The Best DIY Sugar Scrub Recipe (with 40+ Aroma Ideas)

Sugar scrubs. They are fantastic to use to exfoliate your skin and despite the high prices, you'll pay at the store and online for pre-made sugar scrubs. Plus ~~many~~ most of them contain harmful ingredients. Keep in mind that what we put on our skin ends up being absorbed into our skin and then into our bloodstream circulating through our bodies. Here is the healthiest DIY sugar scrub recipe with over 40 aromatic ideas featuring essential oils.

Thankfully, you can make them for relatively cheap, and making them yourself means you won't be subjecting your body to artificial fragrances, preservatives, and other additives that can wreak havoc on your body.

Table Of Contents

The Benefits of Using Sugar Scrubs
Homemade Sugar Scrub Recipe for Your Body:
Using Essential Oils In Your Body Scrub Recipe
Add Coffee To Your Homemade Sugar Scrub Recipe
DIY Facial Scrub Recipe
How Do You Use Sugar Scrubs?
How to turn your love of making sugar scrubs into a business
Have you tried making your own sugar scrubs yet?
Articles about the essential oils and blends listed on this page:

The Benefits of Using Sugar Scrubs

Sugar is a natural humectant. This means sugar draws moisture from the environment into your skin, which helps hydrate your skin.

Sugar naturally exfoliates your skin. This means sugar helps buff away dead skin cells, which leaves your skin looking brighter and feeling lighter. (Perfect for rough winter skin.)

Sugar is a natural source of glycolic acid, which penetrates the skin and breaks down the bonds between your skin cells, encouraging new cells to replace old cells, and providing fresher, younger-looking skin.

Sugar body scrubs are made with a seed-based oil that leaves your skin smooth and hydrated.

Sugar scrubs that use essential oils for the scent offer additional wellness support and skin support properties as well. Geranium and frankincense are some of the most popular to use, as they are incredible for supporting the skin and anti-aging.

Homemade Sugar Scrub Recipe for Your Body:

Sugar scrubs couldn't possibly be any easier to make. Bonus: they are some of the most appreciated special occasion gifts. With my family, my homemade body scrubs have been the most popular and now asked for Christmas and birthday gifts.

What you'll need:

4 oz quilted mason jars
1/8 cup Your choice of any cold-pressed seed-based oil (suggestions under the directions)
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar (or coconut/palm sugar)
Essential oils for fragrance (suggestions for blends below)

How to put sugar scrubs together:

In each 4oz jar, add 1/2 cup of granulated sugar.
Add 15-20 drops of essential oil or essential oil blend of your choice to 1/8 cup of your oil.
Pour 1/8 cup of carrier oil (any seed-based oil will work) over the sugar in each jar.
Let sit long enough for the oil to surround all the sugar.
Stir.
Use or gift.

Keep in mind, that the sugar used in this recipe is a larger grain sugar. To make a less aggressive scrub, you can run it a few pulses in a food processor to make the grains smaller, or substitute the sugar for brown sugar or finely ground salt. And of course, you can split the finer ground sugar or salt with the larger grain. The fun part of making your own scrubs is that there are no hard rules!

Choosing the right oil for your sugar scrub

For making exfoliating sugar scrubs, my personal preference is sweet almond oil, grapeseed oil, and Young Living's V6 oil. I feel they provide a deeper level of hydration, and my family has had really good results with it. I also love grapeseed oil because it isn't as oily and absorbs faster.

Using Essential Oils In Your Body Scrub Recipe

I personally choose to use essential oils in my sugar scrubs because they make your sugar scrubs smell amazing and have a whole host of health and skin benefits that we use every day in our family.

** PLEASE NOTE ** Don't be fooled by clever marketing. Not all essential oils are created equally. Make sure you're not wasting your money on fake or altered essential oils (even if they're labeled as “pure essential oil”). Don't miss our explosive report outlining the dirty little secrets of the essential oil industry to ensure you're not wasting your money on brands of oils that legally mislead you through deceitful marketing practices.

Fragrances and perfumes contain a plethora of harmful chemicals that can seriously damage your health in numerous ways. And I fully believe that if you're going to use something that smells nice, you shouldn't have to spend your hard-earned money on products or ingredients that will harm your health… especially when there are healthier alternatives that also double with properties that enhance your mental, physical, and spiritual well-being.

