Emulsified Sugar Scrub - where to start?

BlackDog · May 4, 2016

I tried a sugar scrub (commercially bought) for the first time and I'm in love. So of course the first thing I think to myself is "I bet I can make this."

So I've been poking around online a bit for a basic recipe to get my feet wet, but I can't find anything that explains what I need as a minimum and why. Like, everyone's recipe has 25 different fancy ingredients in it that I don't really want to buy when I don't know what they bring to the recipe. I just want to exfoliate!

It looks like I'm going to have to buy e-wax and stearic acid, but other than that, do I need anything other than what I use for soap? I have the following ingredients on hand:

Olive Oil, Coconut Oil (76), Sweet Almond Oil, Avocado Oil, Castor Oil, Lard, Cocoa Butter, Shea Butter, and a host of essential and fragrance oils. And, of course, sugar.

I'd like to start with a basic recipe that I can use to experiment with and tweak. Can anyone point me in a good direction to start?

shunt2011 · May 4, 2016

You could make a nice scrub with what you have on hand. But will need stearic and ewax. Spicy pine cone and Ariana Arsenault have YouTube on making emulsified scrubs. You can tweak it with what you have on hand. I watched several videos then went from there with mine. I use 3 oils and Shea.

DeeAnna · May 4, 2016

Check these threads out:
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?p=580947
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=17500

BlackDog · May 4, 2016

Thanks for replying, shunt. I checked out the Spicy Pinecone recipe, which is:

30 oz granulated sugar
9.5 oz sweet almond oil
1.65 oz avocado oil
1.35 oz pumpkin seed oil
3 oz coconut oil
2 oz e-wax
1 oz soy wax
12.5 grams Optiphen plus
fragrance

Questions:

Her recipe totals 12.5 total oz of some soft oil combination, plus 3 oz of hard oil (coconut) but no butter, plus a 2:1 e-wax to soy wax. That seems like a lot of soft oils, but since I've never made it before, is it the addition of the soy wax that makes it harder? Could I replace the soy wax with, say, shea butter? Or beeswax (my neighbor keeps bees and it's easy for me to get)?

I'm assuming the Optiphen Plus is used since water will get in the container in the shower. Since Sarah uses grams for her preservative and ounces for everything else, is there a good guideline to go by when adding preservative in case I resize the recipe? Kind of like IrishLass' equation for adding EDTA to CP?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm the type that needs to research every stupid detail before I jump in!

DeeAnna · May 5, 2016

Don't work in mixed units of weight. Not sure why people do that, meaning publish recipes in mixed units. It's a great way to screw up.

Convert the ounces weight to grams. There are 28.4 grams per 1 ounce. When making the product, set your scale to grams and stick with grams. Far less chance of making a mistake than working with mixed units.

Go back to the supplier and hunt up the information about your chosen preservative to properly calculate the dosage rate. They're all different, so you're not going to find a single guideline for this. Once your recipe is in grams, you'll get a preservative amount in grams and can move on without getting lost in the math of converting units and all that.

shunt2011 · May 5, 2016

I agree with DeeAnna. WSP has a calulator that you can figure batch size and will convert to ounce/grams etc. I too work in grams.

BlackDog · May 5, 2016

Oh hey DeeAnna! Somehow I missed your post when I wrote my reply. The formula you posted in that first thread is suuuper helpful. I didn't necessarily want a recipe so much as a guideline for how much of each component. Now I can start with some basic oils and go from there.

I always hate when people put multiple measuring types in a recipe too. Pick one! But the .5% in your post is what I was looking for - just needed to know a percentage since the only body product I've ever made is CP soap and I've never dealt with preservatives before.

Seawolfe · May 5, 2016

In my two forays into sugar scrubs I have learned things.

The scrubs that aren't emulsified (just oils and butters with sugar) are really good for my hands, arms and legs when I've been brutalized by the outdoors, but they DO need anti oxidants and a preservative like phenonip or they can go funky. And they certainly arent for every day use. These are easy to make - add oils to sugar till it looks right.

The emulsified scrubs are lovely for my face and body, and can be used more often - especially if I don't want to use lotion after I shower

For emulsified scrubs use the formulas already posted and get thee to the Swifty Crafty Monkey blog!

Now sugar scrub cubes with soap? Ive made them with soap scraps and Im still not convinced...

BlackDog · May 5, 2016

Seawolfe said:
For emulsified scrubs use the formulas already posted and get the to the Swifty Crafty Monkey blog!

omg this blog is amazing. How did I not know it existed??

