I’m obsessed with perfect looking lips. If you’re anything like me, you’re going to absolutely love this DIY lip scrub recipe with white sugar, cocoa butter, and apricot kernel oil.
But I always have to push the boat out a little. I can’t help it, I’ve always tried to over-deliver with my DIY beauty recipes. So I’ve done some research and figured out how to give your lip scrub a delicious flavor!
Why Make A Lip Scrub At Home?
This homemade sugar lip scrub is super easy to make and super easy to use. I just massage it into my lips using a circular motion, and it feels great.
And because it’s formulated with natural or food-safe ingredients, you can actually lick it off when it’s done. I even do this in public sometimes. You should see the look on people’s faces. But it’s worth it because my lips look B-E-A-utiful.
Much like my other DIY face scrubs, I felt like I had to find a good recipe for this product. I was using store-bought versions a lot, because the recipes I kept finding on other blogs were always made with random stuff from your food pantry.
For example, I couldn’t find a single DIY lip scrub without honey!
I knew I could come up with something that would wipe the floor with those pathetic excuses for lip scrubs… So I did!
Ingredients In My Lip Scrub Recipe
Cocoa butter
Cocoa butter is one of my favorite ingredients. It’s especially good here, as it provides a lot of the stiffening power for our scrub. Without it, we have just a liquid with some sugar in it.
This ingredient provides a buttery slip and slide. This is super important because without it any scrub will be much too abrasive, even on the lips. But it’s also exceptionally nourishing.
Cocoa butter is absolutely packed with minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants that will nourish the skin. Free radicals, be gone! But its most treasured benefit is its ability to provide deep, long-lasting moisture to the skin. There are few ingredients that are as hydrating as unrefined cocoa butter. (Learn more about cocoa butter here on wikipedia.org).
While you could substitute this butter for another, I would try not to. This is because cocoa butter is an important functional ingredient here, and substituting could radically change the consistency of your lip scrub recipe.
If you must substitute, go for one that is extra hard, similar to cocoa. You’re unlikely to find one as hard, but kokum butter would come close. Some experimentation will be required, as you may need to decrease the liquid oil and increase the butter content to get the right texture.
Apricot Kernel Oil
The main job of this ingredient is to provide moisture to our lip scrub to help with dry lips. However, there are many excellent benefits of apricot kernel oil.
This oil is very skin softening. Due to its high vitamin C and E content, it helps to restore the right level of hydration to the skin and nourish it too. Furthermore, it also helps to lock moisture into the skin, rather than losing it over the day.
However, you can use whatever your skin craves and loves. If argan oil works best for you, use that. Coconut oil is another good substitute, especially if you live in a warm climate where coconut oil is always a liquid. If not, consider using fractionated coconut oil, which is always a liquid at room temperature.
Another great option for substitution is olive oil. This is readily available worldwide and not too expensive. It’s available at your local grocery store! If you’re not sure what oil to go for, think about your skin type, and try to synergize your scrub to work with your own skin.
Those with dry skin will find no problems with your apricot kernel. But you can use almond oil, avocado oil, or jojoba oil as excellent substitutes. If you have mature skin, any of those will work too – but you would get extra benefit from evening primrose oil, macadamia oil, rice bran oil, or rosehip oil.
Anyone with oily skin will want to swap out the apricot for grapeseed oil, pomegranate oil, or watermelon seed oil. These have excellent skin penetration and will not leave the skin feeling greasy.
White Sugar
I know what you might be thinking, white sugar is a terrible exfoliant for facial skin! I’ve said it myself before, in my homemade fruity face scrub recipe. If you want a sugar scrub for the face, use Rapadura for a brown, which is much finer.
However, our lips are much more prone to flakiness. Therefore, ordinary sugar is actually an excellent choice – just don’t be tempted to use it anywhere else on the face.
You can use ordinary white sugar for a more powerful scrub, or fine white sugar for a more gentle one. Either is okay and will depend on how much exfoliating your lips need. If you aren’t prone to lots of dead skin and flakiness on your lips, consider using fine sugar.
We used the fine sugar for ours and we very much preferred this, and works great for my lips. Just don’t try using powdered sugar or you’ll end up with a sticky, cloggy mess.
Flavor Oils
Flavor oils are excellent for making this homemade lip scrub a little more fun. Have you ever used a lip balm that tastes like cherry, or strawberry? Well, this is the same idea.
These food-grade oils are designed to taste like the real thing. And you can use whatever flavor oils you can get your hands on. You’re limited only by your own creativity and what’s available on amazon!
