DIY Peppermint Sugar Scrub Recipe
This DIY peppermint sugar scrub is one of the quickest, easiest and frugal(ist?) homemade gifts ever. Plus you can make it entirely out of things you probably already have on hand!
We started making our own Christmas gifts a few years ago when money was extra tight and we had to find a way to make ends meet over the holidays. This homemade sugar scrub turned out to be a super frugal gift idea, costing us just pennies per jar to make.
Despite being cheap to make, the end product is a decadent, all-natural bath product that is more than deserving of a spot under the tree at Christmas… Or for a birthday gift… Or a bridal shower… Or just because.
Sugar scrub requires only three ingredients to make: sugar, carrier oil and essential oils.
Technically you could even make an unscented version without essential oils if you were in a pinch (or looking to be SUPER frugal), but personally I think the essential oils are really what make this gift spa-worthy.
Not to mention, it takes under a minute to whip together! So if you’re in need of a great last-minute gift idea (that doesn’t actually seem like you made it at the last minute), this sugar scrub might just be the thing that saves the day!
What is sugar scrub?
In short, a sugar scrub is a bath product that you use to exfoliate your skin during a bath or shower.
Use your hands or a washcloth to apply the sugar scrub and rub it all over your body. Not only will the coarse sugar granules exfoliate your skin, the carrier oil moisturizes your skin and you get the aromatherapy benefits of the essential oils too.
Technically you could just purchase sugar scrub from the store and spend upwards of $20 for a jar… I’ve even seen some name-brand sugar scrubs that retail for more than $50! But making your own homemade sugar scrub is so quick and easy that you’ll wonder why anybody pays the price for store-bought.
Plus, while I can’t say for sure what’s in those commercial body scrubs, I can tell you that this homemade sugar scrub recipe is 100% all-natural and safe for most skin types. (Always do a patch test first just in case).
In fact, I made up a fresh batch of peppermint sugar scrub yesterday and licked the spoon I used to mix it with! While I don’t recommend this (you should always be very careful with ingesting essential oils), it just goes to show that this homemade peppermint sugar scrub recipe is natural enough (and smells good enough) to eat!
How to make peppermint sugar scrub with essential oils
For this recipe, I use plain ol’ white sugar, some sort of carrier oil –olive oil, avocado oil, fractionated coconut oil or sweet almond oil are my favourites, but any liquid carrier oil will work– and some essential oils. In the past I’ve just used peppermint essential oil, but nowadays I like to add in a few drops of vanilla essential oil too. I find it gives it a bit more of a candy cane scent.
You can use any essential oils you like, however. If you’d rather make a sugar scrub with a different scent, some good options are lavender, grapefruit, chamomile or tea tree. I get all of my essential oils from Plant Therapy (whom I highly recommend for both their price and quality), but you can use any essential oils you like.
You can also substitute any type of sugar (brown sugar, organic cane sugar, coconut sugar, etc.) or you could even use salt instead!
As you can see, this is a very flexible recipe. Have fun with it!
To make your sugar scrub, add the sugar, carrier oil and essential oil(s) to a mixing bowl. Mix together until well combined, then transfer to a clean jar.
As always, Mason jars work great. Plus you can reuse your old Mason jar lids.
Add the finishing touch with custom labels
To add a pretty finishing touch to these homemade gifts, I created custom labels to fit both wide-mouth and regular sized Mason jar lids. I’ve got Peppermint Sugar Scrub labels in both sizes, as well as generic sugar scrub labels if you decide to make a different scent or use different essential oils.
You can find and download all of my printable labels from the “Labels” section of my Free Resource Library.
I like to print labels on these brown kraft paper labels, and my downloadable labels are made to fit perfectly on a sheet of these adhesive labels. The labels fit perfectly on a wide-mouth Mason jar lid, or can easily be cut to size for a regular jar.
Of course, you can always print on standard printer paper and glue the labels on with a glue stick. Just fill in the scent on the label and stick it on, then pop the lid on and you’re done! You can literally make this gift in just a couple minutes from start to finish if you have everything on hand… Which you most likely do!
So whether you’re looking for a last-minute holiday gift for someone else or you’re in need of a little extra pampering yourself, this sugar scrub will do the trick.
Pair it with homemade bath salts and homemade whipped body butter for the ultimate spa-at-home package. Maybe even add a homemade scented candle too!
