, too.