This DIY peppermint sugar scrub is one of the quickest, easiest and frugal(ist?) homemade Christmas gifts ever. Plus you can make it entirely out of things you probably already have on hand and save time during the busiest time of year!
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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 holiday season. This homemade sugar scrub turned out to be a super frugal and great 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.
Homemade sugar scrub requires only three basic ingredients to make: white sugar, a 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 DIY 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 DIY gift idea (that doesn’t actually seem like you made it at the last minute), this homemade sugar scrub might just be the thing that saves the day (and your dry skin during the cold winter months!)
What is sugar scrub?
In short, a sugar scrub is a bath product that you use as a gentle exfoliant on 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 in a circular motion. Not only will the coarse sugar granules exfoliate your skin, the carrier oil moisturizes dry 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 such a quick and simple thing to do, 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 DIY 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 little bit of vanilla essential oil too. I find it gives the body scrub a scent almost like candy canes!
You can use any essential oils you like, however. If you’d rather make a sugar scrub with a different essential oil scents, 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 your preferred type of sugar, carrier oil and essential oil(s) to a mixing bowl. Mix together until well combined, then transfer to a clean glass jar.
As always, Mason jars work great. Plus, you can reuse the old lids from your mason jars, too.
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 lids of Mason jars. I have a free printable label for the 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 oil blends.
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 great gift in just a couple minutes from start to finish if you have 3 simple ingredients on hand… Which you most likely do!
So whether you’re looking for last-minute Christmas gifts for someone else or you’re in need of a little at-home spa day yourself, this DIY peppermint 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!
All-Natural Peppermint Sugar Scrub
Ingredients
- 1 cup white sugar (or other type of 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 body 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 clean jar (Mason jars work great). 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 for personal use in your showers or hot baths!
Related Posts:
- DIY Christmas Room Sprays with Essential Oils
- Homemade Whipped Body Butter Recipe
- DIY Essential Oil Rollerballs for Fall & Winter
- DIY Bath Salts with Essential Oils
- DIY Cookie Cutter Birdseed Ornaments
- The Modern Homesteader’s Handmade Christmas Gift Guide
- DIY Hair Pomade with Rosemary Essential Oil
- DIY Dandelion Salve for Healing
This sounds amazing, and it is so easy to make! Sounds very invigorating as well.
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.. !!