This homemade lemon-sugar hand scrub smells like sunshine and costs just pennies to make. Makes a great DIY gift.DIY lemon-sugar hand scrub, from Cheap Recipe Blog

I love going shopping for cosmetics and body products, but the cost of certain items astounds me. For example: Sugar and salt scrubs. Doing a quick Google research and landing on Sephora.com, I discovered a sugar scrub that costs $65.00. That’s sixty-five dollars. Your mouth should be dropping to the floor right about now. I know mine is.

When you consider what goes into a basic sugar scrub (= sugar and oil), you should immediately realize that $65 is an embarrassing amount to pay. Try more like $5.00 in a store (the maximum I would pay) – or right around $1.00 if you make it at home yourself.

Lemon-Sugar Hand Scrub: The Cost

A few months ago, I made a batch of lemon-sugar hand scrub for a lemon-themed cooking party I attended. I wanted to bring a nice hostess gift that maintained the lemon theme. Here’s what I paid:

  • Sugar = $.22
  • Olive oil $.72
  • Lemon juice = $.19

Total cost for a large batch of lemon-sugar hand scrub (enough for four small containers): $1.13

Sugar Scrub Uses

Here are some of my favorite uses for sugar scrubs (which are pretty obvious, but I’ll share them anyway!):

  • Leave a jar by your bathroom sink when you have company over
  • Leave a jar by your kitchen sink and use to soften hands after dish washing
  • Use to soften hands, elbows, feet, and other rough skin (this is perfect pre-pedicure!)
  • Give a jar as a hostess gift
  • Give a jar to baby shower or bridal shower recipients
  • Gather your friends and plan a DIY beauty night, using this sugar scrub and other homemade beauty products

Are you a DIY beauty junkie too? Check out these other body/household products using items you can find in your kitchen:

Make a batch of this scented gingerbread sugar scrub in minutes. Give as a gift!

One of my favorite things about making homemade body products at home is maintaining control over what goes into the product.

Some sugar scrubs I looked at online contained all kinds of questionable ingredients. This particular scrub uses only ingredients that you can eat. Now that’s a product that I don’t mind putting on my body.

[recipe]