Looking for another EASY last-minute gift??
There are only a few days left until Christmas. Do you have your list checked off yet?
For a limited time, when you subscribe to our very own digital magazine, Modern Homesteading Magazine, you’ll get a FREE one-year subscription to gift to someone you love. Plus, you’ll both get instant unlimited access to our entire library of past issues too!
The past few years have taught us that we should always be prepared for the unexpected, and that the less reliant we are on others to provide for us, the better off we’ll be no matter what happens in this crazy world. Modern Homesteading Magazine honours this spirit of self-reliance and aims to teach and inspire others to live a more homemade, homegrown, sustainable lifestyle, whether they live in a condo in the city or on a sprawling farm in the country.
Give the gift of self-sufficiency this Christmas! Subscribe now and get a one-year subscription to gift, absolutely FREE!!!
All-Natural Peppermint Sugar Scrub
Ingredients
- 1 cup white sugar
- ½ cup liquid carrier oil (olive, avocado, sweet almond...)
- 10-15 drops peppermint essential oil
- 5 drops of vanilla essential oil (optional)
Instructions
- Mix sugar and carrier oil in a bowl until well combined. Adjust the amount of oil or sugar depending on your personal preferences. I find that this scrub can dry out a bit so I always add a little extra oil to mine to make it a bit more liquid.
- Add 10-15 drops of peppermint essential oil (depending on how strong you want the scent to be). Add 5 drops vanilla essential oil, if using. Mix well to combine.
- Spoon into a clean jar. This recipe should fill one half pint jar and leave just a little extra to sample yourself;)
- Print off the downloadable custom labels from my free resource library and stick them to the lid of your jar.
- Gift to someone special or enjoy the next time you take a shower or bath!
CATEGORIES
11 Comments
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
- 13 Steps to the Simple Life Your Great-Grandparents Knew – Melissa K. Norris - […] a latte from a café. You can even make your own frugal and all-natural beauty products like this sugar…
Submit a Comment
ABOUT ANNA
You Might Also Like
How to Use a Rocket Mass Heater to Cook & Heat Off-Grid
* This article contains affiliate links. For more information, please read my Affiliate Disclosure. Learn how to heat and cook off-grid with a rocket mass heater, and why this is an even more energy-efficient solution than a traditional wood stove! This is a...
My Favourite Things – 2022 Edition (aka. The Modern Homesteader’s Christmas Wish List)
* This article contains affiliate links. For more information, please read my Affiliate Disclosure. Every year around this time, I compile a list of my favourite things: Things that I love, use or covet for my own homestead, and things that I know other modern...
If you haven't checked-in lately, the last week or so, we've sorta been in the trenches of homesteading and life over here. While some make it out to be glamorous all the time there are high's and low's just as there are in life.
With all that's going on, I've been making a point to find my way back into the garden, which is not only needed to feed my family, but also for some personal spiritual nourishment.
I just want to take a minute to love on my favorite veggie today, Broccoli! 🥦 It's one we plant over-and-over and I'm leaning into its abundance this year.
Not only is it one of my favorites, but we've also found it's one of the easiest veggies to grow so if you haven't tried it or added it to your garden yet, there's no better time than the present.
I've got an entire post on How to Grow Broccoli from Seed here: https://thehouseandhomestead.com/how-to-grow-broccoli-from-seed/ if you're looking for any tips or tricks.
In my "How to" post you'll also find a link to one of my favorite recipes for Cream of Broccoli Leaf Soup!
Can I be honest?
Sometimes you've gotta take a step back and look at the life you've created for yourself and ask yourself "is this truly what I want?"
The other day I shared about losing two of our rabbits this week to Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease. The stress of losing them comes amidst a backdrop of heightened tensions around here...
From work pressures for Ryan to me trying to run a business and handle a very fussy, colicky 2-month-old (and a very busy 6-year-old), to things ramping up in the garden again and all of the other million things that need to get done (including multiple loads of laundry a day thanks to more spit up than I ever knew a baby was capable of producing), I finally felt like I was ready to crack this week.
Oh, not to mention we're doing this all on next to no sleep thanks again to our sweet boy.
I know this is all part of what we signed up for, but when it all happens at once, it can feel completely overwhelming. And when I'm completely overwhelmed and stressed out, that's exactly when I get sick too, which is exactly what happened a couple days ago.
