Gettin’ Crafty: Sugar scrub for Spring time

For all those who give pom-pom critters for birthdays, feel an urge to stick googly eyes on everything or just occasionally get a twitch to fold some origami, we bring you “Gettin’ Crafty” where we feature a craft you can easily make with minimal supplies and limited finances. Though spring in Colorado is a notoriously cruel mistress, bringing blizzards into May, we are ready to shed our scaly winter skin in anticipation of shorts and sleeveless tops. We can’t think of a better way than brown sugar body scrub to ease the transition. Supplies

(makes 8 oz of body scrub)

• 1 cup brown sugar or raw sugar
• ½ vanilla bean
• ¼ cup almond oil or olive oil
• 10 drops essential oil (I used a sweet orange scent)
• Small glass jars to store body scrub in

Instructions

1. Since this is going on your body, you want the containers to be sterile. The easiest way to do this is cover the containers and jars with water in a large saucepan. Bring the water to a boil, and keep it boiling for five minutes or so. Pull out the containers, and put on a clean cookie sheet. Let them dry in a low-temperature oven (about 200 degrees) for about ten minutes. This method will work with any glass jars intended for canning jams or canning yams.

2. Now that that’s over, the easy part. Slice the vanilla bean in half, and put only one half into the almond or olive oil. Let the vanilla bean infuse the oil overnight. 3. The next day, you can take out the vanilla bean and reuse it for another batch of scrub, or keep the bean in the oil. Vanilla beans are crazy expensive, so we reuse ours.

4. In a separate bowl, mix the brown sugar and the scented essential oil.

5. Add the scented brown sugar to the vanilla oil, a little at a time. Mix thoroughly after each spoonful you add. This ensures that you get a scrub, not a sugar layer and an oil slick.

6. The scrub is ready to use or gift to anyone desperate to soothe their rough, dry skin.