Homemade Holiday Sugar Scrub

You all have seen the recipes for homemade sugar scrubs on Pinterest, right?  I, personally, loved the idea and decided to make some as Christmas gifts.  They turned out SO great that I had to share the recipes I used with you.  :)
This is a very exciting time because it is our first Christmas as a married couple!  :)  We are both doing everything possible to make it as special as possible.  One problem we have run in to (and resolved) has been the issue of money.  Like most newlyweds (I think), we are not particularly wealthy.  In no way are we rolling in dough.  We might occasionally roll around in quarters...but never dollars.  ;)  His family's Christmas tradition is easy.  They play Chinese Christmas, meaning we only have to buy one gift.

My family's Christmas tradition is pretty much the opposite.  I was raised by a family with money.  Whatever.  It does not mean that I have money.  Because I do not.  But, my family gives gift after gift after gift after gift.  AND there are 14 of them.  As you can see, it's not very fair to Mr. Robinson.  :(  1 gift for the Robinson's and 14 gifts for the {X.insert maiden name here.X} family.  Whoa.  It is not fair.  So, I decided to work on making gifts for as many people as possible in hopes of saving us money!

Source: maybematilda.com via Kristina on Pinterest

There are so many possibilities, but in efforts of saving money, I decided to go with things that were cheap or already in our home.

Things I Used:
mason jars
chalk paint
chalkboard liquid chalk markers (so amazing)
granulated sugar
brown sugar
grape-seed oil (just because it was on sale...any kind of oil works!)
peppermint extract
vanilla extract
Spices:  Ginger, Cinnamon, All Spice, Ground Clove
Cinnamon Sticks
Peppermints or Candy Canes (I used both!)
Bath & Bodyworks Vanilla Body Lotion & Body Spray (this was a bad idea, but I'll explain)
A computer & printer
Avery Print-To-The-Edge Labels

Hm.  That seems like a long and complicated list.  But it's really not!

I made three different "flavors" of Sugar Scrub.  Originally, that was not the plan.  I was going to just make them all Vanilla because that's what I had!  Come to find out, it takes a LOT of Vanilla Extract to make a whole mason jar full of oil and sugar smell strongly of Vanilla.  So..I poked around the house for a bit, admittedly, I was pouting.  I ended up coming across some Bath & Body Works Vanilla Body Spray & Lotion!  Perfect!  I went back into the kitchen lab to finish up!  I poured a little bit of the body spray into the mason jars.  I thought I'd add some lotion to make it soft.

This was all dumb.  Do not do it.  It made the scrubs smell very strongly of alcohol.  Luckily, for whatever reason, I spared some of this.  They ended up with some peppermint extract.  I don't remember that happening, but that's what they smelled like!  I just went with it.

I thought that maybe if I let the mixtures sit for a bit, they wouldn't smell so bad?  So I moved them back into the craft room where their lids were painted with black chalkboard paint.  When I opened them about two weeks later and discovered how HORRIBLE they all smelled, I came up with these recipes to fix it:  However, you can pretend like you didn't ruin the scrubs and it will still turn out great.  I've tried it.  :)

Gingerbread Homemade Holiday Sugar Scrub
1.  Fill up a mason jar about half way with granulated sugar.
2.  Fill up the rest of the space in the mason jar with grape-seed oil, or the oil of your choice.  Be sure not to fill it alllllll the way up to the top.  You don't want it to leak!
3.  Add a pinch of brown sugar for color & that lovely smell and texture.  I love brown sugar.
4.  Add Spices:  Ginger, cinnamon, all spice, and touch of ground cloves.

5.  Place a cinnamon stick in the jar.  It will remain their probably forever.
6.  Add a little tiny bit of vanilla extract!  Stir it allll up!
7.  Screw the lid back on and, ta-da!



Candy Cane Homemade Holiday Sugar Scrub

1.  Fill up a mason jar about half way with granulated sugar.
2.  Fill up the rest of the space in the mason jar with grape-seed oil, or the oil of your choice.  Be sure not to fill it alllllll the way up to the top.  You don't want it to leak!
3.  Break a candy cane into several pieces (about 2 inches long, each) and drop into the mixture.
4.  Off to the side, crunch up peppermints.  I used my mortar and pestle.  Once the peppermints are more like a fine powder, dump them into the mixture!  Mix it alllllll up!
5.  Screw the lid back on and, ta-da!



Vanilla Spice Homemade Holiday Sugar Scrub

1.  Fill up a mason jar about half way with granulated sugar.
2.  Fill up the rest of the space in the mason jar with grape-seed oil, or the oil of your choice.  Be sure not to fill it alllllll the way up to the top.  You don't want it to leak!
3.  Add a pinch of brown sugar for color & that lovely smell and texture.  I love brown sugar.
4.  Add a few dashes of All Spice!
5.  Place a cinnamon stick in the jar.  It will remain their probably forever.
6.  Add a little tiny bit of vanilla extract!  Stir it allllll up!
7.  Screw the lid back on and, ta-da!

I then used the liquid chalk marker to indicate the FLAVOR on the lid.  :D
I put a label on the side that said "Homemade Holiday Sugar Scrub."

So Easy!

I'd love to hear about your DIY projects or Christmas gifts.  If you have something wonderful to share, e-mail me at MyNewWifeLife@aol.com and we can talk about featuring you!