Sugar Scrubs

Rainy Sunday afternoons usually mean that my two oldest boys spend their day in their room playing games together, my husband lays on the couch watching whatever game may be on TV and my youngest and I spend the day searching for something fun to do. 

Today we decided that we would make a Sugar Scrub.  I've seen random recipes around and all are easy enough.

2 1/2 cups of sugar

1 cup of olive oil

4 tablespoons of lemon juice

So we made up a batch and quickly ran up to the bath tub to give it a try on our feet.  The two of us rolled up our jeans and sat on the edge of the tub and began scrubbing.

Now, while the scrub does a good job exfoliating and the oil does leave your skin very soft, it smells terribly of olive oil and leaves an oil slick in your bath tub that can only be cleaned up with Dawn.  So I am not really in love with this recipe, even though it looks so cute in the jar.

My conclusion, olive oil is not a good oil for sugar scrubs.  It is too strong of a smelling oil and perhaps a little too heavy that it leaves a thick residue.

I did however have some sweet almond oil from some homemade lip balm experiments a few months ago so we decided to try our luck with another recipe.

1 cup of white sugar

1 cup of brown sugar

1 cup of sweet almond oil

vanilla

ground cloves

ground cinnamon

ground allspice

The second recipe was a little better.  It was a concoction of what we found in the kitchen that we thought would smell good together.  The almond oil is not as strong as the olive oil.  We used about a half tablespoon each of the cloves, allspice, cinnamon and a few drops of vanilla.

Our final try was not a sugar scrub.  We used epsom salt rather than sugar because the essential oils I had were eucalyptus and it just didn't sound like it belonged with sugar.  And essential oils rather than spices from the kitchen because I could still smell the almond oil although it is no where near as strong as the olive oil.

1 cup epsom salt

1/2 cup of sweet almond oil

a few drops of essential oils

All three recipes do a great job of exfoliating and leave your skin very soft and are easy to make.  But if you are looking for a spa like treatment with a pretty scent, do not use olive oil as many recipes suggest.