# Can I Make Sugar/Salt Scrub?



## BrewerGeorge (Apr 5, 2017)

First, I've read three pages of SMF Google search hits on "Sugar Scrub" without  really finding an answer.  So if you're thinking of linking something, I've probably already seen it. 

The wife was gifted a sugar scrub made by a friend of hers that she liked, and asked if I could make something similar.  It was a very thick paste, scooped out with the hands.  This woman doesn't really make cosmetics, but found a recipe online and followed it.  When I asked her about it, she was unsure but said it was just coconut oil, olive oil, and sugar, plus some scent.  No preservative, no emulsifier.

I'd like to do a little better than that.  I've seen lots of recipes, but I don't know enough to judge them, and I don't have some of the stuff they call for.  I don't really want to buy a bunch of new ingredients until I have some idea if she's going to like the results.

Can I make something from the following stuff I have onhand?
Typical soap-making oils, plus apricot kernel, sweet almond, jojoba, almond and tamanu
cocoa, shea, and mango butters
beeswax
stearic acid
polysorbate 80
vegetable glycerin

All my thread reading has led me to believe that I can probably do something with a butter, a soft oil, maybe some stearic and PS80 so it rinses off.  Does that sound like it's in the ballpark?

Also notice that my list does not include any preservative.  That would be something I'd add after she gave the go-ahead on unpreserved samples.  Unless I'm mistaken, though, I don't need it to experiment, correct?

And on the subject of preservatives, what about salt?  If the scrub was half-sugar, half-salt for example, could the salt act to keep the nasties out?


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## toxikon (Apr 5, 2017)

This might help you out: http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.ca/search?q=sugar+scrub


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## BrewerGeorge (Apr 5, 2017)

toxikon said:


> This might help you out: http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.ca/search?q=sugar+scrub



Thanks. That does help, but it still references an Ewax.  I don't have one of those onhand, and I'm especially wondering if I can substitute PS80 - considering that the emulsifier is only used for rinsing and the product itself isn't emulsified.


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## toxikon (Apr 5, 2017)

BrewerGeorge said:


> Thanks. That does help, but it still references an Ewax.  I don't have one of those onhand, and I'm especially wondering if I can substitute PS80 - considering that the emulsifier is only used for rinsing and the product itself isn't emulsified.



The link should take you to ALL Susan's blog posts about making sugar scrubs. There is an absolute ton of content to sift through on her site, but it does make for a fascinating read.

This particular one seems to be a very beginner-friendly recipe for salt scrubs: http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.ca/2010/07/back-to-basics-oil-based-scrubs.html


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## BrewerGeorge (Apr 5, 2017)

toxikon said:


> The link should take you to ALL Susan's blog posts about making sugar scrubs. There is an absolute ton of content to sift through on her site, but it does make for a fascinating read.
> 
> This particular one seems to be a very beginner-friendly recipe for salt scrubs: http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.ca/2010/07/back-to-basics-oil-based-scrubs.html



LOL, I just realized that and came back to post my _mea culpa_.   I'd seen that top post already and didn't realize anything was below it when I posted before.


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## toxikon (Apr 5, 2017)

This one seems pretty promising: http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.ca/2010/07/back-to-basics-modifying-oil-based.html


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## BrewerGeorge (Apr 5, 2017)

toxikon said:


> This one seems pretty promising: http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.ca/2010/07/back-to-basics-modifying-oil-based.html



You're right, that's very promising.  What about adding a little PS80 to that? (How much?)


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## toxikon (Apr 5, 2017)

BrewerGeorge said:


> You're right, that's very promising.  What about adding a little PS80 to that? (How much?)



As far as I know, PS80 (and 20) are solubilizers which are used if you want to add fragrance oils/other oils to water-based products (in addition to your emulsifiers and preservatives). The body butter/oil-based scrub recipe are pure oil (no water content) so I don't think polysorbate would add any value.


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## Dahila (Apr 5, 2017)

I follow switft monkey sugar scrub with some tweaks and it is a wonderful.  So easy to make


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## earlene (Apr 5, 2017)

I really really enjoyed a sugar scrub I bought once while on vacation with my husband, so when I ran out decided to try making one for myself.  I saved a couple of recipes I found online in my favorites and will link them here.

