Emulsified Sugar Scrub Questions!

[pjknight]

Sorry!!
I was looking at your original recipe! You have 2 oz of oil or 1 oz each so 10% each for a total of 20% oils. I scrolled back too far in the thread.

lol! yes i changed it to make the calculation easier!

Ah, gotcha. The greasy feeling is probably from the oils that you used. You can offset that with a little bit of isopropyl myristate, or you can use lighter oils like grapeseed (low price) or meadowfoam seed (pricey). You can also try upping the emulsifier or lowering the amount of oil to see if that helps.

Make one change at a time, and small batches, so you know what is working and what isn't. You got this!

got it! Thank you so much for all your help today! Im going to make a small test batch tomorrow

 

[pjknight]

Ah, gotcha. The greasy feeling is probably from the oils that you used. You can offset that with a little bit of isopropyl myristate, or you can use lighter oils like grapeseed (low price) or meadowfoam seed (pricey). You can also try upping the emulsifier or lowering the amount of oil to see if that helps.

Make one change at a time, and small batches, so you know what is working and what isn't. You got this!

Yes, you change it back to weight when you are ready to make your recipe. You can use one of the other calculators on that same page to help you with this. Also, I do recommend grams because the math is so much easier! For instance, if you make a 100g test batch, your gram numbers would exactly match your percentages. For a 1000g batch, it would be your percentage number with another zero on the end. That's my kind of math!

I made a small test batch today, 5.0% ewax, 19.40% melt and pour, 17.40% oil, and 58.20% sugar. I use grams when measuring. It had alot of oil on top, so much so that I had to put a papertowel on it to sop up the oil. I took a few out of the mold, and it does hold its shape, but its oily on the bottom.. I usually give the cubes a sugar bath and let them sit in sugar for awhile beforeI package them. But I am wondering if they are too oily? Should they be this oily? I am using Almond oil. I ordered some grapeseed oil to see if that helps. Any suggestions on where I may be going wrong? I really feel they should harden up a bit, rather than being soft and oily. Thanks!

 

[AliOop]

Honestly, I think it's just too much liquid oil. I normally use more butters or fatty alcohols, and very little liquid oil. Maybe take 10% of the oil and change that to shea butter or mango butter.

 

[pjknight]

Honestly, I think it's just too much liquid oil. I normally use more butters or fatty alcohols, and very little liquid oil. Maybe take 10% of the oil and change that to shea butter or mango butter.

I'll give it a try tomorrow. I have mango, shea and cocoa butter on hand. so It would be 10% mango and 7.40% oil. or I could go even lower with the liquid oil to 12% mango or another butter and 5.40 % liquid oil. ( total of the oil in the recipe is 17.40%). One last question- I will first make a small test batch and if it turns out, can I make double recipes going forward?

 

[AliOop]

Sure, you can make any batch size you like, once you have the recipe the way you want it.

Sounds like a good idea to try the 12% butter.

 

[pjknight]

Sure, you can make any batch size you like, once you have the recipe the way you want it.

Sounds like a good idea to try the 12% butter.

thanks for your help! Ill let you know how it turns out!

 

[pjknight]

Sure, you can make any batch size you like, once you have the recipe the way you want it.

Sounds like a good idea to try the 12% butter.

I put my recipe in the crafters choice batch size calculator, which converts % to weight I guess I didn't realize if I change the oil I will need to jimmy the rest of the ingredients, and that is where I am stumped. How am I supposed to determine what to increase or decrease to get to 100%. I know I read on here somewhere that sugar scrubs should be 20,% 20,% 20% 20%. or something along those lines. Could be way off base on that? Here is what I came up with- ewax 6% (17.52 g),base, 20% (58.40 g), oil 6%mango (17.52g) 6%grapeseed or shea (17.52) and sugar 62% (181.04g). This just doesnt seem right to me. This recipe doesn't really have much ewax at all. I could use some imput as Im very skeptical about making even a test batch at this point. Ive used the calculator about 5 times with 5 different % and at this point Im at a loss.... lol. Thanks

 

[AliOop]

When you are using M&P base, that is going to replace most or all of your ewax because the base will act as an emulsifier.

Your recipe above is going to have wildly different results depending on whether you use grapeseed oil, or shea. Those ingredients are not a one-for-one swap due to the differences in viscosity (thickness) and texture. The one made with oil will be thin and oily, and probably separate, and the one made with butter is going to be thicker, fluffier, and less like to separate.

Also, I’ve always added the sugar separately, and measure it 1.5 to 2x the rest of the recipe. So if my recipe is 500g without sugar, I’d add somewhere between 750g and 1000g of sugar to that.

But if you prefer to include the sugar in the total, I’d try:

5% ewax
15% MP base
20% mango butter (less grainy than shea)
60% sugar

Don’t add the sugar until the base has cooled and you’ve started whipping in. Whip only until it is well incorporated.

 

[pjknight]

thank you! Ill test your suggestion later on today and get back to you!

 

[pjknight]

When you are using M&P base, that is going to replace most or all of your ewax because the base will act as an emulsifier.

Your recipe above is going to have wildly different results depending on whether you use grapeseed oil, or shea. Those ingredients are not a one-for-one swap due to the differences in viscosity (thickness) and texture. The one made with oil will be thin and oily, and probably separate, and the one made with butter is going to be thicker, fluffier, and less like to separate.

Also, I’ve always added the sugar separately, and measure it 1.5 to 2x the rest of the recipe. So if my recipe is 500g without sugar, I’d add somewhere between 750g and 1000g of sugar to that.

But if you prefer to include the sugar in the total, I’d try:

5% ewax
15% MP base
20% mango butter (less grainy than shea)
60% sugar

Don’t add the sugar until the base has cooled and you’ve started whipping in. Whip only until it is well incorporated.

hi did a test on your suggestion. All is well. It turned out great.!! thanks for hour help

 

[AliOop]

hi did a test on your suggestion. All is well. It turned out great.!! thanks for hour help

I'm so glad to hear that you ended up with something that you like. Good job sticking with it through all the frustrations!

 

[xuledywo]

Recipes for sugar scrubs can be so confusing, because there are so many variations:

~emulsified v. non-emulsified
~foaming v. non-foaming
~paste v. cubes v. piped shapes v. rolled, etc.

An emulsifier helps the oils in the scrub to disperse across your skin, and for the oil that hit the floor, to wash down the drain, rather than leaving your floor oily and slick. For that reason alone, I really prefer emulsified scrubs.

The recipe that I prefer for foaming sugar scrub cubes is from DIY Bath & Body (of course, lol). It is one of the free recipes on her FB page if you join that group. It does have a few more ingredients than yours, including Mandala scrubs that add a unique touch to the blend, including SLSa to add foaming and cleansing properties in addition to what is provided by some M&P base. It also uses a foaming bath butter base, but you may be able to adjust the amount of M&P base instead.

I’m finishing up my second tube of The Body Shop's strawberry and walnut body scrub and am looking to try something new. I recently tried the Ole Henriksen loofah scrub from a gift pack, and it was excellent—I could feel the difference compared to other brands I’ve used in the past. What scrubs is everyone else using?

 

[AliOop]

I’m finishing up my second tube of The Body Shop's strawberry and walnut body scrub and am looking to try something new. I recently tried the Ole Henriksen loofah scrub from a gift pack, and it was excellent—I could feel the difference compared to other brands I’ve used in the past. What scrubs is everyone else using?

I can’t used any commercially fragranced products, so I only use the ones I make for myself. They are based on the DIY Bath & Body Shop recipe (purchased from Etsy).