Then yesterday (Saturday) I woke up feeling awful and decided to scroll Instagam as I nursed Noah. I saw other mothers with 6, 8 or even 10 kids somehow keeping it all together getting three square meals on the table every day while managing to keep a tidy kitchen and find time to Instagram about it.
I saw other homestead bloggers reaching new levels of success in their business that I can only dream about right now. And as I sat there in bed, covered in spit up with a ravenous baby nursing off me as I tried to console him, I felt sad for myself in that moment that I couldn't live up to the folks I was comparing myself to.
Later in the day I had to work, so Ryan took the kids to the beach and I stayed home. And I felt sad once again; Sad that I was missing out on yet another weekend with my family because I had created a life where I now have to work weekends just to keep up.
But the silver lining was that the work I had to do yesterday forced me out into the garden, and it was probably the most soothing thing I could have done for my soul.
(Continued in comments…)
Sometime homesteading looks like homegrown vegetables and freshly laid eggs and sourdough rising on the counter.
And sometimes it looks like tears when you have to bury one of your animals 😔
Ryan went out to feed the bunnies yesterday and Flopsy -our little black and white bunny- was laying dead in the pen. There was no blood, other than a little bit by her mouth. Seems like something internal happened. We’re not sure what.
Evelyn helped lay her to rest yesterday. It was a hard weekend for her. First she stayed with grandma and went with her to put her sick, 17-year-old cat down. Then she came home to the news that Flopsy was gone.
But I believe she’s more resilient because of it. We talked to her about how death is a part of all life, and allowed her to go through the stages of grief and process it however she felt she needed to.
Homesteading isn’t always sunshine and rainbows and snuggly barnyard animals. Homesteading teaches us hard lessons and helps us to become stronger and more resilient by challenging us daily.
Yesterday was a sad, hard day. But I’m glad we got to experience it together as a family.
A few years ago, Forbes published an article titled Dear Homesteaders, Self-Reliance is a Delusion.
Let’s unpack this…
What does self-reliant really mean? Is it actually achievable, or just a pipe dream?
Over on the blog today I'm unpacking all of these thoughts, and the things I do know for sure as a homesteader, mother and member of a strong and self-reliant community.
But I really want to hear from you! Post in the comments below what self-reliance means in modern times, or what steps you're taking to be more self-reliant.
Read the full article here: https://thehouseandhomestead.com/what-is-self-reliance/ or at the link in my bio
The spring issue of Modern Homesteading Magazine is out now!
It’s that time again...
The time when things begin ramping up in the garden, the barnyard and the home.
From trays of seedlings to baskets full of eggs, spring is in the air and I don’t know about you, but I’m here for it!
It’s also time for a brand new issue of Modern Homesteading Magazine, and boy do we have a good one for you…
In the spring issue, we cover a diverse range of topics from how to trade your skills for land to the realities of going off-grid, from seed-starting to what to do with too many eggs, and from the simple joys of a homemade herbal cocktail to the sometimes heavy emotional toll of raising meat animals.
In this issue, you’ll find:
🌱 What it really takes to live off-grid, with Tammy Trayer of Trayer Wilderness
🌱How you can trade your skills for a piece of land with the SKIP program from the folks at Permies.com
🌱 Everything you need to know about seed-starting to set your garden up for success and abundance!
🌱 What to do with too many eggs! Author Mimi Dvorak-Smith shares 800+ ways to use ‘em up when your hens start laying.
🌱 How to make your own healthier cocktails with homemade botanical syrups
🌱 Dealing with the emotional toll of raising meat animals on the homestead
Visit modernhomesteadingmagazine.com to login to the library and read the spring issue (current subscribers) or subscribe for just $19.99/year to read this issue and gain instant access to our entire library of past issues!
#modernhomesteading #homesteading #selfsufficiency #springonthehomestead
If you grow plants from seed (or if you want to), you’re likely going to want to start a few of them indoors. And if you start your seeds indoors, something that will make your life so much easier (and make your seedlings bigger, stronger and healthier) is an indoor growing stand with grow lights.
I've got a post I'm sharing with you today that will walk you through choosing the best type of lighting for whatever you're growing and then a step-by-step guide of how to make your grow stand, along with product recommendations if you want to make yours just like mine!
