Homemade Beauty Lesson 1: How to make your own sugar lip scrub

TAGS: Exfoliator • homemade • Lip Scrub •

This is the first is a number of posts about homemade beauty products. About 2 years ago, I became very interested in home made beauty products, and read every book I knew on the subject.

I want to teach you how to make your own goodies, and also offer all the different options out there (this is for your own use after all) so that there is always a substitute in place.

So in celebration of all things naturel and in light of the current financial climate, lets get in the kitchen and save some pennies!

There is also a video version of this tutorial, which you may like to watch if you want to see the actual process and if you like paws.

Sugar Lip Scrubs are very popular at the moment and some of them are pretty expensive considering the main ingredient is the rather inexpensive sugar. I would choose to make my own any day because it would probably end up costing no more then a few pounds.

My recipe is Cosmetic Candy’s Mango Sugar Lip Scrub! Yeah!

You will need:

1. Sugar.

You can use caster (which I am using) or granulated (rougher in texture) or brown (larger pieces, more exfoliating) not anything too soft which will melt.

2. An Oil

You need a good oil to mix with the sugar that is a nice tasting one. Avoid kitchen oils (like Olive and Sunflower) stick to Sweet Almond, Jojoba or Castor Oil. I am using Sweet Almond:

3. A Butter

You don’t HAVE to use a butter – oil and sugar is enough but for the purpose of adding extra smoothness and moisture to the lips I would add a little butter as in: Cocoa Butter and Shea Butter – I am using Mango Butter:

4. An Essential Oil or Flavouring

You can use an essential oil which is suitable for the lips for example, Peppermint, Spearmint, Lemon, Lime OR buy a special flavour oil. I choose a Mango flavour oil:

So to recap I am using:

30 grams Sugar

35ml Sweet Almond Oil

15 grams Mango Butter

Mango Flavour Oil – 2-3 drops

Makes about 4 smaller tubs (about 50 grams of product)

Equipment you will need:

A bowl and spoon:

Put the sugar in the bowl and break up any lumps with your spoon. Then, add the oil, stirring until smooth:

The texture should be quite thick – you don’t want too much oil sitting on top but we still need to add the Mango Butter:

To melt butters and waxes you need to use a Bain Marie, which is basically some boiling water with a bowl on top so that the product can melt gently, without burning. You can do this with any sauceman and bowl, mine has an attachment:

This Bain Marie is from Ikea, its about £4. Pour your boiling water in and get it on the hob.

Put your mango butter in and keep stirring until it melts. Do not over heat butters as this can make them go grainy:

Melted down it just looks like an oil (note this picture is not on a hob, but you need to use one so it melts quicker!). You can also microwave it, but this takes more guesswork:

Pour the oil into the sugar – and it looks a bit watery now. If it looks too wet add more sugar so that the grains are visible, but remember the Mango butter will set once cold:

Add a few drops of Mango Flavour oil (or any of your choice) – not too many it smells strong!:

Check that the texture is quite thick and that it sits on the spoon ok, if not add some sugar:

Now, use a small spoon and put into your chosen pot(s):

Finished Mango Scrubs. I could have melted down some yellow lipstick (yes, I have yellow lipstick) or put some lip safe dye in to make it look mangoey but I’d rather not add dye for the sake of it! Lovely scrubs and will keep pretty well for at least 6 months:

The texture:

Done!

As for supplies, the best places to look are Supermarkets, Pharmacies and Natural Food Shops (like Holland and Barretts) and on the net (www.eBay.com, www.akamuti.co.uk, www.akomaskincare.co.uk, www.thesoapkitchen.co.uk). It’s actually not expensive at all to buy Sweet Almond oil and a Butter

Remember to watch our video if you need more detailed instructions. Look out for the next Homemade Beauty Lesson, and let me know if you make this scrub!

{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }

birkie August 11, 2009 at 6:54 am

awesome tutorial! I still have to finish my silknaturals lipscrub and after that I will DIY with your instructions

Blair August 18, 2009 at 6:17 pm

This looks wonderful!!! Mango butter sounds like it’d smell pretty good!

Rinoa September 25, 2009 at 12:31 am

Can you tell me how many cups or tablespoons, etc that is for the sweet almond oil? And possibly the mango butter? I’m not used to measuring things in ML and grams. lol, thanks ^^ Really looking forward to trying this!

Row September 25, 2009 at 8:36 pm: Hi Rinoa

Well a tablespoon is about 15ml so thats about 2 and a half tablespoons of sweet almond oil (but you CAN add more if its too scrubby or less if its too oily).

15grams is roughly 1 tablespoon (of mango butter)

Remember you can mix ingredients around so they work for you! x

princesa livia January 21, 2011 at 2:05 am