Emulsified Scrub Recipe

[agriffin]

Thanks Amanda for the recipe and thanks to SudsyKay for bumping the thread Just a quick question. If you don't want to use the liquid soap in the recipe, do you substitute the same quantity of water or do you simply leave it out--no other adjustments required?

Just saw this! You can add a bit more water. I like adding the liquid soap because it helps it wash off a bit and doesn't seem so oily.

 

[AmyW]

I found this:

Phenonip® can be added to the aqueous phase readily up to its limit of solubility.

The relatively low aqueous solubility of Phenonip® means that if the water content of the formulation is low, it may not be convenient to add the preservative directly to water during manufacture. Heating the water to 60 - 700C prior to Phenonip® addition will, in most instances, allow the appropriate quantity to be dissolved.

For aqueous systems which cannot be heated, Phenonip® can be incorporated by preparing a concentrate in a suitable solvent, e.g. propylene glycol, and stirring this concentrate into the water to give a final Phenonip® concentration below its maximum water solubility.

In emulsified systems, Phenonip® is readily dissolved in the liquid phase prior to emulsification although it is often good practice to divide the Phenonip® content between the aqueous and lipid phases during their preparation.

In surfactant and detergent based products Phenonip® can be dissolved in the surfactant prior to the addition of water and other ingredients.

It sounds like i should have split the phenonip up between the oils and water/soap well before I started SB'ing?

 

[AmyW]

Hmmm that didn't work either. I threw away the last batch and am working on it again, added half the phenonip to the oils, half to water. Tried to get emulsion and it seemed to start but by the time I pulled the SB away it started to separate and I haven't had a chance to add the FO or sugar. i wonder if my oils (went with sunflower and safflower) are causing it?

 

[AmyW]

I did it!

I tossed the SB in the sink and got out my hand mixer, put the mix into a narrow, tall container (was a 1lb container from WSP for shea butter) and whipped the heck out of it and it stuck!

I just used white sugar so it's almost pure white:

 

[Hazel]

Thanks Hazel I was thinking kinda-sorta along those lines but I'm still such a newb!

No, you're not. You've learned very rapidly. I think you've done more in two months than I did in two years. You said you were already thinking about using them. You were just asking for confirmation of what you already knew. Sometimes there's too many choices or maybe just information overload which is why we post on the forum to clarify thoughts.

I'm sorry your scrub didn't work out the first time. Great save!

 

[agriffin]

Looks good, AmyW!

 

[SudsyKat]

Yay, Amy!! You give hope to us all (at least a Newbie like me for sure)!!!

 

[AmyW]

It's still holding the emulsion but all the sugar is dissolved again *scratching head* I threw in a 1/2 cup brown sugar earlier today. I only hand stirred it enough to get the sugar incorporated throughout, so I'm not sure why it dissolved. It's super thick as well, I think both my daughter and I would like it to be a little looser/thinner so I might try adding more water or something.

 

[my2scents]

Amy let your emulsion sit for a day or two then add a coarse sugar, This is what has worked for me. I've done this twice now & each time my sugar dissovled but after waiting 24 hours then adding coarse sugar it seemed to work perfectly.
Next time I'm going to refridgerate it a bit & then see what happens, Not that my emulsion is warm at all but I think if the e wax in the mixture is on the cooler side it may thicken up & hold the suspension for the sugar.
I'm speculation that when the sugar dissappears its due to the suspension in the emulsion not holding up , maybe as it settles the bubbles in the emulsion eat the sugar?


Ah heck I don't know whats happening but my emulsion needs time to settle down before I add my sugar for whatever reason.

 

[AmyW]

Thanks Hazel I was thinking kinda-sorta along those lines but I'm still such a newb!

No, you're not. You've learned very rapidly. I think you've done more in two months than I did in two years. You said you were already thinking about using them. You were just asking for confirmation of what you already knew. Sometimes there's too many choices or maybe just information overload which is why we post on the forum to clarify thoughts.

I'm sorry your scrub didn't work out the first time. Great save!

Thank you, that means a lot to me!

 

[AmyW]

Amy let your emulsion sit for a day or two then add a coarse sugar, This is what has worked for me. I've done this twice now & each time my sugar dissovled but after waiting 24 hours then adding coarse sugar it seemed to work perfectly.
Next time I'm going to refridgerate it a bit & then see what happens, Not that my emulsion is warm at all but I think if the e wax in the mixture is on the cooler side it may thicken up & hold the suspension for the sugar.
I'm speculation that when the sugar dissappears its due to the suspension in the emulsion not holding up , maybe as it settles the bubbles in the emulsion eat the sugar?


