Christmas Scrubs

Merry (almost) Christmas!!  I have been working away (in between having strep throat) on Christmas gifts!  I like the personal element in giving gifts and have challenged myself the last few years to find a project to make to give to friends.  If you are looking for a last minute idea for teachers, Sunday School teachers or someone you want to give to but can't figure out what to do, this is a super easy and very fun project!

I made several varieties of sugar scrubs.  LOVE them!!  They make my hands feel so soft and smooth and I love how it exfoliates them too.  It feels so good rubbing it on my hands.  I hope my friends like them too!

This is the peppermint scrub (after this batch I left the scrubs white which I ended up liking even better but they sure look pretty green too). 

To decorate the jars, I tied a ribbon around the lid of the jar and hung a mini ornament from it and then tied a bow.  I also tied a tag (that told what the product was with simple directions) and a little spoon (to get the scrub out with and to stir it up if it seperates) onto the ribbon piece with various colors of Twinery twine. I also punched a piece of patterned paper and attached to the top of the jar.

I wrapped the Caribbean twine around the spoon for some decoration.

These are the 3 different scrubs I made.  The green peppermint scrub you've seen above, then I made a peppermint foot scrub and a lemon scrub (I did change the lemon scrub after this batch to make it a little "lighter" and it also made the color a much softer yellow.  I like it much better too.)

I love how easy it is to dress up the jars with my twine!  When I packaged these scrubs in a group of 3, I only wanted an ornament on one of them, so on the others I used various colors of twine.  I attached the tag and the spoon with the twine as well.

 

I did TONS of experimenting to find the scrubs that I liked the best!  I thought I would share my 2 favorite recipes below that I tweaked and tweaked until I got it just right.  These won't be exact because after I mixed according to the recipe I had written down I added extra of the ingredients to get the consistency to my satisfaction...a thicker formula or a thinner formula or a stronger scent.

Peppermint Sugar Scrub

3 cups white sugar

1/4 cup - 1/2 cup Kosher Salt

1 cup baby oil*

1 teaspoon Peppermint Extract

*(baby oil was the oil I preferred but you can also use olive oil or canola oil)

Mix all ingredients together.  (If you want it to be green, add a drop or two of green food coloring to the mixture.)  This made 4 - 5 eight ounce jars.

Lemon Sugar Scrub

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup kosher salt

Zest of 1 or 2 large lemons

1 cup oil (I used baby oil)

1/4 tsp Pure Lemon Extract

Juice from 1/2 - 1 lemon (depending on your preference)

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl.  Add more or less extract & lemon juice based on how much scent you want your scrub to have.

These would make great hostess gifts or baby shower/bridal shower gifts too!  I would love to keep a few on hand too for those times that I need a gift and have nothing at home to give.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this post!  Have a very Merry Christmas!