Sunday, November 25, 2007

Make your own sugar scrub

I wouldn't call myself crafty. I am, however, on a perpetual quest for homemade gifts that I would actually like to receive.

When Jeana shared her success with homemade sugar scrub, I knew I'd have to try it.

I'm too afraid to use glass near bathtubs, so I substituted a plastic peanut butter container for Jeana's mason jar.

The only problem? Skippy's imprinted top, unlike the plain Kroger variety. Darn coupons!

I wiped the cap with the only paint I had and cut a magazine photo to cover the logo.

I am usually too cheap to follow recipes the way they are written. I didn't have baby oil, so I substituted vegetable oil. I omitted the aloe altogether:
  • 4 cups sugar
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 4 tsp. imitation vanilla

If you bought sugar, vegetable oil, and imitation vanilla at Walmart, $6 would make about 10 cups (at sixty cents a cup). Holiday-sale-priced baking goods would cut your expenses even further.

The sugar scrub works just as well as Jeana says and smells even better. I dressed the container with a 25-cent spoon for stirring and a recycled ribbon. Gold looks beautiful with this light brown scrub.

A nice gift on its own, this sugar scrub would be even more special when paired with a few plush facecloths from Big Lots or an inexpensive magazine subscription from Ebay.

I think you could also alter the fragrance by adding lemon or almond extract or even leftover coffee grounds.

The peanut butter jar is a little too big and a little too unshapely for my eye, though. Does anyone have suggestions for a smaller plastic container and lid to recycle?

34 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh cool! I have been meaning to go hunting for a homemade facial scrub recipe!! Thanks!

As for a smaller plastic container? Hmmm ... maybe an empty jar of Udder Balm or something like that? A small plastic jar of mayo or something along those lines?

That's all I can really think of. I reuse our glass jars, but not the plastic ones. I'm trying to not use plastic ...

Leslie said...

I really like the little plastic jars that bouillon cubes come in. Maybe those would work?

Bobi Jensen said...

Mmmm, this sounds like a great gift idea. I love it! Thanks for sharing.

Meangoose said...

The local dollar store sometimes has plastic jars that may work. Otherwise, I like to refill $1 body butter jars with lotion as sometimes it's less messy to get your lotion out of a jar than a squeeze bottle.

Alexandra said...

Very Nice! I've linked. What a pretty gift, and I bet it sells delicious.

bonnie: said...

Just so you know baby oil has lots of good minerals in it for your skin. Not sure about vegetable oil...

Tammy and Parker said...

Sugar scrubs are awesome! Any long lasting, shelf stable oil would work.

Grapeseed oil is my personal favorite and can be found in the health food stores.

As someone who had a business making scrubs and other bath and body items I might put a tag on any scrubs I gave as gifts and:

1. List all ingredients.

2. Instruct the user to use that spoon and spoon out what they will be using before they get wet. Wet hands in a homemade scrub bottle can leave water.....and that can cause funky things to grow in your scrub.

As long as they use the spoon and don't add water from wet fingers it should be fine.

Your packaging is gorgeous!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing this!

Chrissy

Rachel said...

I was thinking nutella. Course, it's not frequently on sale, and I don't know if it comes in plastic or glass jars...but the size should be just about perfect.

Thanks for the recipe! I've made this before using olive oil..oh, does it feel goooooood!

Rachel

Cyndi Lewis said...

Bonnie,
Mineral Oil is actually a petroleum by product and isn't the best thing to put on your skin, although it is cheap and therefore used in most commercial lotions and body products. Vegetable oil would be the better subsitute though not the best if you are going the best product possible. Olive oil would be better and then there are tons of other "specialty" oils like grapeseed, jojoba etc. that work even better. Of course Meredith was working for a frugal version and I'd have to say she made the best choice in her situation. Plus who doesn't have vege oil in their kitchen. I was in the homemade body care business for eight years.

Cyndi Lewis said...

I just posted a couple of other body care recipe ideas at my blog for those of you interested. http://modernchristianhomestead.blogspot.com

Christi said...

What a beautiful gift - I agree with "abiding" - I think the larger boullion cube jars (Herb Ox is a great size) would work great.

I love how you packaged it!

Marsha said...

Hmmm...I'm blanking on a plastic jar that would work well. I'm not as hesitant to use glass for this application and might go with a half-pint mason jar. They're made pretty tough and are intended for repeated use. The flat part of the two-part lid can't be reused for canning purposes, of course, but after its canning use it can be well-cleaned and then reused for these kinds of things. They're easy to decorate, too.

Anonymous said...

Have you tried using the canning jar lid on the plastic peanut butter jar? I tried one I had in the kitchen and the lid fit fine...I also took a lid I had in the kitchen that came off a jar of chili..(I had a coupon and the jar of Chili was free, I like the jar so I saved it and painted the lid Martha Stewart green)
I make the sugar scrub and also a salt scrub using coarse grain salt brought in bulk at the health food store. Works well. I use Almond oil. I love the smell. I keep it in the fridge too. (I just like it cold) Roxie

Anonymous said...

This looks so easy!! Thanks so much! I have alot of girlie girls that would love this!!

Anonymous said...

I would use Olive oil. A little more expensive, but far better for your skin than veg. oil. I use olive oil as my facial moisturizer and as a main ingredient for my soaps & other products.