After overcoming a chronic and complicated autoimmune and neurological health crisis, we take chemical exposure very seriously in our family and avoid what we are able to.

Essential oils for your sugar scrub:

For the batch pictured, I used Gentle Baby essential oil blend, Abundance essential oil blend, Release essential oil blend, Stress Away essential oil blend, and Sacred Mountain essential oil blend, sold by Young Living. We made 7 jars of each oil blend, for a total of 35 jars, using 4oz quilted jars.

To use these single blends, I recommend using 15-20 drops of essential oil per 4 oz jar. You may add more as needed, I just recommend using less than 100 drops total. Think less is more when it comes to essential oils.

You can use any essential oil or blend you'd like. Here are a few of our favorites for supporting your skin:

Lemon (reduces dark spots and brightens your skin, helps remove dead skin)
Lavender (anti-aging, reduces wrinkles)
Frankincense (anti-aging, reduces wrinkles)
Peppermint (energizing and cooling)
Sandalwood (regenerates)
Myrrh (especially helpful for dry or cracked skin)
Chamomile (great for irritated skin)
Lemongrass (great for cellulite and varicose veins)
Neroli (relaxing, revives skin cells, reduces wrinkles, and lightens scars)
Geranium (great for overall skin health and appearance)
Grapefruit (grate for cellulite and stretch marks)

DIY Essential Oil Blends, Perfect for Sugar Scrubs

Fresh Spring: 10 drops clary sage essential oil, 5 drops lavender essential oil, 5 drops sandalwood essential oil
Summertime: 15 drops lavender essential oil with 5 drops peppermint essential oil
Fall Spice: 5 drops clove essential oil, 3 drops lemon essential oil, 3 drops cinnamon essential oil, 2 drops Eucalyptus Radiata essential oil, 2 drops rosemary essential oil
Winter-Warming: 15 drops frankincense essential oil, 5 drops myrrh essential oil, 5 drops copaiba essential oil
Brighten Your Day: revitalize
Bedtime Bliss: 5 drops cedarwood essential oil, 5 drops lavender essential oil, 5 drops vetiver essential oil
Lemon Mint: 5 drops peppermint essential oil, 10 drops lemon essential oil
Orange Vanilla: 7 drops orange essential oil, 3 drops vanilla extract
Happy Day: 7 drops each of bergamot and grapefruit essential oils
Lemon-Lavender: 7 drops each of lemon and lavender essential oils
Peppermint Orange: 5 drops peppermint essential oil, 10 drops orange essential oil
Orange-Ginger: 7 drops each of ginger and orange essential oils
Lavender Mint: 5 drops peppermint essential oil, 10 drops lavender essential oil
Sandalwood-Rose: (bonus to add crumbled, dried rose petals)
Coconut-Lime: 10 drops of lime essential oil, while using fractionated coconut oil as your oil base
Vintage Rose: 8 drops rose essential oil, 2 drops lavender essential oil, 2 drops jasmine essential oil
Muscle Soother: 5 drops each of wintergreen essential oil, peppermint essential oil, juniper essential oil, and lemongrass essential oil
Cellulite Helper: 5 drops each of cypress, grapefruit, juniper, and rosemary essential oils
Clear Thinker: 5 drops rosemary essential oil, 10 drops lavender essential oil
Gingerbread: 7 drops ginger essential oil, with 3 drops each of cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg essential oils
Cozy Flannel: 8 drops cardamom essential oil, 3 drops cinnamon essential oil, 3 drops orange essential oil, 2 drops clove essential oil
Ginger-Lime: 10 drops lime essential oil, 7 drops ginger essential oil

Pre-made essential oil blends we especially like for homemade skincare that you don't need to DIY:

Gentle Baby (promotes youthful skin)
Joy (makes you feel loved)
Sensation (makes you feel wanted, loved, and beautiful)
Stress Away (helps you ditch the stress)
Valor (helps you gain more confidence)

Essential Oil Blends perfect for Baby Shower Or Bridal Shower Gifts

Gentle Baby is the perfect essential oil blend for new moms. It has a light floral perfume-type aroma that inspires togetherness and bonding.
Abundance essential oil blend is fantastic for anyone wanting more abundance (of anything… love, finance, hugs…) in their lives.
Release is great for letting go of negative emotions and worries.
Stress Away essential oil blend is a must-have for any parent or new couple. It literally helps melt away the tension from stress.
Sacred Mountain is the perfect essential oil blend for adventures prior to a wedding or prior to a baby coming and dealing with all the associated uneasiness and worries.
Sensation essential oil blend is perfect for new brides, as it helps inspire a higher sense of self-confidence, and self-love, and offers some incredible intimacy fireworks.