Ours can accommodate up to about 200 seedlings, but you can make yours as small or big as needed:)
You can check out the post here https://thehouseandhomestead.com/how-to-build-indoor-growing-stand/ or at the link in my bio.
Let me know in the comments what you're growing new, or what you're most excited about in your planting journey this year!
Theme of the Month: ADIDAS
No, not the textiles brand, it stands for: 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝗜 𝗗𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗦𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 because it's officially March and we are in full swing around here!
Before you just start throwing seeds in the ground or into red solo cups on your windowsill, it’s important to take some time to read your seed packets and get to know each crop’s specific needs.
Understanding the information on a seed packet is super important when it comes to gardening, especially if you want your plants to get a strong, healthy start and produce an abundance of food for you. And what gardener doesn’t want that?!
Set yourself up for success and take a minute to read through my 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥 & 𝘜𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘗𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘎𝘶𝘪𝘥𝘦, before your weekend gardening plans begin.
Grab the guide link in my bio, or get it here: https://thehouseandhomestead.com/how-to-read-seed-packets/
Happy Planting:) ✨
This all-natural homemade toothpaste recipe is made with just four simple ingredients that are good for both your body and your bank account!
I’m on a personal mission to replace every commercially-made, toxic product in our home with homemade, all-natural alternatives. One-by-one, I’m getting closer every day.
The benefit of making all-natural toothpaste at home is avoiding the unhealthy additives found in most commercial toothpastes by substituting ingredients with proven benefits for oral health.
So if you’re also on a mission to rid your own home of toxic products and replace them with healthy, all-natural versions that actually work, then I highly recommend whipping up a batch of this all-natural homemade toothpaste.
Wishing you health, wealth and squeaky clean teeth… The all-natural way;)
You can find the recipe here https://thehouseandhomestead.com/all-natural-homemade-toothpaste-recipe/ or at the link in my bio.
It's that time of year 🌱 seed starting season!
I know you can feel it too. The transition from winter to spring is truly a special time. It’s when life begins again. It’s the very first taste of all that lies ahead.
So before you go just planting any and every seed you can get your hands on, I've got a list of 8 Things to Think About Before Starting Seeds, to get you off on the right food!
I will walk you through, planning, sowing, containers, watering, lighting and more, and if that's not enough you can download my Seed Starting Cheat Sheet at the end to lay it all out.
I hope you're as excited as I am for the beautiful Spring season that lies ahead:)
You can find the list here https://thehouseandhomestead.com/before-starting-seeds/ or at the link in my bio.
What are you planting this year? Anything new you've never tried before? Share with me in the comments!
Ever thought about growing mushrooms at home??
A great EASY way to get started is with one of these mushroom grow kits from @northsporemushrooms
All you need to do is cut open the pack, spray with a little water (the kits even come with a handy little spray bottle), and then sit back and watch the magic happen!
And seriously, watching mushrooms goes does feel a little like magic because they grow so fast you can practically see them growing, no time lapse necessary!
The mushrooms are ready for harvest in just a few days. No gardening experience or land necessary! Even a newbie homesteader in an apartment in the city can grow these babies!
This is a great way to dip your tow into the much bigger world of mushroom growing and harvesting, and to try out a few new varieties that you probably won’t find anywhere else.
I grew Pink Oyster Mushrooms, Lion’s Mane and Blue Oyster Mushrooms (all pictured here). I’ll be using the Pink Oyster Mushrooms in a rigatoni pasta for dinner tonight. I turned the Lion’s Mane into Lion’s Mane “crab cakes” and the Blue Oyster Mushrooms are delicious as part of a stir fry or sautéed in butter and spooned over sourdough toast.
If this reel intrigues you, you can grab your own mushroom grow kit (along with time of other mushroom related products, including fruiting blocks, outdoor log kits, medicinal tinctures, capsules and more) at northspore.com. Use code HOUSEANDHOMESTEAD for 10% off your order!
And if you haven’t yet, be sure to check out my interview with Louis Giller of North Spore Mushrooms in the winter issue of Modern Homesteading Magazine. You can also find my recipe for Lion’s Mane “Crab Cakes,” along with other delicious mushroom recipes and an in-depth feature on medicinal mushrooms including Lion’s Mane, Reishi, Chaga and Cordyceps in the winter issue.
Visit modernhomesteadingmagazine.com to subscribe or login to the library and read the current issue.
