Sugar Scrubs!

Those wonderfully smelling sugars that seriously make me consider eating them; though I don’t, I promise.

I was looking at all of those lovely fruity scrubs and wanted every single one. Honestly, it’s hard to know what other ingredients are used in them because for some reason they weren’t labelled and I was not risking Hives again.

If this sounds familiar to you too, keep reading. I made my own indulgent sugar scrub with minimal ingredients and wanted to share so others could enjoy the sweet feeling of pampering (LOL puns).

A brief history

When I said “brief” I didn’t realise that would mean a four hour rabbit hole of search results. I condensed it down a bit and put the list of articles I read down below for you to look through if you’d like.

Despite the fact that scrubs seem like a modern trend, some of the earliest known uses of body scrubs is recorded to be as far back as 10,000 – 4000 BC in Ancient Egypt. The Ancient Egyptians were pioneers in personal care and the use of cosmetics in every day life. From regular skincare routines and even the earliest recorded use of pigments and dyes as make up.

Its believed that they’d use abrasives such as pumice stones or sand to create body scrubs to improve skin condition and remove dead skin before hydrating and caring for the skin, through the use of oils and creams made from animal fats.

As wonderful as this is, skincare is not exclusive to Ancient Egypt as cultures around the world have been using practices and products for centuries, such as:

Traditional Hindu practices in India (3000 BC)
The Shang Dynasty in China (1760 BC)
Ancient Greece (750 BC)
Ancient Rome (500 BC)
North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and South Asia (300 – 400 AD)

Naturally, there are many other cultures that have not been mentioned in my embarrassingly short list above. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t any more, only that I hadn’t found them in the time limit I had to finish this article.

I think the biggest shock for me when I was doing this research was that the West; such as parts of Europe, the UK and the US were among the later areas to introduce the concept of regular skincare. To be honest, the concept of personal hygiene at this time was pretty minimal. With hot baths being a luxury and a lot of work to maintain, it’s no wonder that that particular period of British history is known for being pretty rank.

The official introduction to the cosmetic industry as we recognise it today wasn’t officially introduced until the 1920s. Yikes!

Onwards to our scrub!

Now because variety is the spice of life, I wanted to give you a selection of essential oils to use in your sugar scrub. Strictly speaking most essential oils are safe to use as they will be diluted with a carrier oil in the scrub. My reason for picking a specific list of essential oils is because not all of them are recommended to use on your lips.

For this scrub, you can pick one (or more if you’re feeling adventurous) of these essential oils. However many essential oils you pick, you must not use more than ten (10) drops total of them in your scrub. You can pick from:

Peppermint
Lavender
Sweet Orange
Mandarin
Vanilla
Lime

You Ready? Let’s go!

What you will need:

A clean, sterile jar big enough for your sugar scrub

1 cup of granulated sugar (of your choice)

¼ cup of fractionated coconut oil

10 drops of your chosen essential oil(s)

A mixing bowl to, you know, mix it in.

A big spoon, naturally.

What to do:

In your mixing bowl, add the sugar and the fractionated coconut oil.

Using your big spoon, mix until the oil and sugar is mixed evenly. You can add a little bit more or less oil depending on how crumbly you like your scrub.

Add the ten drops of essential oil.

Mix it again.

Pack the sugar mix into the jar and put the lid on

decorate the jar if you want.

So there you are, a lovely feeling sugar scrub without complicated instructions. I used Fractionated Coconut oil because it is partial soluble in water, which means it tends to wash off slightly easier and leaves less of a slimy residue int he bath. It may not disappear completely, so still be careful if using your scrub as a body scrub.

If I feel like making it feel extra luxurious, I like to empty a vanilla pod into the sugar as well. I don’t think it really does much cosmetically, but it smells amazing and I have to remember not to eat it! Seriously, don’t eat it though. Just because something smells yummy doesn’t make it food.

Unfortunately.

I understand that my brief history was exactly that – very brief. And I get that a lot of information was based around western and popular ancient cultures that we hear about all the time. If anyone has any more information about cultural skincare practices, please let me know. I’d love to read them and reach out to learn more about it. I love learning about world history anyway, so learning about how regular people around the world lived their daily lives and looked after their own well being would be amazing.

As usual, if you have any questions or recipes you want to share, let me know in the comments below, and I’ll see you soon

Thanks for reading.