Add Coffee To Your Homemade Sugar Scrub Recipe

8 oz glass jar (I love using mason jars)
15 drops of your favorite essential oil
1 cup of your favorite ground coffee (or 1/2 cup coffee and 1/2 cup sugar)
1/2 cup of your favorite oil

How to put brown sugar scrubs together:

In each 4oz jar add 1/2 cup of brown sugar.
Add 15-20 drops of essential oil or essential oil blend of your choice to 1/8 cup of your oil.
Pour 1/8 cup of oil (any seed-based oil will work) over the sugar in each jar.
Let sit long enough for the oil to surround all the sugar.
Stir.
Use or gift.

DIY Facial Scrub Recipe

If you're looking for a gentle face scrub option, use organic brown sugar instead of granulated white sugar. The brown sugar has smaller granules that are kinder to your face.

4 oz quilted mason jars
Your choice of any cold-pressed seed-based oil
1/2 cup Brown Sugar or salt
15-20 drops of Essential oils for fragrance

How to put brown sugar scrubs together:

In each 4oz jar add 1/2 cup of brown sugar.
Add 15-20 drops of essential oil or essential oil blend of your choice to 1/8 cup of your oil.
Pour 1/8 cup of oil (any seed-based oil will work) over the sugar in each jar.
Let sit long enough for the oil to surround all the sugar.
Stir.
Use or gift.

How Do You Use Sugar Scrubs?

Simply scoop out approximately a silver dollar size of sugar scrub, and rub it over your body or face with a circular motion. Use more as needed.

Be sure to store in a cool, dry place out of direct sunlight, in a jar that will tightly seal.

How to turn your love of making sugar scrubs into a business

We've had this question a lot lately and wanted to add some additional information in case you're curious too. “Hey, Nicole! I absolutely love making sugar scrubs. Do you think it is possible to make money selling them?”

My answer: ABSOLUTELY YES!!

There are several ways you can do this, but be sure first to check with your state and local laws to see what regulations you need to abide by both as a business and as someone providing skincare.

There are a variety of ways you can sell your homemade sugar scrubs:

Network with local small businesses like salons, spas, nail salons, and boutiques to sell your sugar scrub products in their shops (best to sell to them for a wholesale price so they can sell at retail)
Sell online through third party sales websites like Etsy, eBay, Facebook, Poshmark, or Amazon
Sell your sugar scrub products at local vendor events, fairs, trade shows, or flea markets
Set up your own website (you can check out my post about starting a website here), with a sales page to market on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, or whichever social media platform you prefer to use (I highly recommend using Pinterest plus a social media platform, and learning SEO)

The biggest key to selling items is to know who you want to sell to (your ideal customer) and market your sugar scrubs to their needs. If you need any other ideas on sourcing quality ingredients or creating a business strategy, please feel welcome to reach out!

Have you tried making your own sugar scrubs yet?

Making these from scratch is quick, easy, and so much fun, especially when you have a company helping. And quite a bit less expensive than purchasing one from a store (not to mention less questionable or harmful ingredients)

Which essential oils did you use (or want to use)?? Let us know in the comments!

And don't forget to check out our other DIY recipes!

If you enjoyed this post, please comment below and share it with your friends and on your favorite Pinterest board to save it for later. Our website team LOVES to hear about your personal experiences and wins using essential oils.

Nicole

Don't miss out on free essential oils, discounts on essential oil-infused household products, and healthy lifestyle coaching! Join our membership today for product discounts, group support, and complimentary coaching. Or take our complimentary online, self-paced introduction to essential oils course.

Looking for more info about essential oils and adopting a healthier lifestyle? Be sure to check out our Healthy Home online course for tips on how to identify and replace common harmful products from your home.