See how to make easy summer body scrub recipes. With incredible summer aromas and deep exfoliating properties, these recipes are perfect for a girls’ spa night. 5 easy and natural DIY body scrub recipes for rose, lavender, lemon, ginger, and mint sugar scrub are included. The skincare tutorial comes with tips for using and storing your DIY body scrub recipes.
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Whether you’re looking for easy body scrub ideas for summer that are light and healthy or more cozy and nourishing to keep your skin rejuvenated, ready in just minutes, all-natural, etc., keep reading to get inspired by 5 of my top homemade scrub recipes for glowing skin in summer.
How to make body scrub and why you should exfoliate
Making your own body scrub at home is easy. You likely already have all the ingredients in your kitchen. And now it’s time to turn them into a deliciously scented scrub that will leave your skin moisturised and smooth while saving you tons of money by making it at home.
What are the benefits of exfoliating
It helps remove dead skin cells.
Exfoliating your body/face allows your other skincare products (cleanser, moisturizer, serum) to penetrate deeply and work better.
It can increase blood circulation (which helps you to achieve healthy and glowing skin)
Unclog pores from dirt, blackheads, and other surface impurities so new, healthy skin may flourish!
Exfoliating helps the skin turn over its top dermal layer more often, so you can address many problems, such as dryness and flakiness.
DIY body scrub
To make your DIY body scrub at home, you should follow these simple four steps and 5 minutes of prep:
Oil phase: Choose your carrier oil (coconut oil, olive oil, jojoba oil), mix it with your favourite essential oils and add in vitamin E oil. Stir to combine.
Sugar phase: Add the sugar to another large mixing bowl (you can also add mica powder or other dry ingredients). Stir to combine.
Mix the sugar scrub: Pour the oils over the sugar and combine.
Storage: Transfer the sugar scrub into airtight glass jars or storage containers and store sealed until ready to use.
The Best DIY Body Scrub Recipes for Summer
I’m so excited for you to try these body scrub recipes for yourself (or anytime) for summer or as a gift. While these sugar scrub gifts are sure to impress, these DIY body scrub recipes are quite simple and made with ingredients you may already have in your (beauty) pantry.
These sugar scrub recipes are similar to my Holiday sugar scrubs and Face scrub recipes in that I create a simple coconut oil body scrub base. The process is speedy and easy, even if you’ve never made a homemade skincare recipe before or need cute last-minute summer gift ideas.
These Summer sugar scrub ideas are nourishing and fun, providing amazing skincare benefits. The DIY sugar scrubs exfoliate and moisturise simultaneously, giving your skin that summer glow. You can customise them to your heart’s content. I’m offering many ideas for that below!
Homemade Summer Body Scrub Recipes
DIY Rose Body Scrub
First up is a rose sugar scrub. This body scrub feels incredibly pampering on the skin and will leave your entire body baby smooth. Infused with rose otto, it gently exfoliates to reveal smoother, fresher skin. If you can’t find rose otto, use 2 tbsp rose water. Since rosewater is hydrous, use the product quickly or add a preservative to make the rose body scrub last longer.
DIY Lavender Body Scrub
Lavender scrub is perfect for cleansing and exfoliating, helping to lift away dead skin cells and prepare the skin for moisture. The lavender essential oil has numerous skincare uses. Adding this oil to your sugar scrub can benefit several skin issues.
I can’t tell you how much I love everything Lavender. It reminds me of my childhood when I ran barefoot on the lavender fields in Bulgaria. Lavender was my very first choice when I started making my own body scrubs at home. DIY lavender sugar scrub promotes healthy and great-looking skin. The oil’s anti-inflammatory properties soothe and nourish dry skin, while antioxidants help protect the skin from free radical damage. Lavender may even help with eczema and psoriasis.
Lemon Sugar Scrub
This lemon sugar scrub leaves skin soft and silky. This exfoliating homemade sugar scrub with lemon essential oil is ideal for normal to oily skin types. It’s also a great hand scrub for washing dishes!
In a scrub, lemon nourishes cleanses, exfoliates, and clears up skin issues such as oiliness, acne, and cellulite. Lemon body scrub lightens and evens out the skin tone.
Ginger Scrub for Cellulite
This Ginger Cellulite Scrub is incredibly easy to make and takes only a few household ingredients. Plus, if you like the smell of ginger, you will LOVE LOVE LOVE the way it smells! This recipe makes enough for 10 uses but can easily be doubled or tripled and stored in the refrigerator.
Refreshing Mint & Lime Scrub
If you need a fresh morning start, this mint sugar scrub is for you. This homemade sugar scrub will leave your skin supremely soft and refined, and it’s also perfect for sloughing away dead skin cells. This DIY sugar scrub should be part of your morning routine; the minty scent revitalises and will help you wake up!
Homemade Summer Sugar Scrub ingredients
Sugar: Obviously, sugar is the main exfoliant in a sugar-based body scrub. I mostly used fine, granulated sugar (caster sugar) as it provides gentle exfoliation.
Liquid carrier oil: Using a liquid oil ensures that the scrubs don’t harden. I used fractionated coconut oil in most recipes. Other liquid carrier oils will work fine, too, for example, jojoba oil, grapeseed oil, or sweet almond oil.
Essential oils: Essential oils not only lend a natural scent, but they also provide additional skin care benefits. If you have sensitive skin, either reduce the amount of essential oils or omit them completely.
Vitamin E oil (optional): Vitamin E nourishes and moisturizes, keeping your skin hydrated and supple. As a potent antioxidant, vitamin E oil also fights free radicals and may prevent premature signs of ageing.
Colorants (optional): Fruit and plant powders are the most natural colorants for scrubs, but they tend to be pricier than the other options. Micas, fine cosmetic powders, are a cost-effective and readily available colorant for sugar scrubs. Food colors aren’t ideal, but you may use them if that’s what you have.
Do I need preservative for my DIY sugar scrub?
Every beauty product that contains water needs a preservative. Since these DIY body scrub recipes for summer don’t use water, you don’t have to use a preservative. Just be sure that no water enters the storage container during use. I’ll share more tips on that below.
However, if you suppose your DIY body scrub might come in contact with water during use, then a preservative can be useful to prevent mold and bacteria.
How to Use DIY Body Scrub
Apply body scrub to your skin, gently massage a small amount in circular motions, then rinse with warm water. Sometimes I like to use this gentle sugar scrub as a body scrub in the shower. Sugar scrubs are best for exfoliating hands, feet, elbows, knees, arms and legs.
I also made some Homemade Holiday Sugar Scrub variations for Christmastime! Candy Cane and Gingerbread scrubs have become some of my favorites. (They’re edible and delicious, too, in case you were wondering…)
Thanks, Lora! I look forward to trying some of these. How long do they last in the fridge once they are made?
Six months, or even more
This looks so good! What a great gift to make for friends or to enjoy yourself!
Thanks for sharing! Does it keep long?
These sugar scrub recipes can be stored for up to a year if made with new ingredients. Sugar and coconut oil have a long shelf life of several years, but some essential oils last shorter than that. So use the best-before date of the essential oils as a guide.
Thank you!