Making sugar scrubs from soap shreds

[Catscankim]

Ok, I know that you said that you were "whipping up a batch" of soap shred sugar scrubs but WOW!!!!! That is going to make a lot of people happy .

What are you packaging them in? I really want to see your finished product. I am completely amazed at this feat. I keep scrolling back while typing this to make sure I saw the amount correctly.

Thats an incredible amount of sugar scrubs. And here I was thinking....should I make one cup or two cups of sugar scrub today (the regular kind LOL).

Well done. I am going to have to give this a go...smaller scaled though.

 

[Marsi]

the reason for cooling the base is the same reason that many pastry recipes start with cold butter: temperature affects texture, structure, viscosity, etc. The video does go into detail about this and emphasizes that the base must be cool to whip up correctly. Apparently the reason for creating the sugar scrub series was that someone posted on FB that the recipe was a flop and wouldn't whip up well at all. The creator responded saying that it was obvious from the pictures posted that she didn't let the mixture cool, or she whipped it so long that it became warm and deflated. In the end, she made a whole series on whipped sugar scrubs to show the different ways to make them, but they all require starting with a cool base so that the end product remains "whipped" and doesn't deflate.

I saw that she knew that it was too warm, but I didn't get the connection to the whip deflating (and put it on my experiment list to play with temps) lol.

Thanks for the analogy AliOop - that makes the reason behind it much clearer

Now I want to know if the whip deflats in high temps ...

 

[AliOop]

@Marsi TBH, that was the analogy that she used, so I'm just parroting her. But it made sense to me, as well - like starting with very cold cream and a cold bowl if you want to make a fluffy and light whipped cream, as opposed to a runny one. She did mention that whipped products do tend to deflate as they get warmer.

@Catscankim yes, it is a YUGE amount of base. Ridiculous amount, really. I package the scrubs in a variety of jars that I have acquired on destash. I've attached a pic of another batch (not made with shreds), so you can see the jars. This time around, the jars are the smaller white plastic with dome caps, purchased from someone who was closing her small soap business and moving to the UK. Besides sugar scrubs, I'll make some shave croap. She had a recipe for that at the end of that same playlist, as well.

Unfortunately, labeling is my nemesis, so I have a lot of work to do with designing something cohesive for all the different products for our Christmas Boutique on Dec 3. I'll share a picture of my product display once it is all set up.

 

[Kcryss]

@AliOop I've come across a number of recipes for soap frosting that calls for bath whip or foaming bath whip. I've been tempted to buy some and try it out, but just haven't gotten around to it yet. I'll let you know how this works out.
Soap Frosting Recipe WSP

 

[Catscankim]

@AliOop labeling is my nemesis as well

 

[AliOop]

@AliOop I've come across a number of recipes for soap frosting that calls for bath whip or foaming bath whip. I've been tempted to buy some and try it out, but just haven't gotten around to it yet. I'll let you know how this works out.
Soap Frosting Recipe WSP

Ah yes, with the M&P base in it, that should firm up well. Looking forward to seeing your creations!

 

[dibbles]

@AliOop thank you for all of this. I have to see if I have glycerin and if I do I will get this on my to do list. I think your jars and label look very nice too.

 

[Marsi]

Ha! Shows how much attention I paid then

I make my sugar scrubs as "Sugar cubes", so whipping is an extra step (and then I'd have to think about preservatives as well, which I don't need to do with the cubes), but I AM going to give this a go I think - it just looks so pretty!

 

[AliOop]

@dibbles thank you

@Marsi I bet you could make these into cubes, either by adding some M&P, reducing water, increasing stearic, etc. I plan to make a version of the DIY B&B recipe for Foaming Sugar Scrub Bars which sound pretty similar, and they use a foaming base + M&P. Is your sugar cube recipe shareable? If so, I'd be interested. Cubes are really nice for traveling and also simpler packaging options.

 

[Marsi]

@AliOop
Conceptually they are the opposite of what you are doing with the whip - mostly soft oils, excess SF (around 10% from memory), no stearic and (this is really testing my memory - I'm going to have to re-make them to be precise lol) about 2:1 sugar crystals to soap gel base (CP, dual lye), using invert sugar syrup or honey as the solvent (included in the CP base, the aim is to get no soap crystals forming in the first place - a bit like clear toffee making). The base takes about 2 weeks to stabilize (it sweats a lot before then).

Once the sugar is in and they are in cube form, they last for many months in open air (the sugar ratio is important - in some of my tests at different ratios they didn't work as well - too much sugar and they crumble, too little and they will take on moisture).

I am going to see if I can convert shreds into a transparent soap to achieve a similar result, and if that works, I'll post up a full recipe

They are fun to make

 

[AliOop]

I made a LOT of foaming coffee-sugar scrubs last night. Here is the recap:

Honestly, I do prefer the initial texture of the DIY B&B syndet scrubs, but I think that's my fault. Because the video showed her working with very old, very dry 100% CO shreds, and my shreds weren't that old and dry, I chose a lower starting water percentage. If I had to do it over again, I would start with 100% water and 75% glycerin, as she did. As it was, I think I ended up with 65% each water and glycerin. It needs a bit more water to be a little less sticky. I'd have used more, but I ran out of distilled water. We bought a water distiller several weeks ago, but I haven't unpacked it yet -- because I've been playing with scrubs.

The texture did improve after adding 10% FCO (per the pre-sugar-pre-coffee batch weight), so that will be a staple in this budget-friendly recipe. Also, once I actually started applying the scrub, I really, really liked it. Throughout the process, I exfoliated my hands and forearms multiple times, and yet my skin is not the least bit dry or peeling. In fact, it looks very polished and feels very soft - quite nice for a soap-based product that was very inexpensive to make. I'm pretty sure the jars and labels will be the most expensive part of this project.

