When you start gardening, you don’t expect to need a gardener’s hand scrub, but you quickly learn that you do.
We love taking care of your flowers, veggies, and organic fruits, so there’s no reason to let self—care—especially hand care—take a backseat.
And we don’t have to make it expensive with fancy lotions and creams. A simple homemade hand scrub will do the job.
When we began realizing that some lemon and water wasn’t removing the hard dirt from our hands and nails, we wanted to create our own that was healthy, organic, and worked!
We did, and now we are sharing it with you!
What You Need for Your Homemade Gardener’s Hand Scrub
This homemade hand scrub recipe will probably be one where you find everything at home—no need for a trip to the supermarket.
- 1 cup sugar (both white and brown will work)
- 1 tablespoon of sea salt
- ¼ cup Epsom salt
- ½ cup coconut oil
- 20 drops rosemary essential oil
- 1 tablespoon castile soap (unscented)
How to Make Homemade Gardeners Hand Scrub
The steps are super simple, considering how effective the scrub is.
- Melt the coconut oil in a bowl until it becomes liquid.
- Mix in the castile soap.
- Add the sugar and salt.
- Stir vigorously to “whip” the mixture.
- Add essential oil if desired.
- Transfer to a glass jar for hand scrub.
Voila—you have your hydrating and amazing homemade hand scrub ready in just 6 simple steps!
How to Use Your Gardener’s Hand Scrub
Scoop a dollop of the homemade hand scrub onto your dirty, garden-stained hands. Use a nail brush to scrub and exfoliate every inch of the skin on your hands.
Rinse with warm water and pat dry.
Follow up with some gardener’s hand cream to give your skin the next level of moisturization. We love Earth Therapeutics Gardener’s Hand Repair.
Tip: If your hands feel too greasy after washing off the hand scrub, you can rewash them with eco-friendly hand soap before applying the hand cream.
Why the Gardeners Hand Scrub Recipe Works
The combined effects of the gardener’s hand scrub ingredients make it the perfect cleanser, exfoliator, and moisturizer for our dedicated gardeners who spend their days digging in the dirt.
Sugar provides gentle abrasion and acts as a natural humectant to attract moisture from the environment into the skin.
Like sugar, sea salt and Epsom salt help slough off dead skin. They are particularly great for tougher areas of the skin that need more vigorous scrubbing.
The minerals in sea salt and the anti-inflammatory properties of Epsom salt both come together to promote healing and relieve muscle soreness.
Coconut oil is a great moisturizer that nourishes the skin thoroughly and has antimicrobial properties that protect it from infections.
Rosemary offers a fresh, herbal scent that creates a refreshing aroma. It also stimulates circulation.
Castile soap (made of olive oil) provides great cleansing without stripping off the skin of its natural oils. It’s the primary essential ingredient for the gardener’s hand scrub.
Makes a Great Sustainable Gift
Did you enjoy the recipe? You can even gift it to your family and friends! Pair the scrub with a wooden scoop and a small pumice stone.
Don’t forget to tie the neck of the jar with a ribbon or twine for a sustainable-fancy touch.
Prepare a foot scrub with similar ingredients and present both scrubs in a gift box to go to the next level.
FAQs | Frequently Asked Questions
You can use it on your body when you need to exfoliate. The sugar and salt may make it more abrasive than what you need, but it is all-natural.
It works as a hand wash when you have much to remove from your hands. However, we would not recommend using it regularly because it exfoliates.
You can change it up. We like the rosemary due to its circulation properties.
