# Sugar Scrub Info



## TBandCW (Feb 5, 2016)

I have a client who wants body scrub.  I'm thinking of sugar with a little dendritic salt added to the fo.  Thoughts?

I've never used dendritic salt, but just ordered some to try it out.


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## shunt2011 (Feb 5, 2016)

I make an emulsified sugar scrub that has Ewax and beeswax along with other oils and butter.  I've not used salt so can't speak to that. My customers love the scrub.  So do I


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## TBandCW (Feb 5, 2016)

Thanks!  I tried out a sample of someones body scrub at an event and fell in love with it.  Don't know how to duplicate it though!  :-?


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## shunt2011 (Feb 5, 2016)

If you check out Arianne Arsenault? You tube she shares a recipe and I just tweaked it several time till I got something I liked.


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## snappyllama (Feb 5, 2016)

This is my absolute favorite recipe... although I use beeswax instead of soy since that's what I have on hand.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC-UeGwflC0[/ame]


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## shunt2011 (Feb 5, 2016)

That's similar to mine but tweaked. I forgot to add that I use stearic as well.  Certainly a good place to start.


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## TheDragonGirl (Feb 5, 2016)

I use that one too, tweaked for myself, its a very good one!


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## doriettefarm (Feb 5, 2016)

I've made this one before and really liked it http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com/2010/09/experiments-in-workshop-black-cocoa.html

I didn't have the black cocoa butter so used 10% shea butter & 10% non-deodorized cocoa butter which has a nice chocolate-y scent.  Also added some fine coffee grounds and salted caramel FO along with the sugar . . . super yummy!


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## TBandCW (Feb 6, 2016)

I checked my "soap stock" and found ewax, liquid germall plus and with my shea butter and various oils I will start experimenting!  You all gave me a great start!  I need to make this now, as I have just ordered the jars for it......:? (cart before the horse)


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## LisaAnne (Feb 14, 2016)

snappyllama said:


> This is my absolute favorite recipe... although I use beeswax instead of soy since that's what I have on hand.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC-UeGwflC0


Snappyllama (love the name by the way) thanks for this post. My interests are soap and body Butter and they keep me busy
Learning! But I have a lady that asked for a scrub so I told her give me a week to look into it. This recipe looks great. The only thing I don't have is the soft  and silky emulsifier wax. I have beeswax and PKO, can either substitute? I'm willing to wait and order the soft and silky if that is an absolute, because I want her to be happy with what I come up with. Thanks


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## TBandCW (Feb 14, 2016)

Well, I made the scrub one with RBO and the other with OO.  Both are similar, but I think the OO won out by a hair.  I have the soft and silky ewax on my wish list for next order.


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## snappyllama (Feb 14, 2016)

LisaAnne said:


> Snappyllama (love the name by the way) thanks for this post. My interests are soap and body Butter and they keep me busy
> Learning! But I have a lady that asked for a scrub so I told her give me a week to look into it. This recipe looks great. The only thing I don't have is the soft  and silky emulsifier wax. I have beeswax and PKO, can either substitute? I'm willing to wait and order the soft and silky if that is an absolute, because I want her to be happy with what I come up with. Thanks



Thanks!

Do you have any other emulsifiers handy? The Silky Wax is actually a combination of Cetearyl Alcohol and Ceteareth 20.  That's what allows the oils to change into a lotion when you rub it on your hands.


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## LisaAnne (Feb 14, 2016)

snappyllama said:


> Thanks!
> 
> Do you have any other emulsifiers handy? The Silky Wax is actually a combination of Cetearyl Alcohol and Ceteareth 20.  That's what allows the oils to change into a lotion when you rub it on your hands.




Don't have either, so I will go ahead and order the
Silky stuff. Thanks so much!

I'm hoping someone might  be able to help me with this. I finally have my soft and silky e-wax to emulsify my sugar scrub, I'm going to make spicy pinecones. Looking at the recipe today, I can not find my soy wax (in my newly straightened up soap area). I'm sure my bees wax won't work, but would palm kernel flakes make a decent substitute? I really don't want to drive thirty minutes to get soy wax for a one time salt scrub. A lady asked for some and I said sure. But if soy wax is crucial I can get some if I must. Thanks



shunt2011 said:


> I make an emulsified sugar scrub that has Ewax and beeswax along with other oils and butter.  I've not used salt so can't speak to that. My customers love the scrub.  So do I



I just saw you use beeswax, would you mind telling me at what percentage I could use it?