Ah heck I don't know whats happening but my emulsion needs time to settle down before I add my sugar for whatever reason.

Perfect, I will make another batch soon (my daughter is obsessed with the WSP coffee mocha, I want a different scent for me) and wait 1-2 days to add the sugar. Thanks!

 

[SudsyKat]

I made this recipe yesterday and had the same problem. I used plain old white sugar (because I've read that that's the most pleasing level of scrubbiness, compared to coarser sugars). I added when the emulsion was "cooled", but not flat out cold. In the future, keeping the emulsion cool when adding the sugar seems like a good idea. Also, I read on this post on "swiftcraftymonkey" - http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com/2010/09/experiments-in-workshop-golden-shea.html - she says she likes to use between 125% and 150% sugar. In this recipe, the 100% total ingredients (before sugar) equal 427 grams. So, in this recipe, 125% to 150% would amount to between 533 and 640 grams of sugar. I only added 200. If I added that much more, maybe the sheer volume of sugar keeps it from being absorbed by the liquid? Amy, how much sugar did you end up adding, total?

 

[my2scents]

Update

O.K. guys based on the previous issues with the dissolving sugar/salt I just did an experiment to confirm my thoughts.
Made a batch of this scrub all the way to the last step which is adding the sugar or salt.
If you wait overnight & just cover your emulsion with plastic wrap & leave it sit BEFORE you add your sugar/salt you will find your emulsion much more stable & thicker. No more dissolving Yay!
when you stir in your sugar/salt it stays nicely distributed throughout your emulsion & most importantly the crystals stay nice and scrubby.
I personally like my scrubs VERY scrubby so I found that theres not quite enough sugar/salt ratio in this recipe for me so I have been adding ALOT more , just dumping it in until I'm happy with the amount.
EVERYBODY I've given this scrub to LOVES it, it leaves your skin sooooo soft & no excess oil.

 

[shadowdancer]

Ive just had a thought (As one does :S ) if I wanted to grate some plain castille, would this work if I melted it into water first for the addition of the "liquid soap" part of this recipe?

Hmmm perhaps I should give it a whirl and see if it will stay in emulsion?

LOVE this recipe BTW, and am going to give this new idea a whirl. I've got sooo much soap sitting around here

 

[TamiJ]

Hello everyone!

I'm new to the forum and thought that I would bump up this topic to see if anyone may be able to share their thoughts with me on something I'm working on with this recipe.

I make a scoopable sugar scrub that looks like a scoop of ice cream that I put on the top of some of our products. I love the scrub and the creaminess of it but I've been using a Foaming Bath Whip base for it and have been looking for a different recipe so that I can get away from using the base. This sounds like it is a wonderful recipe! I'm getting ready to make it right now, in fact!

What I'm wondering is if this recipe will thicken up enough to be able to form the ice cream scoop or if I may need to change things around a bit - maybe adding some High Melt Coconut Oil? Or possibly increase the amount of Cocoa Butter?

Any thoughts?

Also, I wanted to thank Lindy for mentioning that the Germall Plus can cause skin irritation. My 15 year old daughter is one of my 'testers' on all of my products and I couldn't figure out why her excema all of a sudden flared up on her after 2 years of testing products. After Lindy's comment, I went back and looked through my notes and sure enough, her flare ups happened after I switched over from Phenonip to Germall Plus. (I feel so bad for her... - guess I need to switch back...)

Anyway, thank you, Lindy!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day! ~Tami

 

[saltydog]

Hi Everyone, I hope you don't mind me bumping this one more time

I've been searching for preservative info and came across this thread. I've been reading it with interest, as I've lately become obsessed with sugar scrubs.
I've been using Phenonip as my preservative, but I'm interested in something paraben-free so I was looking at the Optiphen family.
It seems that Optiphen has no ph requirements, while Optiphen Plus does.

Does this mean the original formula is better for an emulsified scrub? I've never ph tested my scrub before..do I need to??

Thanks!!

 

[HomemadeBathGoodies]

Do you base the percentage of the preservative on the amount of oils before sugar, or the Total amount with the sugar?

 

[saltydog]

Do you base the percentage of the preservative on the amount of oils before sugar, or the Total amount with the sugar?

hi, not sure if you're asking me, but i base it on the scrub base without the sugar.

 

[Hazel]

I base my percentage on the total weight of oils and sugar. But I'm a bit paranoid about bacterial skin infection. :wink:

 

[HomemadeBathGoodies]

ummm...this has gotten me all confused again. Personally I think its best to add it with the sugars included, but I know alot of people just add it to the base recipe. I dont want things growing in my product, nor do I want to add to much preservative in my product either.