Sweet cocoa

So I went to the store tonight and bought supplies for my first project, sugar scrub.  I wasn't quite sure if I would attempt lemon or vanilla scrub until I got home and realized I forgot to buy lemons.  Vanilla brown sugar it is!  I followed this recipe with a slight change.

Instead of 2 cups of brown sugar and 1 cup of white, I flip flopped it.  Brown sugar was more expensive and with a big list of stuff to make and a penny conscious husband, I decided to try it out.  I also followed the advice of several recipes I had read that said my love, olive oil, had a stronger smell and it might be wise to use an oil with a softer smell.  The above recipe called for sunflower oil.  Good thing because other than olive, vegetable and canola, was the only oil I had seen mentioned in recipes that my super Walmart actually sold.  Perhaps my grocery store would have other options?

After about an hour of putzing around playing majohng on lifetime games, I got to work.  Followed the recipe with the above mentioned switch.  It.smelled.horrible.  I tried adding more vanilla.  Just smelled like alcohol and grossness.  I sniffed the sunflower oil bottle.  Yep, that's the culprit.  Recalling some other advice from another recipe that said to use pretty much anything in your cupboard that you would eat, I grabbed some lavender green tea.  The bag smelled heavenly.  I added a tablespoon to the mix.  Made no difference.  Added a second.  Same results.

I grabbed another small bowl and tried all white sugar with the oil and just the tea.  No dice.  The sunflower oil was overwhelming.  I headed back to the cupboard and grabbed my bottle of olive oil and gave it a sniff.  It was stronger than the sunflower oil.  After resisting the urge to grab a piece of bread and some balsamic vinegar, I put the cap back on and headed back to my sugar mess.  I was giving up going to do more research for the night.  I was hoping that if I did some more internet stalking, I could find a way to doctor my current batch and save it.  So I loaded it into 2 large mason jars that I had in my cupboard and resigned myself to the fact that this venture might be a failure.  I couldn't figure out how this smelled so horribly and all these people online were raving about it.  I found the smell so offensive that it made me nauseous.   And they really suggested giving it as gifts?  Yuk.  I would be embarrassed to give this away.  Honestly, if someone smelled it before they took it home, I don't think I could give it as a gift.

Despite my feeling of defeat, I took one last peek in my cupboards as I was putting the sugar away and my eyes fell on my cocoa powder.  Hmmmm.  Put anything in that you would eat.  I also remember reading a ton over the last few years about the antioxidants and other wonderful benefits of chocolate.  It was worth a try.  I took the sugar back out and poured it into the smallest Corningwear bowl I had.  Added some cocoa and more sunflower oil.  The smell wasn't entirely offensive.  I added a little vanilla.  Yep, alcohol and oil again.  Although this time, the cocoa seemed to dull the sunflower smell.  Mixed it more and added a bit more cocoa.  I was on the fence about it so decided to try it.  I was a little worried about the cocoa on my hands and needing soap to get it off thereby negating the positive and moisturizing effects of the oil.  Well, the water washed it away without a problem and I had a nice cocoa aroma at my sink.

Now I wanted to see if I was crazy and if anyone had attempted this before.  As I was typing away, I stopped and gave my hand a sniff.  Mmmm, cocoa.  It wasn't overpowering, but it was lovely.  Perhaps using this will help my chocolate cravings without having to eat chocolate?  Wishful thinking probably.  At any rate, I had read some good skin benefits from cocoa, but no scrubs with it.  There are a few face masks and commercially prepared skin products that do contain cocoa though.  Maybe I invented the first cocoa sugar scrub?

It's been about an hour since I first used it and my hands feel great.  They're not greasy, just smooth and the sugar made them feel rejuvenated.  Not to mention the slight cocoa smell that's lingering.  I'm in love...and I think I'm a bit of a genius.  Here's the recipe.

2 cups white sugar
1 1/3 cup cocoa
3/4 cup sunflower oil
This makes enough for 3 half pint jars.

My personal preference would be to have a bit more oil but I was afraid of killing the smell of the batch.  Overall, I'm super happy with how it turned out.  The only negative of the night?  Getting chocolate on my only nice white nursing tank.  Let's hope some oxyclean will do the trick.  I'm off to make a few more batches and cross one project off my Christmas list!

Mixing the second batch.  I forgot to mix the sugar and cocoa before I added the oil this time.  It didn't have any ill effect

The scrub in jars.  Yes I'm a dork and drew a little heart with a knife in the top.

You can see the larger jars with the initial scrub in them.  Looks kinda gross, huh?  It was.  I was reminded when I emptied and cleaned out the jars.  My stomach hated me when I emptied them out.

The almost finished product.  I just need to get labels and tie some ribbon around the jars.  That's my next project.  I love that my hands still smell like cocoa.

Just wish the jars tops weren't so ugly.  I guess I have to embrace the picnic blanket gingham unless any of my 3 readers have any ideas on how to cover it.  Fabric completely over the top of the jars tied with a ribbon?  Modge Podge something?