DIY Home Remedies

5 Homemade Sugar Scrubs

Following are five sweet sugar scrub formulas that I urge you to try. They’re cheap and easy, free of unnecessary chemicals and preservatives, and clearly pleasure-inducing.

Simple Sugar Scrub Formula

This is the basic formula I use (except I add a hint of ylang ylang pure essential oil). It is as easy as it gets.

It only calls for two ingredients, and the results will gently exfoliate dead skin cells, improve skin clarity and softness, and stimulate your glandular system.

You will glow from top to toe!

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup sugar
Enough cold-pressed oil (olive, wheat germ, peanut, corn, or sunflower) to dampen the mixture

Gently massage this exfoliating scrub all over your body and face before you shower with a light soaping and rinse. Repeat once or twice a month.

Homemade Sugar Scrub

This formula comes courtesy of Larry Pleasant, CEO of The Vermont Soapworks. It has has a few more ingredients than the Simple Sugar Scrub Formula, but is still super simple and incredibly effective.

Aware that sugar cane produces glycolic acid, one of the natural alpha hydroxy acids that exfoliates the skin, I was immediately curious about his recipes.

Ingredients
• 50 percent white cane sugar (note that organic sucanat, while the best choice for food, doesn’t work as well for this recipe)
• 50 percent vegetable glycerin to moisten the sugar (I used avocado oil since I was out of vegetable glycerin and it proved to be a successful substitute)
• Small amounts of aloe vera gel, vitamin C crystals, or anything healing that dissolves in water
• 1 or 2 drops of essential oil if desired (Larry recommends combining orange and lavender)
• Enough ground hibiscus powder for pink color (if desired)

Combine the ingredients in a bowl. Scoop some of the scrub onto your hand and massage gently onto your skin for a minute (the scrub will actually tighten onto your skin like a masque). Leave on for 3 to 4 minutes before rinsing.

Let me warn you in advance that you’ll want to use this sugar scrub on your entire body. I started on my face, returned to my desk, and my skin felt so baby soft that the skin on my neck felt like sandpaper, so I needed to use the sugar scrub there, and on and on.

Banana Body Sugar Scrub

Too many bananas in the fruit bowl? Skip the banana bread and feed your skin instead with this luxuriant yet simple homemade banana body sugar scrub.

Bananas are a natural for body care. Their creamy pulp is luscious and soothing, and works well as a carrier for other ingredients. Banana is nourishing and moisturizing and can be used for gentle exfoliation and skin-tightening.

In this simple formula, bananas and sugar are combined for a wonderfully aromatic and gently exfoliating body scrub.

INGREDIENTS
1 ripe banana
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract or your favorite essential oil (optional)

Mash ingredients together with a fork into a chunky paste. Do not overmix or it will become too watery. If you want a banana scrub for your face, reserve some of the banana and mash it separately without sugar.

In the shower, before turning the water on, slather the sugar mixture and gently massage over your body. For your face, gently massage plain banana there, avoiding the eye area.

Rinse off with warm water.

Brown Sugar Body Polish

This sugar scrub uses spices designed with autumn in mind, but I find something very comforting about the scent of warming spices in the summer. See if it works for you.

This scrub is a true sensory delight for the spice lover. The stimulating aroma subtly lingers long after the sugar has been rinsed away, and is wonderful for men and women alike. Especially seasonal with harvest spices including cinnamon, this is a particularly inviting scrub, providing effective exfoliation and deeply moisturizing smoothness to skin.

Recommended for all skin types except those with acne (use with care on sensitive and environmentally damaged skin).

INGREDIENTS
1 cup organic brown sugar
1 cup white granulated sugar
¾ cup almond, soybeans, hazelnut, or macadamia nut base oil
2 teaspoons cinnamon, powdered
2 teaspoons ginger, powdered
2 teaspoons nutmeg, powdered
40 drops cardamom essential oil

In a medium-sized bowl, combine all ingredients except the essential oil. Using a whisk, blend ingredients thoroughly, making sure to break up any lumps of brown sugar or spice. Add the essential oil drop by drop, blending after each addition.

Spoon into a storage container with a tight-fitting lid.

Massage approximately ¼ to ½ cup of scrub onto pre-moistened skin using circular motions. Rinse.

Gentle Scrub for Fresher Skin

This might be the perfect summer sugar scrub; it’s cooling, gentle, and includes tomatoes and their alpha hydroxy fruit acid.

Summer sun and seaside fun can be damaging to our skin, but even indoor skin can use a little help feeling and looking fresh.

This easy-to-make formula will help to dissolve the “glue” that binds dead skin cells together, allowing them to fall away like autumn leaves, revealing the smooth, soft skin underneath. The secret is fresh alphahydroxy fruit acid–in this case from tomatoes, still in season–and sugar.

Get the skin-freshening exfoliating formula here:

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup granulated sugar
Chopped fresh tomato
2 tablespoons yogurt or sour cream

1. Place the sugar in a small bowl. Add enough fresh chopped tomato to moisten, then add yogurt. Combine and apply to a clean, damp face, using fingertips to gently massage the formula into skin.

2. Allow formula to remain on skin for 10 minutes, then rinse with warm water and pat dry.