Dahila · May 5, 2016

I make one I had learned from Susan

The videos I had seen show not exactly emulsified sugar scrub. Emuslified sugar scrub is lotion (kind of ) the consistency of pudding plus sugar. Very easy to make, quick and rewarding

)
I just tweak Susan's for my needs, and because I can

)

doriettefarm · May 6, 2016

I love the black cocoa butter sugar scrub on swiftcraftmonkey's site (her blog is amazing)! It's a really nice recipe . . . whips up light and fluffy, not oily so no separation issues. I'm not sure how much better it would be with actual black cocoa butter but I use undeodorized cocoa butter and it turns out just fine.

BlackDog · May 8, 2016

I've noticed a lot of recipes, including the SCM one, include stearic acid. How does this affect the recipe? And why would I want or not want to use it?

cmzaha · May 8, 2016

Optiphen Plus useage rate is .5-1.5% and I would use the max in a scrub, since wet hands will probably be go into the scrub. I would use 20 grams of Optiphen Plus.

Navaria · May 8, 2016

Steric is kind of a B&B powerhouse. It's a lubricant, and emulsifier, and a surfactant, depending on what it's used with. It also helps form a protective barrier to hold the moisture in your skin.

ETA:http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com/2010/02/e-mail-question-why-include-stearic.html
She explains it much better than I do

nframe · May 14, 2016

doriettefarm said:
I love the black cocoa butter sugar scrub on swiftcraftmonkey's site (her blog is amazing)! It's a really nice recipe . . . whips up light and fluffy, not oily so no separation issues. I'm not sure how much better it would be with actual black cocoa butter but I use undeodorized cocoa butter and it turns out just fine.

I agree with you about the recipe. It's very good. I tried it with black cocoa butter and my towel was full of dark brown stains afterwards. The only way it can be used is if you wash with soap afterwards. I will try it again but with "normal" cocoa butter instead.

snappyllama · May 14, 2016

Like Deanna, I convert every recipe into grams (thanks spreadsheet programs!). It makes it easy to resize and be much more accurate with measuring. Once my recipe is my spreadsheet... a quick cell value change is all I need to recalculate a 150gm personal batch into a 2409gm gift batch.

1 oz = 28.3495 grams

Modifying the carrier oils is a great way to change up the feel. When I wanted a lighter feeling scrub: I replaced the Avocado with Hazelnut. I've made a bunch of variations of my scrub but try to keep the percentages the same for the body feel of each component once I found the proportions that worked best for me. So Sweet Almond has gotten replaced with Apricot Kernel, etc.

Another thing to consider is the shelf life of your components. I wouldn't make a huge container of scrubs with hemp and grapeseed since they go off so quickly.

I'll gush on scrubs for a minute: Scrub scrubs are great. They are incredibly easy to make, incredibly hard to entirely mess up, inexpensive to make, cost a lot to buy pre-made at a store, can be used right away, and lovely on the skin. Best of all: friends are impressed by them (a.k.a. make nice quick gifts).

kumudini · May 14, 2016

snappyllama said:
Like Deanna, I convert every recipe into grams (thanks spreadsheet programs!). It makes it easy to resize and be much more accurate with measuring. Once my recipe is my spreadsheet... a quick cell value change is all I need to recalculate a 150gm personal batch into a 2409gm gift batch.

1 oz = 28.3495 grams

Modifying the carrier oils is a great way to change up the feel. When I wanted a lighter feeling scrub: I replaced the Avocado with Hazelnut. I've made a bunch of variations of my scrub but try to keep the percentages the same for the body feel of each component once I found the proportions that worked best for me. So Sweet Almond has gotten replaced with Apricot Kernel, etc.

Another thing to consider is the shelf life of your components. I wouldn't make a huge container of scrubs with hemp and grapeseed since they go off so quickly.

I'll gush on scrubs for a minute: Scrub scrubs are great. They are incredibly easy to make, incredibly hard to entirely mess up, inexpensive to make, cost a lot to buy pre-made at a store, can be used right away, and lovely on the skin. Best of all: friends are impressed by them (a.k.a. make nice quick gifts).

And Snappy makes awesome sugar scrubs. I'm saving that jar of sugar fairy from the last winter swap, until I make my own.

snappyllama · May 14, 2016

kumudini said:
And Snappy makes awesome sugar scrubs. I'm saving that jar of sugar fairy from the last winter swap, until I make my own.

Aww, thanks!

Aline · May 14, 2016

DeeAnna said:
Don't work in mixed units of weight. Not sure why people do that, meaning publish recipes in mixed units. It's a great way to screw up.

Ha, I was just thinking about that. Looking at lotion bar recipes I quickly realized that people who don't do this for a living mix up all sorts of units, including teaspoons and tablespoons! Gaah.

DeeAnna · May 14, 2016

I'd never make anything right if I had to switch from grams to ounces and back again. If I just stick with grams, I'm pretty safe most of the time. I even convert teaspoons and tablespoons to grams so I don't have to dirty up a measuring spoon.

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