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Homemade Body Scrub 101

The following 101, on mixing up your own homemade body scrub, comes from Farm Aid staffer and HOMEGROWN member Toni Tiemann. Thanks so much, Toni, and please keep the good ideas fermenting!

It’s that time of year again, when friends, families, coworkers, and all kinds of hyphenates in between come together for the holidays—often for a gift exchange of some sort. That could be a Secret Santa setup or a Yankee Swap, but no matter what method of giving your groups chooses, the biggest challenge is finding the most competitive (and inexpensive) gift. Here at Farm Aid, there’s an added—and particularly tricky—catch: Everything has to be homemade. How was I ever going to top last year’s etched glasses? Three ingredients. That’s how.

With the HOMEGROWN spirit in mind, I found this I Heart Naptime recipe for a coconut lemon sugar scrub that takes only ten minutes and three ingredients to make. I’ll give you only one guess what those three ingredients are. I paired this scrub with some homemade bath bombs and voila! Crafty, eh?

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

» 2½ cups sugar

» ¼ cup coconut oil

» Juice and zest of 1 lemon

WHAT TO DO

1. Heat the coconut oil in the microwave for 30 seconds or until the oil melts.

2. Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and stir until well blended. Add extra sugar or oil if necessary to get the consistency you want. This is all preference, but I stuck to the suggested amounts and was pleased with the outcome.

3. That’s all, folks! You’ve got yourself a coconut lemon scrub in fewer than ten minutes for less than $10. Happy gifting!

TWO TIPS

One thing to be careful of: If you leave the scrub out unsealed, it’ll dry out. Throw it in an airtight jar with a homemade label and you’ve got the perfect stocking stuffer. It’ll make your giftee feel as fresh as it smells.

A similar project, in case you (or your giftee) gets hooked on this scrub: When my face is extra dry in the winter months, sometimes I’ll whip up a quick face scrub to use a few times a week before bed. I just combine a splash of whole milk with a small amount of granulated sugar and ta da! The sugar works as an exfoliator while the milk moisturizes your skin. Basically, it’s everything your skin needs for the winter, right from your pantry.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION!

Got a question for Toni or another scrub-friendly ingredient combo to recommend? Post it below and keep the conversation rolling! You might also be interested in 101s on making your own bath bombs, cold-process soap, beeswax candles, tinctures, toothpaste, sunscreen, and laundry detergent, and you can always find more things to make, craft, plant, grow, cook, preserve, and scrub in the HOMEGROWN 101 library.

ALL PHOTOS: TONI