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## shunt2011 (Feb 23, 2016)

LisaAnne said:


> I'm hoping someone might be able to help me with this. I finally have my soft and silky e-wax to emulsify my sugar scrub, I'm going to make spicy pinecones. Looking at the recipe today, I can not find my soy wax (in my newly straightened up soap area). I'm sure my bees wax won't work, but would palm kernel flakes make a decent substitute? I really don't want to drive thirty minutes to get soy wax for a one time salt scrub. A lady asked for some and I said sure. But if soy wax is crucial I can get some if I must. Thanks


 
You can use beeswax, just start with a bit less as beeswax is harder than soy wax.  I use beeswax in mine.  Will take a bit of testing to get it to the consistency you like.


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## LisaAnne (Feb 23, 2016)

shunt2011 said:


> You can use beeswax, just start with a bit less as beeswax is harder than soy wax.  I use beeswax in mine.  Will take a bit of testing to get it to the consistency you like.[/QUOTE
> 
> Thanks, I really am not looking to make this again anytime soon. So I guess I can use beeswax at half the amount for soy wax. Does that sound about right? I'm going to have to look into scrubs now, it's about the only thing I haven't tried making.


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## shunt2011 (Feb 23, 2016)

I'm not sure as I've not ever used soy wax.   I would start at half if it were me.  Maybe a bit more than half.


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## LisaAnne (Feb 23, 2016)

shunt2011 said:


> I'm not sure as I've not ever used soy wax.   I would start at half if it were me.  Maybe a bit more than half.


Thanks so much shunt. I panicked! So now I'm going to step back and study sugar scrubs before I even try and make it. I don't think a day or two wait will hurt. In fact I'm reading about a cream sugar scrub recipe.
I should have known better than trying to make something I know nothing about. Again thank you.


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## DeeAnna (Feb 23, 2016)

I hesitate to add more cooks to this soup pot, but here goes -- I started with Arianne Arsenault's emulsified scrub that includes beeswax. When I got done tweaking, my scrub recipe didn't include any wax at all.

The key to keeping the scrub from being a gloppy mess is to use a fat that is solid at room temperature such as lard, tallow, palm, cocoa butter, etc. in place of the wax. I included a preservative, just to be on the safe side, and used some clay (pink clay or french green) purely for color. Here's the recipe:

Base --
liquid oil ... 46.7%
solid fat ... 31.2%
e-wax ... 17.3% (can vary up or down 1-2% depending on the skin feel you want)
fragrance ... 3.0% (may vary from 1% to 3%)
clay ... 1.3% (used for color)
preservative ... 0.5%

Add sugar to the base at 150% of the base weight. (Example: 100 g base + 150 g sugar)


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## LisaAnne (Feb 24, 2016)

DeeAnna said:


> I hesitate to add more cooks to this soup pot, but here goes -- I started with Arianne Arsenault's emulsified scrub that includes beeswax. When I got done tweaking, my scrub recipe didn't include any wax at all.
> 
> Actually spent hours on YouTube, Google and then landed on swiftcraftmonkey and have pages and pages of notes. Having enough understanding of each ingredient I believe I can formulate a recipe and tweak it from there. Also have substitutions for ingredients that she uses on swift that I don't have. I appreciate your added information on no waxes and using the butters to pull the ingredients together, i hadn't read that anywhere and will be using your method, thanks.


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## DeeAnna (Feb 24, 2016)

Your question about using palm kernel flakes as a sub for the beeswax or soy wax is what sparked my memory -- thanks for the "spark!"

I like the use of the solid fat vs. a wax because the fat may be more valuable as a skin conditioner. Wax is occlusive, meaning it forms a barrier that reduces moisture loss from the skin. That's a desirable quality especially on dry or irritated skin, but something like palm or tallow is also soothing and emollient (lubricates) as well as being occlusive.

The green clay and a manly scent turns this into a hard working hand scrub. Some or all of the sugar could be replaced with pumice for a scrub better suited for greasy, dirty hands. The pink clay and a feminine or soft unisex scent makes it a nice facial scrub.


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## LisaAnne (Feb 24, 2016)

Well I've been on this all day, the whole lotion community is looking for a natural emulsifying agent. You have the closest as far as natural. I imagine you knew this, but I see it is the stearic acid that is in the butters. Kokum at 56, Mango and Shea next down to cocoa at 33%. Palm kernel flakes at 16%.
Anionic oil in water emulsifier, thickening and stabilizing agent. 
It  isn't considered stable, but it's sugar (or maybe salt)  scrub and I'm not selling. 
I do not like wax on my skin. So, looks like no wax in my foot scrub.


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## DeeAnna (Feb 24, 2016)

Actually it's the combination of stearic + palmitic that is the key. 

My latest scrubs and body butters use lard or tallow as the solid fat. Neither of them is super high in stearic alone if you compare them to kokum-shea-mango-cocoa butters. If you look at the combination of stearic and palmitic, however, then tallow and lard start looking much more interesting for products of this type. And they really do work nicely.

