I love baking, so this time of year I find myself craving something warm to make with my hands, even when it has nothing to do with the oven. This apple pie sugar scrub came out of exactly that feeling. It smells like the inside of a bakery, it takes about ten minutes to put together, and it uses ingredients most of us already have in a cabinet.
Why an Apple Pie Sugar Scrub Works So Well for Fall Skin
A sugar scrub works through simple mechanical exfoliation. As skin naturally sheds dead cells from its surface, a scrub helps that process along, gently buffing away what is already ready to go. That is part of why skin feels so smooth right after using one.
Coconut oil is doing double duty here. It softens the texture of the scrub so it glides instead of dragging, and it leaves a light, conditioning feel on skin once you rinse. This is a great fit for hands, feet, elbows, and body, especially with the drier air fall tends to bring.
What You Need for This DIY Sugar Scrub Recipe
Here is what goes into this fall sugar scrub recipe:
- 1¼ cup white sugar (or half white, half brown for a warmer color and scent)
- ¼ cup coconut oil, softened, not melted
- 2 tbsp castile soap, unscented (Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap)
- 1½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 3 drops nutmeg essential oil
- 2 drops cinnamon leaf essential oil
- 10-15 drops sweet orange essential oil
A quick note on the essential oil, since this comes up often. Cinnamon oil in general has a real reputation for irritating skin at higher concentrations, so this recipe intentionally uses it in a very small amount and leans on ground cinnamon for most of the scent and that warm brown color instead. If you would rather skip essential oil altogether, you can, the ground spices and a little vanilla extract carry the scent well on their own.
The castile soap is what turns this into a slightly foaming sugar scrub. It helps the scrub rinse clean in the shower instead of leaving a greasy film behind, which makes it a lot more pleasant to actually use.
How to Make an Apple Pie Sugar Scrub, Step by Step
- In a mixing bowl, combine the sugar with the ground cinnamon. Stir until the color is even throughout.
- Add the softened coconut oil and mix well, breaking up any clumps until the texture is consistent.
- Stir in the castile soap.
- Add the cinnamon leaf and orange essential oils last, mixing thoroughly so they distribute evenly rather than pooling in one spot.
- Spoon the finished scrub into a clean jar with a tight fitting lid.
That is the whole process. No cooking, no special equipment, just a bowl and a spoon.
How to Use and Store Your DIY Sugar Scrub
Scoop out a small amount and massage it into damp skin using circular motions, then rinse with warm water. This is a body, hand, and foot scrub rather than a face scrub, since coconut oil is on the richer side for facial skin.
Once or twice a week is plenty. Scrubbing more often than that can leave skin feeling stripped instead of soft. Store the jar somewhere dry, and always scoop with a spoon rather than wet fingers, since water introduced into the jar is the main thing that shortens shelf life. Kept this way, a batch should hold up well for a couple of months.
If you want to make this a gift, a small mason jar with a fabric topper and a wooden scoop dresses it up nicely, and it is an easy one to package for the holidays ahead.
I would love to see how yours turns out if you make a batch. And if you are curious what your skin actually needs heading into the cooler months beyond a good scrub, the Sanbe skin quiz is a quick way to find your starting point.
See you in the next weeks blog post.
xo Betty
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