It's definitely pipe-able, but I'm a scooper. @Catscankim as requested, here is a pic of the filled jars. Flatter, wider-mouthed jars like those in my previous pic are better for easy scooping than these taller ones, but these were a lot less expensive. Sorry to keep talking about cost, but all of this is being donated to our church's Christmas Boutique, so limiting my expenses is helpful. I do think that with more tweaking, this recipe would be quite marketable for those of you who sell.

These smell fantastic with a blend of Mokolata and Vanilla Cupcakes FOs - like walking into a small cafe with gourmet coffee and fresh baked goods. I plan to call them "Coffee & Cake."

 

[Marsi]

I'm a fan of 10% extra oils in sugar scrubs, and making them as coffee scrubs is priceless!

Awesome AliOoop

 

[Catscankim]

I love love love these!!!!

 

[Christa10]

Hi @Liesel Atwood and @Christa10, I started with the recipe provided in this YT video. She has a whole playlist about making sugar scrubs, including one about making it from soap shreds, and another about how to fix texture issues. Here is a summary of her basic recipe for sugar scrubs from soap shreds:

Start with X grams (or oz) of shreds.
Add distilled water at 50-100% of the shred weight (more water for drier/older shreds, less for softer/newer shreds)
Add glycerin at 50-100% of the shred weight

Add up the total batch weight.
Add stearic acid at 10-30% of the total batch weight.
Optional: add another oil at 10% of total batch weight.
Melt everything together.
Let it cool completely - don't skip this step!
Begin whipping it until becomes fluffy.
Add 50-100% batch weight in sugar.
Whip in thoroughly.

Because everyone's soap shreds will be composed of different soaps made with different oils, and people have different preferences for the final texture, some experimentation is required.

Thanks for that info. I don't know why but I couldn't find the part of the video that talked about how much sugar was used so this is very helpful.

 

[Nicolesica]

Rather than continuing to hijack ALL the other threads here is a new thread about making foaming emulsified sugar scrubs out of soap shreds. As I posted elsewhere, I had a lot of fun making sugar scrubs from a large tub of jelly soap base that had been hanging around since the grandkids outgrew it. My next batch of foaming whipped sugar scrubs was going to be made with from a KOH paste. However, I saw this video about making scrubs using soap shreds and .

I always have the best intention of starting with small tests... but I'm not a very patient person. After shredding a whooooole bunch of older soaps in the food processor, today I made the sugar scrub base from those shreds, using my large turkey roaster pan. I started with:

~4200g soap shreds
~50% of shred weight in distilled water
~50% of shred weight in glycerin
~no stearic acid at first, since I was using high-stearic soap shreds.

I did add another 10% each of glycerin and water. The melted mixture wasn't homogenizing and was quite foamy. So, in went 910g of stearic acid (~10% of the total batch weight). Immediately the mix stopped foaming, and it quickly started coming together.

My instinct was to melt the stearic acid in the microwave before adding it to the mix, but I ended up just stirring it in. If I had to do over again, pre-melting the stearic would have been the way to go. It took SO LONG for those little white bits to melt. In fact, there were still unmelted stearic bits in the first cup of the mixture that came out to cool for a texture check. But it whipped up like a dream! The texture is nice on it's own, but it's a bit too stiff for a sugar scrub. I'll be experimenting with adding more water, glycerin, and oil to get it just right.

Best of all, although the base is an unappealing dark brown (because, brown soap shreds), it is a pale pinkish-beige when whipped. Brown is fine for coffee scrubs, or a men's shave croap, but it's nice to know that it whips up light enough to make more girly colors, too. Here are a pic of the incredible amount of whipped soap base that is now cooling, and a pic of a whipped sugar scrub made with that base. You can see the color difference!

It foams up very well, is non-drying, and is ready to be colored, scented, bottled, labeled, and donated to our church's Christmas Boutique. Yippee!

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I cannot tell you how happy I am to see this post! I was wondering what else I could make for the animal shelters New Years fund drive that wouldn’t break the (somewhat meager) bank this year. The first time I tried the kitty soaps was an absolute mess. It separated in the mold and was just awful. But after a suggestion from a member here I was able to beat it all to death and smoosh it all into a hideous ball. I think I’ll make a whipped sugar scrub for them to sell with the soaps!

Thank you @AliOop for the wonderful idea. Your soaps are always so beautiful and now I can see your sugar scrubs are, too! I hope you don’t mind me shamelessly plagiarizing your idea!

Time to watch some videos..

 

[AliOop]

@Nicolesica I would be delighted if someone else benefits from this! I cannot claim any credit for the idea which came from Chantine's Soap & Clay YT channel. We'd love to see your results if you do make it!

 

[Nicolesica]

@Nicolesica I would be delighted if someone else benefits from this! I cannot claim any credit for the idea which came from Chantine's Soap & Clay YT channel. We'd love to see your results if you do make it!

Absolutely! I work tomorrow, but am hoping Sunday morning I can get this done. Please be gentle if it looks terrible afterwards haha

 

[Nicolesica]

@Nicolesica I would be delighted if someone else benefits from this! I cannot claim any credit for the idea which came from Chantine's Soap & Clay YT channel. We'd love to see your results if you do make it!

Goodness, I really hope this turns out. My total batch weight ended up being 4892 grams!!

 

[Nicolesica]

@AliOop , about how long did you cook yours (I’m assuming in a crockpot?)? I’m watching the video again, but her batch was much smaller than mine.

 

[AliOop]

@AliOop , about how long did you cook yours (I’m assuming in a crockpot?)? I’m watching the video again, but her batch was much smaller than mine.

It's not really a cook per se - just heating it until all ingredients are fully melted. My large batch took a loooong time - over an hour. The smaller batch was all melted in about 20 minutes.