It’s no secret we love our self-care around here, and homemade sugar scrub is one of the easiest natural beauty remedies you can make at home.
Something I love even more? When self-care is easy and inexpensive. This is why I wanted to share one of my favorite homemade products, crafted from just a few simple ingredients. If you liked my Homemade Bath Salts, you’re going to love this homemade sugar scrub.
Homemade sugar scrub can be made in less than five minutes, using just two ingredients (yes, just two!). You can make your own skin-nourishing sugar scrub for full body exfoliation.
These scrubs can be used in the shower or the bath, or as a treatment for rough hands and cracked feet. They also make a great gift!
The Benefits of Sugar Scrubs
Effective Exfoliation – For healthy skin all over, exfoliation is a must about 1-3 times per week.
Sugar naturally contains glycolic acid, which is a wonderful natural exfoliant for your skin. You also get the benefit of manual exfoliation from the sugar crystals, so it’s a double-win.
Exfoliating helps remove the buildup of dry skin, debris, and other impurities that can sit on the surface of your skin. Gently buffing away the top layer of your epidermis, jumpstarts cellular turnover and causes the body to produce new healthy skin cells to replace shed layers.
Budget-Friendly – Name brand scrubs can be incredibly pricey—anywhere from $20-50!
However, making your own sugar scrub is a great way to save a little cash. You can make a batch of my homemade sugar scrub for around $2-$3. Because this recipe contains just two inexpensive ingredients, you can even make multiple batches for the cost of one store-bought scrub.
Moisturizing and Nourishing – Although scrubs are meant to be rinsed away, they still contain deeply nourishing oils, which get infused into the skin as you scrub. The excess moisture will wash off, leaving your skin feeling smooth, soft, and supple.
Naturally Brightening – Because dead skin cells can sometimes accumulate on the surface of the skin and leave it looking dull, scrubs are a very effective way to instantly brighten things up. By using the scrub to remove layers of dullness, you’ll reveal a new layer of healthy glowing skin beneath.
Scrubbing can also help fade dark spots and even out skin tone over time.
Detoxifying – When treating your body to a good scrub, the act of scrubbing itself will help to encourage circulation for a more radiant complexion. It also promotes movement of the lymph system, naturally detoxifying the body and your skin.
Polishes and Leaves Skin Smooth – If you struggle with dry or rough texture, you will love the way your skin feels after using a sugar scrub. The grains of the sugar help buff away any unwanted texture or dry patches, while the rich almond oil penetrates the skin and creates an overall smooth finish.
Because exfoliation helps clear away surface debris, your other products can then be more easily absorbed by the skin, including your favorite lotions, creams, and body oils.
Homemade Sugar Scrub Ingredients
Organic Brown Sugar – Brown sugar makes a wonderful exfoliant due to its light grainy consistency. It’s cost-effective and easy to acquire. Sugar is also antibacterial and naturally high in glycolic acid, which also works to break up debris and dry, dead skin cells on the surface of the skin.
If you don’t have organic brown sugar, any organic white sugar will also work well to provide the texture of your scrub.
Organic Almond Oil – I love to use almond oil in this recipe because it is so good for the skin. Almond oil is nourishing and moisturizing, so it helps to hydrate and rejuvenate dull skin. It is naturally anti-inflammatory, helping to calm irritated skin and leave it glowing.
Good alternative oils to use in homemade sugar scrub would be jojoba oil, olive oil, grapeseed oil, or apricot oil.
Optional: Essential Oils – You can add 5-15 drops of your favorite essential oils to add a beautiful scent to your sugar scrub, though, it smells wonderful on its own. If I add essential oils, I like lavender or eucalyptus. Use what you love and make it your own.
How to Make Homemade Sugar Scrub
Below you’ll find the full recipe, which you can save or print and refer to whenever you need. Typically, to make my sugar scrubs, I like to use a 2:1 ratio of organic brown sugar to organic almond oil. A good amount to mix would be 1/2 cup sugar with 1/4 cup oil and this will last for 2-3 full-body scrubs.
How to Keep Homemade Sugar Scrub Fresh
It is very important to make this recipe in smaller batches in order to ensure it stays fresh and to prevent mold or bacteria from forming. I recommend keeping your batch in a covered glass container. However, glass can be tricky in the shower—no one wants broken glass in the bathroom. Use a BPA-free plastic container if that works better for you.
Print
The Best Homemade Sugar Scrub (Under 5 Minutes!)
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 3/4 cup 1x
Description
These homemade sugar scrubs are so much fun to make and use. If you prefer unscented products, you will find that the mixture of brown sugar and almond oil has little to no fragrance. However, if you want to add an aroma to your scrub, you can do so by adding about 5-15 drops of your favorite essential oil or blend.
P.S. If you make your own batch, please let us know and leave a star rating in the comments, so that other readers in the community can follow along!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup organic brown sugar
- 1/4 cup organic almond oil
- 10–12 drops essential oils to scent (Optional)
Instructions
- In a large glass bowl, mix all of your ingredients together using clean hands or a clean spatula.
- This recipe stores best in glass containers or BPA-free plastic containers, and then stored in a cool, dry place. Small batches work best to prevent molding. If you scrub 1-2 times per week a batch should last you a few weeks.
- Keep it in your shower and enjoy as desired.
Do you need the sugar to be organic or can you use regular sugar?
Hi Julie, I prefer organic sugar for a body scrub because it’s possible that whatever is in the sugar can be absorbed into the skin. That said, it’s really a personal choice whether or not to use organic. ~E
Love this recipe!! Thank you!