Speaking of which, stop on by my blog to enter a give-away for a free bar of handmade goat milk soap :)

Edi said...

this weekend I visited a Dutch Bakery run by some local Mennonites. They sell bulk spices etc. and usually the spices are in small clear plastic lidded containers (actually they have about 3 different sizes). Anyway the one I was at sold the empty plastic containers for about 30 cents a piece.

Don't know if you have a bulk food store around - but if so they might have small plastic containers that they will sell you.

By the way - I love the idea of the old spoon attached.

Amy said...

I make this same scrub, but I use olive oil as my base. I just buy the Aldi olive oil and it works really well.

As for the container, they have really pretty tin ones at Michael's that would be perfect for this. If you used your coupon, it would be very inexpensive. They look almost like Altoid tins, but the lid isn't hinged.

Recycled containers in that size....maybe a sour cream or small butter tub that is decorated with wrap and tulle?

Anonymous said...

The really small marshmallow creme jars! Only, they usually have bright blue lids. Blech.

Cottonista said...

I love your blog and your ideas! I am using baby food jars for my sugar scrub presents this year. The jars are glass--but as far as glass goes, I don't recall ever breaking one, and I have dropped many in my life, because I'm a pretty klutzy mom. I spray-painted the lids silver, and I'm planning to glue some pretty Christmas-y paper or grosgrain ribbon around the jars, along with a label about proper use and warnings--"shower will be slippery!" I like the baby food jars because 1) I have plenty of them, 2) if I didn't have them, I could cheaply buy them--they're relatively inexpensive vs. other food-filled containers, and most importantly 3) they are TINY and I have LOTS of women on my list! I used freshly grated ginger in my first batch, but I like your idea of vanilla. I see a recipe change in my future....

Jeana said...

Meredith, I love what you've done! After I posted that recipe I discovered the containers I buy chicken base in would be perfect--they're silver plastic. (Tone's brand, from Sam's). I'm saving those for next year.

That's interesting that yours worked without the aloe! The website I consulted said you need some form of soap in there, so I never thought to leave it out. Plus, yours would be fine if a child tasted it.

If you used olive oil you probably would want to use a different scent, other than vanilla. That might make a good salt scrub. Plus, olive oil goes rancid, so you would want to make a small container in the hopes that it would be used quickly.

Unknown said...

Thanks for posting this Meredith. I am definitely giving it a try very soon.

Anonymous said...

Wow!! I must be so COMPLETELY out of the loop!! I don't even know what a sugar scrub is. Sigh....I haven't gotten out much these past few years! I'd like someone to fill me in on how to use them, and maybe a good source for recipes. Meredith, could you post the original recipe? I'd like to see how much/what kind of aloe, etc, and exactly how to make them. Thanks!
Susan

mama k said...

Olive oil or coconut oil would be better for you skin. Coconut oil would not go racid since it has natural antifungal/antibacterial properties. You can get the refined kind pretty cheap at an Asian grocery. Or you could use lavender essential oil as a preservative too.

What about Nutella jars? They would be the perfect, squat size and are plastic. I know that my Shoprite has a generic brand and it is just devine on pretzles.

Lylah Ledner said...

Fabulous! Simply fabulous. Love it...blessings!

Amy said...

What comes to mind for me is Frappicino bottles, but of course they are made of glass. I've seen some really neat altered ones recently and I'm about to try my hand at that sometime this week, so that's why they are on my mind.

DonnaB said...

We did this a couple of years ago and I didn't have any jars so I had to go with some thrift store jars. Since then, I've been saving smaller glass jars. Our recipe was only for hands and we used baby oil from the Dollar Store but we used scents like rose petals and lavendar and food color sparingly. The recipients liked it!

Anonymous said...

I make these and sell them in gift baskets with hand made soaps and bath salts. I use the half pint mason jars. The real dilemma with the scrub is that you need a leak proof lid. I found a tiny plastic jar with a screw on lid at Wal-Mart, however, the oil leaked out. I also can get a cheap coconut oil at Wal-Mart, however for this type of application I usually use olive, sweet almond or grapeseed oil. The bath salts are VERY easy. Just stir in essential oil to the coarse sea salts (I got a 10 lb. bag at an asian market for $5) I also add soap colorant available at your hobby store. I put it in small little plastic boxes with a lid that I found at dollar tree. When wrapped with ribbon they were quite nice. For other homemade spa products try www.teachsoap.com.

Jammie

Jennifer @ Fruit of My Hands said...

You can use honey instead of oil, and essential oils in any scent in place of the vanilla.

Unknown said...

It's nice to try different things once in a while. Never tried any sugar scrub before. Heard they can cause breakouts. Been a fan of bath salts though, but I think trying other stuff won't hurt.

Anonymous said...

i love this idea! i have some baby-shower favors to make and i think i might get some cheapo clear baby bottles and tie ribbon around them for little sugar-scrub gifts! :)

Anonymous said...

Mmmmmm! Yummy! My skin will love this, so will my recipients this holiday season; this is going to be a gift to several women on my list. Thanks!

MJ said...

I've been making sugar scrubs off and on for years, and I always just used vegetable or canola or whatever oil I happened to have handy. Another yummy addition. Sometimes I put in the vanilla and some orange extract. It's like a Dreamsicle!

Anonymous said...

I save my old candle jars that have a tight lid and use them for my scrubs. Just make sure to clean them very well and test the lid before filling them up.