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Nourishing Homemade Sugar Scrub

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This Nourishing Homemade Sugar Scrub is the perfect addition to your natural beauty routine. So easy to make, extra nourishing for your skin, you’ll love it and you’ll love the savings over store-bought scrubs.

homemade sugar scrub in glass jar.

Today I’m sharing one of my favorite DIY personal care products of all time–a Homemade Sugar Scrub. Unlike most store-bought scrubs, it has no chemical additives and it of course will save you lots of money over store-bought scrubs.

In order to keep as many toxins out of our homes and off of our bodies, I try to make as many homemade personal care items as possible.

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My First Sugar Scrub

If you’re anything like me, dry hands and feet (and dry skin in general) is a problem for you.

I’d never tried a scrub until I was at an antique car show where a woman was selling beauty products and offering free scrub demonstrations.

Hesitatingly, I tried the scrub, feeling skeptical (I’m pretty skeptical about a lot of things….see my post on Are Essential Oils a Scam? ~ A Skeptic Looks at Thieves Oil for an example).

I wondered what the big deal was.

Well, I tried it and really loved how my hands felt and looked after rubbing that scrub all over my hands and rinsing it off.  Smooth and revitalized and younger-looking.

However, I didn’t like the price or the ingredients.

I looked online to verify what the “incriminating ingredients” were, and though the exact product I tried isn’t there any longer, get a look at the list on one of their comparable products:

Ingredients in Store Bought Sugar Scrub

  • butylene glycol
  • sodium methyl cocoyl taurate
  • polyacrylamide
  • C13-14 Isoparaffin
  • Laureth-7
  • Fragrance (who knows what’s really in that, but it almost always means artificial fragrance :-?)
  • DMDM Hydantoin
  • Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate

Sheesh.

And the price was $16.00 (marked down from $18.00) for only 6 oz.

Ingredients In Other Less-Toxic Scrubs

To be fair, there are other less toxic scrubs on the market, but I couldn’t find ingredients for many of them online.

Here are the ingredients for one that doesn’t have quite as scary of a list:

Glycerin
Sugar
Silica
Fragrance – I’ve written about “fragrance” in personal care products here – too many concerns to use on my body.
Polysorbate 20
Oryza Sativa (Rice) Bran Wax
Sea Salt
Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil
Yellow 6 (CI 15985)
Yellow 5 (CI 19140) – these are both artificial colors that have been linked to different concerns

There had to be a cheaper and less toxic way to get the job done!

Fast forward several years.

One day, a sweet friend from church blessed me with a handmade sugar scrub and I loved it–and realized that I just had to learn how to make these myself.

How Much Can You Save Making DIY Sugar Scrubs?

Here’s an outline of the money savings, based on prices at the time this post was originally published:

Granulated sugar is $2.68 for 5 lb at Aldi (that’s $.54/lb)

Grapeseed oil is $6.75/ltr at the buying club I run out of my home.

My Cost:

Sugar: $.27

Grapeseed Oil: $1.59

Essential Oils: approximately $.14, depending on the oil chosen

(I didn’t include the container because you can reuse it unless it’s for a gift.)

Compared to the retail price of the “packaged version” at $18 for 6 oz., you can make a homemade sugar scrub for only $2.00!

No questionable ingredients. No wasteful packaging.

AND much cheaper than having a scrub done in a spa.

What Oil Is Best to Use in a Sugar Scrub?

Really you can use any oil you like, but I personally like using cold pressed, organic oils for their nourishing properties. Olive oil is especially moisturizing and can possibly help to reduce the appearance of wrinkles and stretch marks. Friends of mine have touted their family’s use of olive oil for ages for this reason.

This Cold Pressed Organic Olive Oil is a good option for this purpose.

homemade sugar scrub in mason jar in gray blue tray.

What Essential Oils Are Best for a Sugar Scrub?

You can really use any essential oil or blend that you like. You can even do fun combinations like those in this list of Christmas Essential Oil Blends for creative gifting options.

Sugar scrub with a popsicle stick in a small glass jar placed on top of a white cloth

Homemade Sugar Scrub

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Makes: 1.5 cups

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Combine all ingredients in a bowl.
  • Stir to combine.
  • Store in a glass container (essential oils will damage the plastic and metals change the properties of the oils).

