CP Soap Sugar Scrub Cubes

[DeeAnna]

Well, hey, so I'm not the only one who is feeling a bit clueless about the sugar cube scrubs and feeling awkward about being nerdy. Whew!

Seriously -- it really makes me feel better. Thanks, all.

Since I wrote my first post, I've been playing around with a couple of ideas. One is along Susie's suggestion of adding a tiny bit of water to the mixture. It's pretty clear the soap I used needs much less water than my idea of "tiny". So more work there.

Another is to use some of the paste I made for liquid soap. I used pretty much the 1-2-3 (or is it 3-2-1?) recipe, but using LS paste in place of the CP soap shreds and coconut oil for the oil. First try with the basic recipe is promising -- more smooshy, less waxy, but rather more oily. Second try was adding a tiny bit of water to a portion of the first recipe. Again, my idea of tiny is way too much, so the result is too runny.

 

[firedancer]

I use my left over soap, from planing. Melt the soap (2 cups) after soap flakes have melted I add 1 cup oil of choice and then 3 cups of sugar. I also add color and fragrance, as i notice both are needed. I mold while still warm, as the mix gets kinda like playdough if I fiddle about. I like to use the very soft silicon molds like they sell on eBay, as the cubes release fairly easy. Was thinking about rolling them out and using cookie cutters, but maybe next time. After about 12 hours I roll them in sugar and glitter. They sell really well.



Sent from my iPad using Soap Making

 

[DeeAnna]

Someone (Genny? Lindy?) uses a small food-portion scoop to make little "ice cream scoops" out of her sugar scrubs. She then rolls the scoops in loose sugar. Very nice and perhaps easier to form than putting the dough in molds.

I'm still pondering on my "smooshy-ness" problem....

 

[cmzaha]

I made these for a couple of years until they quite selling well. I have tried different ways of making them my original was similiar to the 123 method. I did find adding in some glycerin would help but they still really never smooshed like the ones made with m&p. In fact mine would just get harder with time, like any cp soap. I have some that are 3 yrs old and they are hard as a rock, but good foot scrubbies

 

[Hazel]

I used some left over soap from a batch that was a little too much for my mold and added sugar to it,

I do the same as kitterz - just use some leftover soap for sugar scrubs. Mine smoosh easily for awhile but like cmzaha's, they become harder over time. Not as hard as bar soap but they crumble more than smoosh. I also have combined LS paste with CP shreds in sugar scrub soap and I didn't have to use as much oil to get them to stick together. That was the batch I made to look like Christmas cookies.

I don't know why you're experiencing waxiness and they're not smooshing very well. I take it you're not using a wax of any kind in your recipe. I don't know what oils you're using but is it possible something is interacting with the sugar? I just use regular oils like lard, sunflower, olive, coconut and castor.

 

[DeeAnna]

No, Hazel, I'm not using wax -- I'm sticking pretty much to the 3-2-1 recipe of sugar, soap, and oil. One possibility on my first try is that I might have overcooked the soap and dried it out. I kept playing with the amount of sugar in proportion to the soap and oil, so I kept warming the soap-oil-sugar mixture with short bursts in the microwave. It didn't get hot enough to burn, but I noticed the soap texture got firmer and firmer as I messed around with it. So maybe I should just chalk it up to beginner's bad luck and just try again without messing around so much.

 

[Susie]

I only heat the soap/water/oil in the micro to melt it all together. Then I add the sugar/color/EO and stir like mad. Then, smoosh into a container. I think you are overheating your sugar, as it will get more brittle as you heat it like that.

 

[Hazel]

No, Hazel, I'm not using wax -- I'm sticking pretty much to the 3-2-1 recipe of sugar, soap, and oil.

I didn't think you were using any wax since you would have mentioned it. That's why I phrased my comment that way. However, it's easy for me to miss comments so it was possible you had said and I didn't see it. Also, I know some people like to add beeswax or stearic acid in their soap and I didn't know if you did it, too.

It could be overcooked. I don't know. I can say when I first tried sugar cube scrubs, I didn't have a lot of luck getting a decent scrub by using Mayren's version and using a microwave. Plus, I hated shredding a lot of soap. It wasn't until I followed Genny's suggestion to use fresh soap that I got some which worked out well. I had to play around with the proportions because I don't do a third of everything like Genny. I tried it that way and I thought they were too oily. Now I just add sugar and a little oil until the soap stays together. Then I press into molds.

I wish I could help you but as you said it might have been overcooked. Just a suggestion, you might want to also try the fresh soap way. It might work out better with your recipes. Good luck!

 

[DeeAnna]

Thanks for the suggestions to try the fresh soap. It seems like y'all are having the best results from that. I haven't tried it yet to see how that works, and I agree that this should be my next step. I truly appreciate the ideas and help!

Now to get that fresh soap made. I'm heading into my overly busy, overly stressful work season. It seems like I just barely cope when dealing with anything else besides work. <sigh> I guess I'm going to have to look at making soap as de-stress therapy as much as anything.