As I recall, the list of ingredients was either no longer readable on the container, or I didn't quite understand everything I was reading at the time, so I didn't try to re-create the scrub I bought.  I just went with one of these below (don't remember which one or if it was just a sort of combo of the two), but it didn't seem to be as nice as the store bought one was.  I also did not add any preservative because I didn't have any at the time.  But I will if I ever make any again because water always gets into the container since I use the sugar scrub while still in the shower or bath.

Wellness Mama simple sugar scrub: https://wellnessmama.com/3628/sugar-scrub-recipe/
Whole New Woman sugar scrub (scroll way down for the recipe): https://wholenewmom.com/health-concerns/homemade-sugar-scrub/

Soaping101 also has a video, too.


There were more complex recipes I found too, but they called for ingredients I did not then have on hand, but I'm sure you found those kinds of recipes, too.


As it happens, I decided to make a sugar scrub AND a salt scrub, so two jars of scrubs.  I don't really recall what oils I used at the time, it could have been anything, but I'm thinking it was probably grapeseed oil because one of the jars went rancid before I used it all up and I had to toss it.

But for me, my take-away is that the oil choice is important to prevent the item going rancid if it sits in a bathroom that might get hot and humid over time AND the preservative is really necessary to keep the product viable even for my own personal use.  The second is because even though I did not make a large quantity, they still lasted a long enough time to go rancid, which means it was certainly long enough for microbes to grow.  The other take-away is this:  read the label on the one I really liked from the store and take note of the ingredients list, then try to duplicate it if possible.


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## doriettefarm (Apr 5, 2017)

In addition to swifty's blog, you could check out free recipes on SoapQueen and WholesaleSuppliesPlus websites.


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## dibbles (Apr 5, 2017)

Lots of videos on youtube too. I don't know how good they are, but you could see the process.


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## DeeAnna (Apr 5, 2017)

Okay, so you're getting a lot of generic info that's probably good, but not really addressing your issue. I don't know that anyone has a clear answer to your specific question -- I sure don't, but I can conceptualize. So getting back to the idea of creating an emulsifying scrub with the ingredients you have on hand --

The only ingredient you have that has any chance of emulsifying the scrub when rinsed off is your PS 80. Problem is that it's a liquid, so you're going to have to thicken it up with your butters or stearic acid or both to get a paste consistency. But the more fats you use, the more PS 80 you'll need to emulsify, and so on. You're into a bit of a vicious circle there. Stearic might also alter the PS 80 required. When setting the amount of emulsifier to use in a lotion, for example, you'd base that amount on the total weight of thickeners like stearic along with the fats and any other oil soluble ingredients. 

To get started, the first thing to figure out is if PS 80 will actually emulsify the fats. I'd start with an interesting blend of fats, leaning more toward the ones that are solid at room temp, and see if you can mix in enough PS 80 to do the job without making a soupy mess. I know PS 80 WILL emulsify or solubilize a modest amount of heavier carrier fats when I've made other products, so it's worth a try in this instance, but I'd sure make only a tiny test batch to test the concept.

Assuming you can find a mixture that seems to do the job, I'd then start adding stearic acid to thicken the product if needed and adjust the PS 80 to compensate for the stearic. Somehow beeswax doesn't seem too appealing to me for this type of product, but it might be an alternative to the stearic. I doubt you're going to need any glycerin.


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## doriettefarm (Apr 5, 2017)

I have to ditto DeeAnna's comment about the beeswax.  I have tried SoapQueen's emulsified scrub recipe which contains both beeswax and ewax.  Didn't really like how it felt compared to scrubs that only use ewax . . . it was just draggy feeling on the skin.  I've never experimented with PS80 as an ewax substitute so agree that a small test batch would be prudent.


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## DeeAnna (Apr 5, 2017)

There's a bit of confusion about solubilizing and emulsifying. The process is pretty much the same in either case -- it's just the particle size that is the difference. 

An emulsion is a mixture of tiny droplets or particles of one substance floating in a continuous bath of another substance. Fog is an emulsion of water droplets floating in a bath of air, for example. A simple lotion is an emulsion of fat droplets suspended in a bath of water. A droplet would include several to many molecules.