We see the same thing in shave soap recipes -- a high combined stearic + palmitic content gives good performance.

I'm not sure what emulsifier you are using, but why wouldn't it be stable in your scrub? Your words are a bit cryptic, so I might be missing the point you're trying to make, but I'm trying to follow along.  In the scrub, as formulated, the emulsifier is not actually functioning as an emulsifier. It is adding some thickening to the scrub, certainly, but there's no water in which to emulsify the fats. It's only when the scrub is rinsed off that the emulsifier actually functions as an emulsifier.


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## LisaAnne (Feb 24, 2016)

Shoot, I was wondering why all the e-waxes when there was no water. I missed the point, it's for rinsing. Like the polysorbate in bath melts. 

Okay, now I see, the Ewax is used for its rinsing abilities, I somehow forgot that part. Am I right? 
My main point is, I no longer need to copy a recipe. I can formulate my own. Thanks for your help! And your patience!


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## DeeAnna (Feb 25, 2016)

"... the Ewax is used for its rinsing abilities, I somehow forgot that part. Am I right? ..."

Yes, perfect! Adjust the e-wax % in the base so the right amount of fat is left on the skin after rinsing. More emulsifier = drier finish, less fat on the skin. The water temperature also affects the amount of fat left behind, so this is not an exact science. I experimented with less and more emulsifier and found a % that left a pleasant lotiony coating on my skin with mildly warm to cool water. I would expect as you change your hard fat (from tallow to palm for example), you'd need to change the % of emulsifier to get the same performance.

"...I no longer need to copy a recipe. I can formulate my own...."

Go for it! Glad I could help.


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## TBandCW (Feb 25, 2016)

I thought ewax was to help make the scrub more solid?  I also used beeswax too and I'm lovin' the way it turned out!  Just ordered the soft and silky ewax yesterday from WSP.  I can't wait to try it!  I'm learning a lot from this thread, thanks to everyone who is posting!


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## DeeAnna (Feb 25, 2016)

"...I thought ewax was to help make the scrub more solid?..."

The main job of the emulsifier is not to thicken the product. It's to make the fats in the scrub soluble in water at the time you begin to rinse the product off. 

Although the secondary job of the emulsifier is to help to thicken the scrub, you don't strictly need any emulsifier if all you want is an ingredient to add thickness. You could make a non-emulsified scrub based on wax or solid fat and tweak the amounts of those ingredients to get the consistency you want.


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## LisaAnne (Feb 25, 2016)

TBandCW said:


> I thought ewax was to help make the scrub more solid?  I also used beeswax too and I'm lovin' the way it turned out!  Just ordered the soft and silky ewax yesterday from WSP.  I can't wait to try it!  I'm learning a lot from this thread, thanks to everyone who is posting!



Glad someone benefits from my slow learning  , also I must tell you between deeanna and swiftcraftmonkey the last couple of days I have a much better understanding of waxes, silicone and such.


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## rainlily (Aug 19, 2019)

Does anyone have any experience using Surfpro Surfactin? It's a naturally derived emulsifier from Lotioncrafter. I've been looking for something for my sugar scrub, liquid soap and oil mix. TIA


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## DeeAnna (Aug 19, 2019)

Your question is so specific about the emulsifier, but is generic about the products you want to use it in. It doesn't really fit well into this thread. I recommend you create a new thread with a well written title. You're more likely to get more people reading and answering than you will by burying your question in this older thread.

Also, please introduce yourself in the Intro forum so we can get to know you better!


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## rainlily (Aug 19, 2019)

thank you


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## linne1gi (Aug 20, 2019)

shunt2011 said:


> You can use beeswax, just start with a bit less as beeswax is harder than soy wax.  I use beeswax in mine.  Will take a bit of testing to get it to the consistency you like.


Beeswax is a hardener, but not an emulsifier.


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## rainlily (Aug 20, 2019)

Thank you. I'm trying something that can be squirted out of a bottle. I'm testing coconut oil at the moment.


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## shunt2011 (Aug 20, 2019)

linne1gi said:


> Beeswax is a hardener, but not an emulsifier.



I use beeswax as well as an emulsifier. I didn’t say it was an emulsifier. And an emulsifier is a thickener not a hardener.


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## Cellador (Aug 20, 2019)

rainlily said:


> Thank you. I'm trying something that can be squirted out of a bottle. I'm testing coconut oil at the moment.


I have used a liquid solubilizer (Cromollient and/or AquaEm) for a squeezable scrub before. I have not used the Surfpro though.


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## rainlily (Aug 20, 2019)

Hmmm...Thank you. I'll look into that.


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