DIY Body Butter Scrub Bars: Two Easy Recipes for Glowing Skin

If you're tired of messy jar scrubs that get water in them and go bad, these solid body scrub bars are the answer. They're sugar and oat-based exfoliators molded into single-use bars that won't melt away in the shower. Plus I made them with a cocoa butter base so they double as a moisturizer.

I'm making two versions here — an oatmeal bar for sensitive skin and a rose sugar bar with a few extra fancy ingredients.

For the base (makes both scrubs):

• 100g cocoa butter
• 50g almond oil (or any liquid oil)
• 50g almond wax (beeswax works too)
• Vitamin E oil (optional but recommended)

For the oatmeal scrub:

• Ground oats (whole rolled or quick oats)
• Vanilla and orange essential oils

For the rose sugar scrub:

• Brown or white sugar
• Geranium essential oil
• Dried rose petals (finely ground)
• Beetroot powder

Tools:

• Heatproof bowl
• Saucepan for double boiler
• Small silicone molds (chocolate molds or ice cube trays work)
• Baking tray
• Coffee grinder or mortar and pestle

Combine your cocoa butter, almond wax, and almond oil in a heatproof bowl. Melt them using a double boiler — gentle heat only. You don't want to scorch the butters.

Once everything's melted, pop the bowl in the fridge until the mixture gets cloudy and thickens to the consistency of melted chocolate. This usually takes about 15-20 minutes.

Add a few drops of vitamin E oil and stir it in well. Vitamin E acts as an antioxidant and helps extend the shelf life.

Pour half the base into a separate container. You'll make two different scrubs from this one batch.

Both mixtures should still be liquid enough to pour at this stage — just thicker than when you started.

Grind your oats in a coffee grinder or with a mortar and pestle. How fine you grind them determines how exfoliating the bar will be. A coarse grind gives more scrubbing power, a fine powder makes it gentle enough for sensitive skin or even your face.

Add a few drops of vanilla and orange essential oils to your base. This combination smells like a chocolate orange — it's amazing.

Stir in your ground oats. Start with a couple tablespoons and add more if you want a more aggressive scrub. Mix thoroughly so the oats are evenly distributed.

Add a few drops of geranium essential oil to your second base portion for fragrance.

Spoon in your sugar. Brown sugar is my go-to because it has natural glycolic acid and antibacterial properties, but white sugar works fine if that's what you have. The base has cooled enough that the sugar won't dissolve before the bars set.

For the extra boost, add finely ground rose petals and a pinch of beetroot powder. The beetroot gives it that pink color and adds vitamin C and folic acid. Just make sure you grind those rose petals really fine — I learned the hard way that chunky petals are way too rough on your skin.

Pour your mixtures into silicone molds. Use small molds — these are meant to be single-use bars. Chocolate molds or ice cube trays work great if you don't have small soap molds.

Place the molds on a baking tray first. Trust me, trying to carry individual molds to the fridge is a disaster waiting to happen.

Refrigerate for a full 24 hours. I know it's tempting to use them sooner, but they'll start melting immediately if you pull them out early. The 24-hour wait lets them fully harden so they hold up in the shower.

After 24 hours, they pop right out of the molds.

Wet your skin in the shower. Massage the bar directly onto your skin — the warmth of your body and the water will melt the cocoa butter, creating a creamy, moisturizing lather. The sugar or oats do the exfoliating.

Rinse off. Your skin will feel soft and moisturized enough that you can skip body lotion if you want.

Most body scrubs come in a jar. Every time you stick your hand in, you introduce water and bacteria. These bars solve that problem — you use one, it's gone, no contamination. They're also way easier to travel with than a jar of wet sugar.

No preservatives needed since the recipe has no water. Just oils, butters, and exfoliants.

• Don't overheat your butters or they'll lose their skin benefits
• If your bars feel too soft after 24 hours, pop them back in the fridge for another few hours
• Store unused bars in a cool, dry place or in the fridge
• The oatmeal version is gentle enough for face use if you grind the oats to a powder

These bars make great gifts too. Package them in a little tin or wrap them in wax paper.