Homemade Shea Butter Scrub with Coffee and Brown Sugar

This homemade shea butter scrub is incredibly rich and moisturizing.  It provides gentle exfoliation and leaves skin soft and smooth.  And the best thing about this DIY sugar scrub recipe is how heavenly it smells!

Life needs more DIY body scrubs!

I have a serious weakness for luxurious bath products. As a result, I have baskets and drawers and part of a closet dedicated to products for pampering myself with. In addition, I have seen a number of shea butter scrub recipes online and they all looked incredibly decadent.

Making shea butter scrub at home  was really very easy. The first hurdle was to find some shea butter but I actually found 100% Organic West African Shea Butter

on Amazon AND it had free shipping. Very nice!

I browsed around a few sites for inspiration, including A Delightful Home. I took ideas from an assortment of different places and just winged it when I needed to! This whipped sugar scrub recipe is incredibly easy to make! 

A couple of notes about this shea butter scrub!

This shea butter sugar scrub recipe is intensely moisturizing and exfoliating. It is meant to be used in the shower where you can easily rinse it off with hot water. You will not need a moisturizer on your skin when you get out. Really!

If you find it to be too rich you can follow up the scrub with a washing using your regular bar soap. Your skin will be very smooth and well moisturized after using this scrub.

Also, you can use whatever exfoliators and scents you want to personalize your shea butter scrub to your own preferences. Add almond oil instead of olive oil and add almond extract along with the brown sugar.  Use ground herbs and essential oils, or a course salt for a shea butter salt scrub recipe. The variations are endless.

If you want to give this a try, here is my tutorial on making a homemade shea butter scrub:

 

Coffee and Brown Sugar Shea Butter Scrub Ingredients

Here are the ingredients you need to make this homemade scrub at home:

1 cup organic shea butter
1/4 cup coconut oil (melted)
1/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup finely ground coffee
1 TBSP coffee extract
2 tsp vanilla extract

How do you make shea butter scrub?

Step One:  First thing you need to do is measure out your shea butter. It has the consistency of a firm cookie dough so just break off pieces and press them firmly into a measuring cup.

Place this into the top of a double boiler set on low or just put a pot of water on the stove on low heat and place the shea butter in a glass bowl on top of it. The site I looked at for reference said to soften but not melt the shea butter but others say to melt and chill so that is what I did. Just stir frequently to help it melt.

Place the glass bowl in the refrigerator to firm the shea butter up a bit. Stir frequently and chill for about an hour. When it is thickened, move on to the next step.

 

Step Two:  Whip your shea butter. You will probably need a good stand mixer for this but a hand held set of beaters will work, too. Do not try this by hand…you need to beat it for about 4 or 5 minutes at high speed to incorporate plenty of air into the shea butter. You will end up with something that looks like this:

 

Step Three:  Combine your olive oil and melted coconut oil in a glass measuring cup and pour it very slowly into your shea butter from above. You will probably have to remove the beater occasionally and scrape the sides.

I found that it wasn’t quite as airy and light as I wanted it so after combining all of the oil I put the whole thing in the fridge for 5 minutes or so to chill. Then, I removed it and whipped it up some more.

You want about 3 to 4 minutes of beating at high speed to really incorporate the air into the oils and butter. Right before you are done, add the coffee and vanilla extracts and beat a few seconds to mix. Here is my homemade shea butter scrub at this point:

Step Four:  Add in your exfoliating brown sugar and finely ground coffee. I used about 3/4 cup brown sugar and 1/3 cup finely ground coffee. The coffee is a harder exfoliator than the sugar so adjust your quantities according to your skin type.

Make sure you have broken up all the lumps before adding to your butter/oil mix. Using a wooden spoon, just gently fold in the sugar and coffee. Mix until combined.

 

Step Five:  Package as desired! If you are giving this as a gift, place in a pretty jar and sprinkle the top with a little extra brown sugar and coffee for decoration before putting on the lid and adding some ribbon and/or a label.

If you are just making this for yourself, you don’t have to get quite so fancy! This will make about 3 cups of shea butter scrub and a little goes a long way!

That’s it! Making a homemade shea butter scrub is actually pretty easy and in the shower it is absolutely incredibly smelling! My skin feels soft and smooth and I don’t have to use a separate moisturizer when I get out. Check out my post 15 Natural Sugar Scrub Recipes for more homemade scrub ideas. 

Printable Brown Sugar Shea Butter Scrub Recipe

Here is the recipe for a whipped scrub using shea butter. ENJOY!

Yield: 3 cups

Homemade Shea Butter Scrub with Coffee and Brown Sugar

Print

This homemade shea butter scrub is incredibly rich and moisturizing.  It provides gentle exfoliation and leaves skin soft and smooth. 

Prep Time 1 hour

Active Time 30 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Difficulty medium

Estimated Cost $20

Materials

• 1 cup organic shea butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup finely ground coffee
• 1/4 cup coconut oil (melted)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 TBSP coffee extract

Tools

• Double boiler
• kitchen scale
• hand mixer or stand mixer
• glass bowl
• wooden spoon
• measure cups
• measuring spoons

Instructions

1. Measure out the shea butter on the kitchen scale.
2. Melt shea butter in the top of the double boiler.
3. Remove from heat and pour into a glass bowl.
4. Place the glass bowl in the refrigerator to firm the shea butter up a bit. Stir frequently and chill for about an hour. 
5. Remove from the refrigerator and beat on high for 5 minutes using a hand or stand mixer.
6. Place melted coconut oil and olive oil into a glass measuring cup.
7. Slowly drizzle the oils into the shea butter as you continue to beat on high.
8. Add in coffee extract and vanilla
9. Slowly stir in the ground coffee and brown sugar
10. Package as desired for personal use or gift giving.
11. Use in the shower to moisturize and exfoliate.