Betsy's Cupboard - Gingerbread Sugar Scrub

Gingerbread Man

Betsy emailed in asking for help formulating a Gingerbread Sugar Scrub. She had found a recipe on Pinterest that she liked the look of but it called for using vanilla extract and kitchen spices. This is her request. “Can you help me do something that doesn’t use my good cooking vanilla and spices? I want the scrub to look like gingerbread but I want to leave my spices for the real stuff. Can I add something to give the scrub an extra oomph?” Betsy, I can’t wait for this challenge. Let’s make a fabulous scrub that leaves your baking ingredients in the kitchen and not in your body care products.

Betsy’s cupboard contains mostly soaping oils.
Olive
Coconut
Shea
Palm
Soy
Sunflower
Apricot Kernel
Polysorbate 80
Liquid Germall Plus
Liquapar
Vanilla Bean Fiber
Luffa
and a variety of fragrance and essential oils.

I am going to use a combination of white sugar and brown sugar. This will give both color and exfoliation. Brown sugar is a little more gentle as it exfoliates the skin but it can also make the scrub feel sticky. We will be making a half and half mixture of sugar.

I will also be using Polysorbate 80. Polysorbate helps remove some of the oils, leaving just enough to be conditioning to the skin but not making it overly greasy.

Recipe:

Weigh the Sunflower and Shea Butter into a microwave safe container. Heat gently until the Shea Butter has melted. The mixture should only be mildly warm. Add the other liquid ingredients. Stir well making sure everything is incorporated. Add the white and brown sugar. Stir well. Package into jar and label. Enjoy!