Mushrooms really are pure magic, don’t ya think? 🍄 ✨
#mushrooms #mushroomhead #shrooming #eatyourshrooms #mushroomsaremagic #modernhomesteading #urbanhomesteading #homegrown
If you’ve been following me for any length of time, it probably comes as no surprise that I don’t exactly love relying on the grocery store to provide for me and my family, and that sentiment is only getting stronger as time goes on.
Between supply chain issues, rising food costs and the plethora of unhealthy ingredients, chemicals and GMO foods on grocery store shelves, I’d rather toil in the garden and kitchen all year to grow and preserve my own food than have to rely 100% on grocery stores to provide for me.
But that being said, we are in no way 100% self-sufficient so when I do go to the grocery story, I haveI have some ingredient guidelines in mind that I use when shopping for my family.
Check out my shopping tips, what I do and don't buy, and where and who I like to buy from here at this link https://thehouseandhomestead.com/healthy-grocery-shopping-tips/ or at the link in my bio.
Usually by late February/early March, right about nowish, I’ve pretty much had enough of winter and the thought of enjoying a tropical fruit platter and a cold adult beverage on a sunny beach in *insert tropical vacation destination here* seems to be just about all I can think about...
But with a newborn at home that's about the last thing on our to-do list right now! So this year, I will be visiting my tropical escape via my favorite Low-Sugar Mango Jam recipe.
If you do have tropical vacation plans, have a piña colada for me 🙏🏼, but if you don't then this recipe may be just what you need to "escape" for a few minutes into that tropical paradise:) 🥭🍹
Check out the recipe here https://thehouseandhomestead.com/low-sugar-mango-jam-recipe/ or at the link in my bio.
Let me know how the recipe works for you, and if add in any additional fruits to change it up!
I made this recipe and it starts to separate in just a few seconds. I followed instructions. Is this common? What can be done? Do you just not want questions. I corrected my typo error on email address then you said I had already submitted the same thing. How do I get an answer?this is not spam.
Hi Marie,
Comments are moderated which means I need to manually approve them before they get posted, which is why it took a couple hours for you to see your comments on here. I have a newborn and a young daughter. Weeknights are busy around here with dinner, bath time and getting ready for school the next day so apologies that you didn’t get an instant reply, but I’m sure you understand I’m a regular human being behind this site providing free content and recipes and I’m not able to instantly address every comment.
As for the sugar scrub, this separation is totally normal. I don’t find that it really separates, just that the oil-soaked sugar is heavier so it sinks to the bottom and a layer of oil rises to the top. This is actually a good thing as it acts as a protective layer so hopefully the sugar doesn’t start to solidify from oxidation.
With natural homemade products like these, you can’t expect they will be exactly like storebought. And even so I have purchased natural sugar scrubs from companies before that have the same oil layer at the top so it’s nothing to worry about. It’s also easy enough to mix the oil into the rest of the sugar scrub with your hand whenever you dip into it to use it. It won’t affect its efficacy at all.
I made this recipe and it starts to separate in just a few seconds. I followed instructions. Is this common? What can be done?
I made some of this scrub with avocado oil and peppermint essential oil just as the recipe instructs. It separates and in just a few seconds there is oil standing on the top. I am very disappointed. Would you have a suggestion to remedy this?
Can you use brown suegra of you don’t have white?
I’m not sure…because of the moisture content in brown sugar and the way it dries out quickly, it may produce quite a different result. That being said…I’ve never tried it myself!
How long will this last. want to make some ahead for Christmas.
I would make this closer to Christmas. I do find that as the oil absorbs into the sugar, it can begin to dry out a bit so I would just keep the ingredients on hand and mix it up a week or 2 before. It only takes a couple minutes to mix it if you have everything else ready. You can even get your jars ready now with the labels and everything. Then it should last on the shelf for several weeks, but I like to gift it “fresh” so I tend to mix mine up close to the time when I’m going to be gifting it:)
I Love all sugar scrubs Thanks for the recipe Merry Christmas
Just quickly put a peppermint sugar scrub together for first time. Wow, super easy. In the bit left for me I have also added tea tree oil and rosemary to replicate a commercially produced scrub I used to use. Tried a bit and super impressed, hands very clean, feel soft and smell wonderful.
Ideal for getting hands clean after a busy day outdoors
Busy Busy Busy..run run Rudolf.. !!