During The Great Christmas Present construction phase of the past month, I found myself a few jars short of whipped body butter for the gift bags I was making for everyone. Me being me, I decided to make something completely different for the remaining bags, because Kat and continuity don't rhyme.
Anyway, last year I made a Sugar Cookie Bath Soak for a friend who loves the smell of baked goods. A thought hit me as I pondered which direction to go: why not make a whipped shea butter sugar scrub that incorporates that whole baked good smell good thing?
I went to my cupboard of cosmetic crafting and pulled out some shea butter, extra virgin olive oil, brown and white sugar, vanilla powder, and arrowroot powder. With each ingredient collected my smile grew bigger, for I just knew that something awesome was going to manifest.
And boy did it ever! I am so happy with the final product. In fact, I ended up with a jar left over. Yesterday while I was in the shower scouring off no small amount of manure from my carcass, I realized one: that my skin was drier than the Gobi Desert (winter wrecks my skin I swear) and two: there was my extra jar of whipped shea butter sugar scrub sitting right at eye level, just begging to be used.
Holy exfoliation and moisture infusion! A day later my skin is still silky and soft, which considering the time of year is saying something. My legs love to take on a crocodile -like appearance during this dry, frigid season, so I am stoked that my scrub worked so well. Honestly, the only thing I would do differently is that I really, really wanted to put sweet almond oil in as the liquid oil, but I am out, and olive oil is always awesome in my book, so I wasn't too sad about that omission.
So the method for making the whipped shea sugar scrub is super simple:
First, you get out a double boiler, or a small and large stock pan, and combine your oils for a good, old fashioned melt together. Once the oils are combined, I pour them into my stand mixer bowl and pop them into the refrigerator for at least 45 minutes or until they are just starting to get solid again.
Once slight solidity of the oils is attained, it is whip it good time. You want to whip the oils until they are creamy, usually around 5 minutes.
After that, you add in the sugars and whip. Next comes the vanilla powder and arrowroot. A note about the vanilla, vanilla extract works just fine too, but I really, really love the scent of the food grade vanilla powder I found a few years ago. It's just glorious!
And that's all there is too it! As far as construction goes you can't ask for a much easier cosmetic to make, and yes, I was lazy and did things by standard measurement instead of grams. Maybe one day I will convert the whole recipe as I almost always make cosmetics in very precise recipes that utilizes the usage of my kitchen scale and scientific measurements. However, by the time I got almost to the end of Christmas gift production time, there weren't a lot of available cognitive functioning neurons left and this recipe kinda came about by instinct. I'm sharing it though because it turned out awesome and I love it!
Whipped Shea Butter Sugar Scrub
1/2 cup shea butter (I used unrefined organic)
1/2 cup liquid oil of your choice (I used Extra Virgin Organic Olive
1/2 cup brown sugar (I think coconut sugar would rock here)
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla powder (Or 2 tsp vanilla extract)
1/2 tsp arrowroot powderCombine oils in a double boiler and heat, stirring frequently, until melted and well combined.
Pour oils into a mixing bowl and chill until slightly solidified.
Whip until oils are fluffy/creamy, then whip in the sugars.
Finally, add in vanilla powder and arrowroot, whip until well combined.
Store in a tightly sealed container and enjoy!
NOTE: This recipe made enough to fill 4-4ounce containers.
And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's freshly exfoliated and super-moisturized iPhone.
