If you’ve visited the Green Bee Botanicals tent at a Sonoma Hills Farm event, you know how to make an extra special DIY body scrub. But for those of you who still want to know how to make a homemade body scrub for glowing skin (or just want a reminder), this recipe is for you. 

DIY sugar scrubs make thoughtful gifts for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, International Self Care Day (July 24), and any other holiday that inspires you to give.

Sugar is an amazing ingredient for skin

Sugar is a natural humectant, which means it draws moisture in from the environment, providing natural hydration. Raw sugar, which we recommend using in your DIY body scrub, is also a natural source of glycolic acid, an effective alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) that penetrates the skin and “unglues” dead skin cells, encouraging cell turnover and revealing fresher, brighter, smoother-looking skin. 

Why are sugar scrubs good for your skin? 

Sugar scrub benefits are many. Let us count the ways — 5 ways to be exact — that even a simple homemade sugar scrub can benefit your body:

1. Exfoliates dead skin cells and dry, flaky, dull skin.
2. Reveals new, healthier skin underneath and gently encourages cell turnover.
3. Moisturizes skin, both with the base oils and the sugar. 
4. Smooths skin texture. 
5. Increases blood circulation, which provides more oxygen and nutrients to your skin cells, and carries away free radicals (the main culprit for premature aging).

What is the best sugar to use for sugar scrubs?

For a DIY sugar scrub for your body, especially feet, you can use larger, coarser sugar. We use organic, fair–trade raw sugar. But for a DIY sugar scrub for face or lips, we recommend using a much smaller, refined sugar so it’s gentle enough for that delicate skin.

Body sugar scrub ingredients

1 cup organic raw cane sugar*

3 tablespoons base oil*

4 drops (not droppers-full) essential oils*

4 pumps of Green Bee Botanicals Deep Calm Massage/Body Oil

Body scrub recipe instructions

1.In a medium sized bowl, mix sugar and oil. (If using coconut oil, warm in a water bath just until oil turns to liquid.) The texture of the scrub should be sandy, not runny. The oil will naturally sink to the bottom over time, so stir before each use.  

2. Transfer to an airtight container. We like Weck Sturz glass jars and Ball jars, but it’s ideal to re-use whatever you already have in the house.

3. Add 4 to 6 drops of essential oils of your choice. See below for our most popular blends.

4. Add 4 pumps of Green Bee Botanicals Deep Calm Massage Oil for extra anti-inflammatory, extra antioxidant benefits of THC, CBD and healing herbs.

Optional: Add fresh or dried flowers on top, such as calendula, rose petals, straw flowers or lavender to make it a gift — to yourself, your BFF, your mom or whoever’s lucky enough to get pampered by you. 

Essential oil blend recipes  

Green Bee founder and formulator Bridget May shares her two most popular essential oil blends below. You can make a small batch in a small, dark dropper bottle, or just add each ingredient to your sugar scrub as you go. See end of article for where we source our organic essential oils. 

Ginger Cardamom Spice – warm, sensual and relaxing

• 2 drops ginger essential oil
• 2 drops cardamom essential oil
• 1 drops black pepper essential oil 
• 1 drop orange or neroli essential oil

Citrus Basil – bright, uplifting and healing

• 2 drops orange essential oil
• 2 drops basil essential oil
• 1 drop lemongrass essential oil
• 1 drop lavender essential oil

Also, the following essential oils are great to use on their own or to experiment with in a new blend for your DIY sugar scrubs: Eucalyptus, peppermint, spearmint, clary sage, blue tansy, lemongrass, cardamom, orange, neroli, ginger, basil, and lavender.

Where to find Green Bee Massage Oil

You can now order our THC-infused Deep Calm Massage Oil (and eye cream and face serum) straight from our website for delivery to your door if you live in California. We’re expanding to more cities soon and eventually to other states. Cannabis is highly regulated, even if it’s non-psychoactive like our products, but we’re getting there!

If we don’t deliver to your zip code yet, you can also find our THC products at select cannabis dispensaries and delivery services (contact them in advance to make sure they carry the product you want), including:

Calibueno (Bay Area)

Cornerstone Wellness (Los Angeles)

East of Eden (Salinas)

FLOR (Union City)

Flora Terra (Santa Rosa)

Global Greenz (Atwater)

Ivy Hill (Oakland)

JANE (Santa Rosa)

Phenotopia (Santa Rosa)

Pure 710SF (San Francisco)

QualiCanna (Berkeley) 

Sava Delivery (Greater Bay Area)

Seaweed Holistics (Pacifica)

White Fire (San Jose)

*Ingredient notes

SUGAR: Remember to use a refined, small-grain sugar if you want to make a scrub for your face or lips, or for your body too if you have sensitive or delicate skin. 

OIL: We typically use organic coconut oil in our DIY scrubs. But if you want to make a DIY sugar scrub without coconut oil, good alternative base oils are jojoba oil, olive oil, apricot kernel oil and almond oil. But! Make sure you or the person you’re making your sugar scrub for isn’t allergic to nuts if you use nut oil. 

ESSENTIAL OILS: Essential oils are intense. A little goes a loooong way. Use only a few drops (6 drops max). Please note we mean actual drops, not droppers-full. As for scent, you can use just one essential oil if you want to keep it simple, or a blend of essential oils. We get all of our organic essential oils from family-owned Eden Botanicals in Petaluma, California because they make exceptionally high quality oils and they’re local to us. They ship nationwide and internationally.