Orange you a Sugar?!

A couple months ago, at our family’s Art & Crafts Fair, I purchased an awesome sugar scrub from one of my favorite vendors. The scrub is dubbed “Awake” because it incorporates a number of enlivening essential oils, like peppermint and a variety of citruses. Miss R became obsessed with using it as part of her hand-washing routine, though I had to remove it from her bathroom because her untidy ways were attracting too many ants. But since both of us enjoy it so — just rubbing the sugar crystals between our hands is a sensory delight — we decided to try making our own. We’re such active crafters around here, but other than our foray into the world of soapmaking, we don’t have much experience with hand-crafting specialty products. Let me tell you, creating a sugar scrubs was the perfect starter project for our entry into the world of kid friendly bath and body goods. Our experiment — which, admittedly, was a bit slapdash — took us around 15 minutes and rendered a beautiful and gloriously functional scrub. It also provided Miss R with her daily dose of tactile fun. 

Ingredients and Recipe: 

• 1/2 cup coconut oil (liquid)
• 1-3 tbsps olive oil
• 1 cup granulated white sugar
• 1/4 cup kosher salt
• orange essential oil (5 drops)
• lemon essential oil (5 drops)

1. If your coconut oil is hardened, melt it in the microwave (30 seconds did the trick for us). Pour it into a large bowl. 
2. Add sugar and mix.
3. Mix in the olive oil, tbsp by tbsp, using less or more if the texture is too course or runny.
4. Pour in the salt and mix well. 
5. Keep adding sugar and salt to increase courseness, or oil to increase smoothness. As we played around with the consistency, Miss R really played around. Since the scrub holds shape so well, she formed balls and hearts with her hands. 
6. Add around 5 drops of lemon essential oil and 5 drops of orange essential oil — less or more according to your aroma preferences. Both oils, as citruses, are said to invigorate the senses as well as promote cleansing. 
7. Once you’re happy with the consistency, and if you want your scrub to be colored, add in a few drops of food coloring and mix well. Despite my suggestion to dye the scrub orange or yellow to represent the essential oils, Miss R went with pink because, well, it’s pink.
8. Transfer the mixture to a mason jar or sealed container and you’re done!