Handmade sugar scrub cubes exfoliate skin
Summer quickly is progressing, but there’s still plenty of time to enjoy the great outdoors. And if you’re showing some skin, keep it smooth and exfoliated with handmade sugar scrub cubes that take only minutes to whip up.
Sure, combining sugar, oil and fragrance in a jar would be easier, but taking a bit more time to mold the mixture into solid cubes or bars means the result is easier to use. No scooping a messy scrub from a slippery jar in the shower. Simply grab a cube and rub.
I tested three tutorials I found online that all use melt-and-pour soap base to bind various ingredients. Though they differed slightly, the basic steps were the same: Melt the soap, stir in the sugar and fragrance, and pour into a silicone mold. The mixture hardens quickly and the finished cubes can be popped out of the molds after a few hours.
Most of the ingredients were available at the grocery store, though I purchased the mold at a craft store and the essential oils used as fragrance at a health food store.
Here’s what I found, with each method rated from 1 to 10, with 10 indicating the least expensive, easiest and best results:
Coconut oil and peppermint
I expected the coconut oil in this version to smell like, well, coconut, but it really had little aroma. The tutorial I found on the “Happy Mothering” blog (http://bit.ly/2adouUk) called for red mica colorant, but I used soap coloring from the craft store. Apparently I didn’t use enough because instead of having pretty, light and dark pink cubes such as those pictured in the tutorial, mine were barely colored.
Having to purchase something to color the cubes meant an added expense, but of the three versions, I think this left my skin the softest.
Cost: 7 Ease: 7 Results: 8
Almond oil and coffee
This version, found on a blog called “A Pumpkin & A Princess” (http://bit.ly/1CkZzXI), combines almond oil, sugar and orange essential oil for fragrance. It also includes ground coffee, which is said to reduce the appearance of cellulite temporarily. If nothing else, it adds a nice aroma and extra exfoliation.
Of the three, these cubes felt the most abrasive. And the coffee creates a nice speckled effect.
Cost: 6 Ease: 7 Results: 7
Olive oil and brown sugar
These cubes aren’t as visually appealing as the others – they’re sort of a bland brownish color. But the brown sugar smells great, especially combined with a bit of vanilla fragrance. I also liked that this tutorial, (http://bit.ly/2aE5sEK) on a blog called “A Cultivated Nest,” recommended waiting a few minutes before adding the sugar to the melted soap so that less of the sugar would dissolve. And compared with the other versions, you’re more likely already to have this oil – olive oil – in your kitchen cabinet.
Cost: 5 Ease: 7 Results: 6
Pink body scrub isolated on white background
Who knew watching somebody cut soap could be so satisfying? ASMR fans, that’s who, of which I am one. Check out the YouTube channel SatisVid for a bunch of videos of some lucky human using a sharp knife to slice and dice blocks of soap into slivers. ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response and is said to be relaxing for many people; youtube.com/@SatisVid. (AP Photo/Holly Ramer)
This July 31, 2016, photo in Hopkinton, N.H., shows three types of oil that can be used to produce handmade sugar scrub bars: Coconut oil, olive oil and sweet almond oil. Varying the type of oil and other ingredients results in different textures and colors. (AP Photo/Holly Ramer)
This photo taken Aug. 1, 2016 in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., shows a tree-of-heaven, in center background. Although sometimes growing in stately elegance, tree-of-heaven is a weed tree that shows up everywhere, from forests to cracks in urban pavement. (Lee Reich via AP)