However, be sure to get oil-soluble flavor oils. We’re not using any water in this recipe (so no preservatives), you’ll find it impossible to incorporate a water-soluble flavor oil.
Essential oils
Most essential oils shouldn’t be ingested. Peppermint can, but only in small quantities. 0.4% would be the absolute maximum, but I’d advise starting much lower – at around 0.1% (0.1g).
If you do this, you’ll need to make up the difference with one of our other ingredients (I’d increase the liquid oil by 1.9%)
Other lip-safe essential oils include lavender, sweet orange, and grapefruit. Again in very small quantities. Ingesting essential oils is a tricky business, and must be done with care.
Also, probably goes without saying, but try not to consume too much of it. While you can absolutely lick off the leftover scrub if you’re using flavored oils – might not want to do this if you’ve subbed them for essential oils.
Totally Natural Lip Scrub
Alternatively, if you’re really interested in making this a 100% natural diy lip scrub, then consider not using a flavor or aromatic oil at all. It will still taste great, and the cocoa butter adds a naturally creamy, almost chocolate-like aroma that often transfers to the final product.
OK Let’s Make Lip Scrub
How To Make Sugar Lip Scrub At Home
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Equipment
- Mixing Bowl (Glass, Aluminium or PET)
- Saucepan shallow
Ingredients
- 20 g Cocoa Butter (20%)
- 32 g Apricot Kernel Oil (32%)
- 45 g White Sugar (45%)
- 1 g Vitamin E Oil (1%)
- 2 g Flavor Oil (2%) (we used strawberry daiquiri & mojito)
- Mica Powders (we used pink & green)
- 2 Cosmetic Jar 1.5 oz (or 4 x .75 oz)
Video
Instructions
- Makes two 40g pots, or four 20g pots (0.75oz pots if available). Total batch weight 100g. Weigh your cocoa butter apricot kernel into a heat-proof container.20 g Cocoa Butter, 32 g Apricot Kernel Oil
- Create a water bath by filling a shallow saucepan with a couple of inches of water. Place the container into the water bath. Bring the water to a gentle simmer, until the cocoa butter has melted. Once melted remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
- Stir the melted oils/butter until they cool to below 104f (40c) This may take a while I usually work in intervals of stirring a while and resting a while. You can quicken this process by placing the container into an ice bath for a few minutes. An ice bath can be made by placing a little cold water and some ice cubes into a bowl that's big enough to stand the container in. This speeds up the process immensely so you will need to stir continually. If you feel the mixture is becoming too cold you can pop it in and out of the ice bath as needed.Â
- Once your oils have cooled to below 104f (40c) we can add our vitamin e, flavor oil, and mica.1 g Vitamin E Oil, 2 g Flavor Oil, Mica Powders
- Continue stirring until the mixture begins to thicken, it needs to be thick enough to leave a trace across the top of the mixture when stirring. You will also notice the final color beginning to come though, if you want to adjust this, now is the time to add a touch more mica. Once again you can speed this process up by popping it back into the ice water bath.
- Finally, it's time to add the sugar, this will quickly thicken up the scrub immensely. It may feel quite solid but some brisk stirring should loosen it up enough to be able to fully blend the sugar in.45 g White Sugar
- Last but not least, transfer to your chosen container to store. A decent-sized lip balm pot works great for this, but you can use whatever works for you. Be sure not to place the lid until the contents has completely cooled.2 Cosmetic Jar 1.5 oz
Notes
- This is an oil-based scrub that does not contain a preservative, to avoid any condensation contamination, the scrub needs to be completely cool before placing the lid on.  Â
- We recommend not storing this scrub in the bathroom, as water could come into contact with the product via wet fingers and condensation. A preservative is unsuitable in this recipe as it is designed for application on the lips.Â
Final Thoughts
I hope you enjoyed learning how to make lip scrub at home. Honestly, when you find a flavor oil that you just love, you’ll want to be scrubbing your lips all the time.
However, it’s best to use it no more than 2-3 times a week. But if you have chapped lips be gentle, and if they are super flaky all the time, you might want to use it a little more. But whatever works for you is fine.
I keep this in my purse, because you never know when you might need to use it. It sits happily next to my lip balm, and across from my lipstick (don’t forget to reapply once you’ve scrubbed it all off).
If you have any problems with this recipe, let me know in the comments section below. While this recipe is easy, sometimes there are hidden problems.
For instance, your lip scrub might be a lot looser if you’re living in a very hot climate. So let me know and we can try to troubleshoot together.
