Hi everyone! I hope the beginning of fall has been great for you.
For this post I am going to show you how to make sugar scrub hearts.
These sugar scrub hearts are a lot like sugar scrub but the sugar is all in one piece. Using just a few ingredients you can make these awesome sugar scrub cubes for yourself. I like using them on my hands and in the shower. If you have dry skin these are perfect! The sugar works great to exfoliate and the coconut oil is great for moisturizing. These things are so much fun to make. You don't have to stick to my recipe. Be creative and come up with your own versions! This recipe makes about 12 small hearts.
What you will need:
- Shea butter soap base
- Coconut oil
- Brown and/or white sugar
- Soap scent of your choice
- Double boiler
- Soap mold (you can find some inexpensive ones at Hobby Lobby)
- A heat proof bowl or container you don't mind smelling like soap scents forever
- A butter knife and several spoons
Now we can start. You will need to use 1/4 of a cup of shea butter soap base. In my container it is two cubes.
Cut those two cubes up into smaller pieces. This will make them melt a whole lot faster.
Once you have them cut, put them into the top pot of your double boiler. Next put 1/8th of a cup of coconut oil in with the shea butter. I just use a heaping tablespoon.
Now fill the bottom pot of the double boiler halfway with water. Most of the time I kept the heat on high. While the shea butter is melting, you can start getting the sugar ready.
For the sugar you can pretty much do what you want. All together you will need a 1/2 cup of sugar. I normally go with 1/4th brown sugar and 1/4th white sugar. I've found that if you do soap dye just using white sugar will make the color more vibrant. The brown sugar makes a softer sugar scrub. Since brown sugar is finer it absorbs more so you might need a little more than 1/2 a cup. Put the sugar in your container and mix them together. Be sure to mash any clumps of sugar or it won't mix as well.
By now your shea butter and coconut oil should look kind of like this:
Use a spoon and stir them up. Don't worry about the shea butter and coconut oil if they don't mix together. It will all mix once you add it to the sugar. Now you need to have your soap scent, mold, and sugar ready.
While your double boiler is still on the stove top, add your soap scent. I don't really measure it. Some of the scents are stronger than others, so just add a little at a time until it gets strong enough.
When you add all of this to your sugar you have to work fast because it hardens fast.
Stir this up really well. You definitely don't want any loose sugar in the bottom of your container. This is when the fun begins. Haha! I have found that when the mixture is too runny its harder to put it into the molds.
See how thick this is? It's almost the same consistency of play-dough. All you have to do is grab some and press it into the mold but you have to do it fast. It hardens in almost one minute. If you need it to stay softer longer you can put it in the bottom of your pot with the water like this.
After you put it all into the mold put plastic wrap on top and slide them into the freezer for fifteen minutes. This will help them finish setting. If you have a little sugar scrub left over that won't fit into the mold usually you can go ahead and take out the first one you did and put the leftovers in there.
After they have been in the freezer for fifteen minutes take them out and pop them out of their molds.
Now they are finished! They don't take as long to make as you might think. I timed the process from the beginning of putting the shea butter in the pot to putting them into the freezer and it only took about fifteen minutes.
I found these cool glass jars with a chalkboard labels at Micheal's craft store.
You can try all different things in these sugar scrubs. One of the things that I really like adding is apricot seeds. The apricot seeds and sugar work well together for more exfoliation. I just add about a tablespoon into the sugar.
You can even add in all different colors! Just add in a few drops to the shea butter and coconut oil and stir it up.
For another version I made sparkly peppermint hearts. To make them you will need soap sparkles and peppermint essential oil or soap scent. For these you can use brown and white sugar but I just used white sugar to make it seem like snow. :)
Look how cool they are when they are done!
Now find jars or bags for yours and package them up. These will make great gifts! To fill my jars up it takes almost two batches. The great thing about doing multiple batches at a time is you don't have you wash the dishes in between unless you add different scents.
Here are some of mine completed.
I added some scrapbook paper circles on the side with the ingredients on them.
There you have it! They are super easy to make and so much fun to use!