The small droplets or particles of the dispersed phase cause the emulsion to be opaque or translucent to light and cause the emulsion to be thicker than the main ingredients in the emulsion. Think about mayonnaise -- it contains two main ingredients, oil and water. Both ingredients are transparent and fairly thin/flowable. Mayo is opaque off-white and very thick.

A solution is a mixture of various molecules, more or less separate, that are evenly blended together. There are no multi-molecule droplets of one material floating around to thicken the mixture and obscure the light. 

PS 80 has the ability to make a stable emulsion of a modest amount of fats in a lot of water-based liquid (the mixture will be cloudy) or make a stable solution of the same (the mixture will be clear). It's really cool that PS 80 can actually solubilize fats in water to make a clear mixture, but PS 80 only has a limited capacity to do that. Same for emulsification -- there are much better emulsifiers out there that can do a better job of emulsification. That's why I'm not sure PS 80 will work in Brewer George's application, but it's worth a shot. Perhaps he will find his Mad Scientist hat and experiment.


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## BattleGnome (Apr 5, 2017)

I had a nice post typed up then the internet crapped on me: here's the quick version

In my experience all an emulsifier does is change how the product rinses off. It might be dependent on the scrub but I once used a Burt's Bees scrub with no emulsifier didn't feel any different from a scrub I made with similar oils. This may be effected by the emulsifier you use.

You can play with oils to get the feel right before playing with an emulsifier to get the rinse right. Just make sure to add a disclaimer about needing to rinse with soap or use foot protection immediately out of the shower to prevent slipping.


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## SunRiseArts (Apr 5, 2017)

Soap queen on the tube has a really good tutorial for this.  But I say, while I have made this before, and they are yummy for the skin, I will never use sugar in any bath product again, because it was not even that hot outside, and ants came in out of nowhere.


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## Seawolfe (Apr 5, 2017)

I have to say - I've made and used the emulsified sugar scrub from SCM's recipe, and I didn't care for it that much. I really do love a basic sugar scrub with fancy oils, sugar and EO's.  It makes the bath slippery for hubby - but I'M WORTH IT!! 

Edit - with your supply list - Id use the Sweet Almond Oil, Apricot Kernel oil and sugar, and be perfectly happy.


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## Dahila (Apr 6, 2017)

I make this more or less, I tend to change things as I go. Credit to swiftmonkey

EMULSIFIED SUGAR SCRUB


10% emulsifying wax (e-wax, Polawax, BTMS-50, BTMS-25 BTMS-225)
10% cetyl, cetearyl, or behenyl alcohol or stearic acid (5% cetyl and 5% stearic is very nice)
10% cocoa butter (or other really hard butter)
10% shea or mango butter (or quite soft butter - shea aloe would be great here)
56% oil
1% Phenonip
1% Vitamin E (optional)
2% fragrance or essential oil (optional)
Weigh all ingredients except the fragrance or essential oil in a heat proof container and put into a double boiler. Heat and hold for 20 minutes at 70C. Remove from the double boiler and put into your fridge or freezer until it reaches 45C. Add the fragrance oil, then return it to the fridge or freezer to cool further.

When the mixture starts to harden slightly on the sides of the container and gets a thick film on the top, remove it from the fridge or freezer and start whipping it with a hand mixer with whisk attachments or your Kitchenaid with whisk attachments. Whisk until it looks like vanilla pudding - this might take a little while - then add the sugar and whisk until well incorporated. Pour into jars and let sit until hardened.
the best one is with BMTS-50 or Emulsimulse


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## mariame16 (Jul 25, 2018)

Dahila said:


> I make this more or less, I tend to change things as I go. Credit to swiftmonkey
> 
> EMULSIFIED SUGAR SCRUB
> 
> ...



Do you calculate the sugar into the percentage of the preservative pls?


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## Dahila (Jul 25, 2018)

mariame16 said:


> Do you calculate the sugar into the percentage of the preservative pls?


no,  just the base , but let me check my soapmaker 3,  no ,  I summed all up and added 1% of preservative,  If you use Germall it would be 0.5 .   My sugar scrubs do not sell well so I do not make them often  good luck with it


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