Not-a-Food Recipe: K2's Happy Hands Sugar Scrub

 

Every year my Girls Night Out (GNO) crew has a Summer Birthday Bash to celebrate all of our birthdays (three June babies, three July babies, no wonder we all get along so well).  And every year, I like to make homemade gifts, everyone gets the same thing only personalized to their individual tastes or personalities.

This year I decided to make sugar scrub.  There's a steak place down in Charleston we always go to for dessert when we're out and about in the market area and in their ladies room they always have a big bowl of sugar scrub.  Spoon a little out, rub it on your hands, rinse, pat dry...voila! baby soft skin.  It's WUNderful.

So I did a little research and found that you can make it yourself...and it's super easy!  The hardest part is tracking down essential oils, but once you have them it takes only minutes to throw a batch together.  Everyone seems to have their own variation on the recipe so I checked out a handful from here and there and came up with my own concoction formula.

K2's Happy Hands Sugar Scrub
Note -- this is NOT, repeat NOT an edible recipe, please don't eat it, no matter how tempting it is to try!

1-1/2 cups sugar (white, raw, and/or brown)
1/2 cup light olive oil
1/2 tsp. vitamin E oil
10-12 drops essential oil
1/2 tsp. dried herbs or spices (optional)

Measure, mix, moosh together, package prettily...annnnnnd done.

Recipe fills two (2) 10 oz. jam jars.

NOTES 

K2H2S2 has a shelf-life of 2 months, so make it and use it right away.

You can buy vitamin E in liquid form, in some places you may find a lanolin/vitamin E blend.  I had a bottle of vitamin E capsules at home that I popped open and squeezed the oil out of (4 capsules = 1/2 tsp.).  Vitamin E is available anywhere you can buy over the counter vitamins.

You can find essential oils at some drug stores, grocery stores or specialty food shops.  Depending on where you go and what scent you choose, be prepared to pay between $3-$25 per bottle.  I found my sweet almond oil at Rite Aid for $3.19, and my lime and tangerine oils at Whole Foods for $4.99 and $5.99, respectively.

Here are some sugar/scent variations I made following the recipe above.

Tango Lime = white sugar + 6 drops lime essential oil + 6 drops tangerine essential oil

Sweet Almond = raw sugar + sweet almond oil

Cinnamon Brown Sugar = brown sugar + cinnamon + 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

You can use extract in lieu of essential oil, but because its alcohol-based, the scent won't linger like it does with essential oils and it will not have the same softening effect that the essential oil does.  If you do try it, I would use it sparingly.

For packaging, I went to Michael's and found my screw lid jars, but you can find the same at Walmart.  In fact, Walmart has some Ball wide mouth half-pint (8 oz.) mason jars with screw on lids which are perfect packaging for the sugar scrub. I also found some plastic long-handled miniature spoons at Party City which are great for scooping out of the taller jars.  Or small coffee spoons would do the trick too.

Have fun experimenting!