How to Make Exquisite Lip Scrubs From What You Already Have in the Kitchen
Dry lips are a burden. Not only do they make kissing less fun and make it harder to apply lipstick, but they also cause anxiety and soreness. Plucking or biting dry spots is a bad plan: you will end up tearing off healthy skin, but a nice, gentle scrub can exfoliate, plump, and give your lips a kiss-like shape.
I used to pay about $ 10 for a mug of untidy stuff, but then I got smarter and thought, “Oh. It’s just butter, sugar, and flavor. I have all this in my kitchen. ” You probably have these things in your kitchen too (unless your kitchen is very different from most kitchens).
The coolest thing about making these scrubs is the customization factor. While there are only three or four ingredients – butter, sugar, some kind of sticky sweetener that helps hold everything together, and whatever flavor you want – each of these ingredients can be customized to create a scrub that might trigger a little love. … I honestly think they make a great event for a wedding or baby shower because everyone loves bespoke gifts. (Oh, just for your information: don’t use the scrub if you have open cuts or other wounds on your lips. It will hurt and could lead to some kind of infection, and I don’t want that for you, friend.)
If you want to make a super simple scrub, all you have to do is combine:
- 3 teaspoons of white sugar
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon honey
This will work fine, but it’s a bit rustic. By rummaging through the pantry, fridge, and bar cart, you can make a scrub that rivals those found in Lush. To see how the different sugars, fats and flavors work, I prepared four different scrubs and rubbed them on my lips. Here are the results:
Raid your bar cart
Cocktail bitters can be used not only to flavor cocktails, but when combined with a little of your favorite liqueur, you can create a fun drink for your lips. If you are reading Happy Hour with 3 Ingredients , then you know that I have something interesting for the Italian aperitif known as Campari. In fact, the cocktail this scrub is based on is my favorite drink on the veranda, at least if I had a veranda.
Since bitters and campari are liquids, I chose our favorite solid oil (coconut) and ditched liquid sweeteners. You don’t need to use Campari bitters or grapefruit liqueur, so swap for your favorite liqueurs and flavors.
To prepare this cosmetic cocktail, you will need:
- 2 teaspoons of white sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon coconut oil
- 1/4 teaspoon Campari or other liquor
- A couple of drops of grapefruit (or other gustatory) bitterness
Combine these in a small bowl and transfer to a small container with a lid. To use, just rub your lips with it for about 10 seconds (or maybe a little longer if your lips are really dry) and then wipe it off with a damp cloth. Apply a bit of lip balm to moisturize and admire how plump and smooth your lips look.
Cheer up
Used coffee grounds are good for your garden, but I do not have a garden, so I am always looking for ways to use the used pieces of beans. This scrub uses coffee (along with a little turbinado sugar) as an exfoliator and a little cinnamon to add volume. (If you’re a young man in the 90s, you probably remember the painful cinnamon serums designed to give you the look of a bee sting. It’s much softer than that.) I also used almond oil as a substrate because almonds and coffee just seemed like a good combination to taste.
To make this latte-style lip cleaner you will need:
- 3 teaspoons turbinado sugar
- 1 teaspoon coffee grounds
- 1/2 teaspoon almond oil
- 1/2 teaspoon agave
- Pinch of cinnamon
Mix everything and apply as described above.
It should be noted that turbinado sugar is slightly coarser than the white matter and therefore slightly more aggressive in terms of exfoliation. I found it to be very effective and not too harsh, but if you have very sensitive lip skin feel free to swap it for finer grained sugar, remembering that you may need to adjust some ratios.
Mix sweet treat
Let’s be honest, if you rub something around and around your mouth, some of it will end up in your mouth, so we could make these scrubs as delicious as possible. If you are not a big fan of the chocolate and mint combination, you can always ditch the peppermint extract or replace it with another extract such as vanilla, almond, or orange.
To make an exfoliating dessert, you will need:
- 3 teaspoons of white sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 4 drops of peppermint extract (or another extract of your choice)
Mix everything and apply as described above. Try not to eat the entire serving.
Weird
Fat is fat, and I have a lot of duck fat in my fridge. (You won’t believe what happens next.) I combined chicken fat with a little brown sugar, a little tomato salt (my new favorite salt), and a little honey for a scrub, which is essentially a spicy rub for your lips. (I mean, your lips are meat.)
To make your mouth marinade, you will need:
- 1 1/2 teaspoons duck fat
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon tomato salt
- 1/4 teaspoon honey
Mix well and apply as described above. If you are like me at all, you will be slightly embarrassed at how much you enjoy this naughty beauty treatment. Just own it.
Freewheel it
The recipes above should work well as general templates, but if you really want to ditch the script, there are just a few rules to keep in mind:
- If you are using liquid butter, you will need more sugar and less liquid sweetener (such as honey or agave).
- If you want a softer scrub, use finer grains of sugar.
- Use ingredients that are edible and tasty because you will end up eating some of your scrub.
- Store the scrubs in the refrigerator to extend their life by up to two weeks.
- Limit exfoliation to one, maybe twice a week at most. Chapped lips aren’t fun, but soggy lips are even less fun.
Having mastered the way to create a lip scrub with your own hands, you are on your way to smooth, supple lips with little or no additional cost. However, you still have to go to Lush for bath bombs. Making bath bombs with your own hands is simply not worth it.