Notes

1.  You can, of course, use other granulated sweeteners.  I just chose white sugar since I am not eating it and it’s the least expensive.
2.  Any oil will work, but some oils have a stronger smell.  Choosing a good quality oil is important since some of it will remain on your skin.
3.  For essentials oils, there are so many wonderful scents and healing properties to choose from! Lavender, citrus (grapefruit, lemon, lime, orange), lemongrass, peppermint, ginger…..  I would for sure choose a high quality essential oil, though it will cost more, since you are leaving this on your skin as well.  Please check out my series on Which Essential Oils Company is Best?
 

To Use

1.  Take a small amount of the scrub with a small spoon.
2.  Rub all over your hands and fingertips (or feet, or wherever you’d like extra softness) for about 1 minute.
3.  Let sit on your hands for 3-4 minutes (enjoy this time to rest in your day :-)!)
4.  Rinse off and pat dry with a towel.
Tried this recipe?Mention @wholenewmom or tag #wholenewmom!

More Frugal DIY Body Care Recipes

If you’re interested in more DIY personal care options, these might be of interest.

This homemade sugar scrub makes a fabulous gift!

I’ve even included it in my Easy Mother’s Day Gifts roundup along with other great ideas for Mom.

Don’t Feel Like DIYing?

I’m all for saving money, but I’m also fine splurging sometimes, and this scrub is simply the best I’ve found so far.

It’s Beautycounter’s Lemongrass Body Polish.

One of my fellow BC consultants says it’s the best one out there (and she’s a self described scrub junkie)–she thinks due to the perfect ratio of scrub to oil. And I agree.

The scent is also amazing. I sincerely can’t stop smelling it and truly would like to reverse engineer it if I can.

Try it. You’ll love it.

Have you ever used sugar scrubs?

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139 Comments

  2. This worked awesome! I used a $2.99 “Something Fabulous Fragrance from Hobby Lobby (like only 24 drops!), Canola Oil & White Sugar. Came out great! Just had to make sure my hands were extra dry after and now they’re so soft! Thanks!

    Reply

  3. Omg I just finished making the scrub and I used organic honey
    instead of the essential oil and my hands are BEAUTIFUL!!!
    your recipe is fabulous!!!!

    Reply

    1. I am not sure – I have some on the counter and some in the fridge – I am thinking the oil has a limited shelf life. I read on one site to use w/in a month. I am thinking for me I will smell it and discard if the oils smells rancid.

      Reply

  7. Hi, Adrienne! What a fun and wonderful recipe gift idea! Just shared it with my FB friends! Blessings, Kelly

    Reply

  8. This is awesome and a great idea for gifts! Thanks for sharing. Stopping by from Chef-in-Training, Tuesday Talent Show 🙂

    Reply

  10. I have recently made a similar scrub recipe, but I used organic coconut oil because that is what I had on hand. I think the jojoba would of been better. Not quite as oily. I did add one more thing though. Coffee. I read somewhere that using a scrub with coffee in it will help eliminate cellulite. The caffeine in coffee supposedly helps to reduce cellulite. I only mixed a small portion to try so I haven’t used it enough to see if it really works.

    Have you ever heard of coffee in a scrub helping to reduce cellulite?

    Thanks for sharing your recipe.

    Reply

    1. Haven’t heard of that. I would think that it’s on the skin for so short of a time that it wouldn’t work but I don’t know for sure.

      Reply

  11. Hi
    I have just made this, with granulated sugar, olive oil and lavender oil. I have used i on my hands and they now feel great the only problem i had with it was after i added the lavender it started popping, like custard does when you have it on the hob.Any idea why it did this?

    Reply

    1. Hmm…what brand of essential oil are you using? And I don’t understand what you mean by custard on the hob. Can you explain more please?

      Reply

  13. Love it! Sounds so good and it’s just so simple! And I have one of those jars sitting around right now! 🙂

    Reply

  15. I love the silky smooth feeling after a sugar scrub, too! Thanks for sharing with Healthy 2Day Wednesday; come back next Wednesday to see if you were featured!

    Reply

  16. Thank you for posting this! I totally had to pin it. 🙂 I was JUST thinking the other day about looking for sugar scrub recipes because my skin could use a little extra nourishment.

    Reply

  17. This sounds wonderful! I made a scrub once but it didn’t turn out like I hoped it would.
    Thanks for linking up to this week’s Catch a Glimpse party! I will be featuring this tomorrow. 🙂

    Reply

    1. Thank you so much, Allison! I tried a few as well and this one really turned out nicely. I am going to work on some different fragrances later and probably different sweeteners as well. Thanks again!

      Reply

  19. This sounds so much nicer than commercial sugar scrubs, and you can customise it to suit you with your favourite essential oils. What a lovely, frugal, better for you idea!

    Reply