How to make my sugar scrub recipe more moisturizing?

[DisneyMom]

Hello everyone! I'd really love some input on this. This past weekend, my daughter and I made our first emulsified sugar scrub. All in all, it turned out okay, but I'm a little disappointed in how moisturizing it felt, both while using it, and after I got out of the shower. Maybe it's just because I"m used to "oily" sugar scrubs, but is that a normal feel for an emulsified sugar scrub? Once you rinse it away, should your skin feel soft from the exfoliation, but not really moisturized? Maybe it's my recipe formulation? Can I maybe tweak our recipe to make it feel more moisturizing or a bit more oily? If so, any suggestions? Thank you so much!

Here's what we were using for our recipe:

22.7 g (0.8 ounces) e-wax
22.7 g (0.8 ounces) Stearic Acid
22.7 g (0.8 ounces) Cocoa Butter
22.7 g (0.8 ounces) Shea
127.12 g Oils (4.48 ounces) (I split this between Avocado and Coconut oil)
2.27 g (.08 ounces) Optiphan
2.27 g (.08 ounces) Vitamin E
4.54 g (0.2 ounces) FO

 

[Obsidian]

Here is a recipe I use, its not overly oily but leaves the skin feeling really nice. This is a scaled down version, just makes a few ounces.

.20 oz beeswax
.30 oz stearic acid
.40 oz emulsifying wax
.60 oz coconut oil
2.50 liquid oils(s) of choice
.30 oz fragrance (use essential oils accordingly with safe usage rates)
6 oz sugar
2.85 gr preservative (cool down phase) 1%

 

[DisneyMom]

Here is a recipe I use, its not overly oily but leaves the skin feeling really nice. This is a scaled down version, just makes a few ounces.

Thank you so much, Obsidian! I don't have any beeswax on-hand, so do you think I could achieve the same effect by using more stearic acid or some Ceteayl Alcohol? If so, I'll try that with your recipe this weekend! Thank you!

 

[shunt2011]

Mine is very similar to Obsidian. I use Sweet Almond, Rice Bran and Avocado.

 

[DisneyMom]

Mine is very similar to Obsidian. I use Sweet Almond, Rice Bran and Avocado.

Ooo. I just picked up some Rice Bran Oil yesterday, so I'll try a batch with that, too! Would you suggest using equal amounts of each? Also, thank you for the reply and input!

 

[Obsidian]

I don't think you can use stearic or ceteayl alcohol in place of beeswax. You could use candelilla wax at half the amount of beeswax. The wax really gives it a nice skin feel.

 

[DeeAnna]

Regardless of the fats used, if you want more fats left on your skin, use less emulsifier. I made 6 mini batches to tweak the % of emulsifier in my recipe to get just the right skin feel.

The amount of fat left on the skin will also depend on whether you use cold, cool, or warm water, so keep that in mind too. Cooler water -> more fat left on skin, assuming all other things stay the same.

 

[shunt2011]

Ooo. I just picked up some Rice Bran Oil yesterday, so I'll try a batch with that, too! Would you suggest using equal amounts of each? Also, thank you for the reply and input!

I use more Rice Bran, then almond and avocado.

 

[DisneyMom]

Regardless of the fats used, if you want more fats left on your skin, use less emulsifier. I made 6 mini batches to tweak the % of emulsifier in my recipe to get just the right skin feel.

The amount of fat left on the skin will also depend on whether you use cold, cool, or warm water, so keep that in mind too. Cooler water -> more fat left on skin, assuming all other things stay the same.

Ohhh! That might have had something to do with it, too--I shower in VERY hot water. I hadn't thought about temp affecting the amount of fat left on the skin, but it makes sense now that I think about it. Thank you. I think I'll try some small test batches today using less emulsifier and other oils as has been recommended. Thanks for your help and input!

Just thought I'd come back with an update. I tried a variation on your recipe, Obsidian, since I didn't have beeswax. Using a suggestion on SwiftCraftyMonkey's site, I added Cetyl Alcohol in place the of the beeswax. This is what I ended up with:

.30 oz stearic acid
.30 oz ceteyl alcohol
.30 oz emulsifying wax
.40 oz coconut oil
.10 shea butter
.10 cocoa butter
2.50 liquid oils(s) of choice ( split this between Rice Brain and Avocado Oil)
.30 oz fragrance (use essential oils accordingly with safe usage rates)
6 oz sugar
2.85 gr preservative (cool down phase) 1%

This time, I felt like it left more fat on my skin when I rinsed, but I'm not still not 100% in love, so I think I will try to pick up some beeswax next week to play around with. In the meantime, I want to play around again with what I have. I think I'll try dropping down the e-wax further and adding more cocoa butter and shea. Maybe some more stearic acid, as well. Any thoughts? Experimenting is fun, but goodness does it ever eat into the wallet. I might need to make even smaller batches so I'm not going through as much of my supplies! LOL

 

[Obsidian]

Are you still wanting a more oily film left behind? If so, adding more stearic or butters might not be the answer. I don't use any butters in mine, just bees wax and liquid oils.
I should add that the beeswax wasn't added for emulsifying properties. If you want to tweak my recipe, try replacing the beeswax with your butters, leaving everything else the same.

 

[shunt2011]

Mine too doesn’t contain any Shea or Cocoa butter. I did make some with both but customers didn’t like it as much as my original. I also add beeswax to mine.

 

[DeeAnna]

My suggestion is to test various blends of fats and waxes on your skin before you add other ingredients such as emulsifier and thickener. If you don't like the skin feel of a tiny dab of just the fat-wax blend alone, it's not likely you'll like it any better after you add the other stuff.

Stearic acid is basically a thickener, although it can feel somewhat drying on the skin to some people. Honestly, I don't bother with it (or cetyl alcohol or other thickener) because it's not strictly needed in an emulsifying scrub. This product is not a lotion, so as long as you can get the right texture and skin feel without a thickener, then why use it? If you wanted to use all liquid fats, you would probably have to use something to thicken the mixture, so in that case a thickener (beeswax, stearic acid, cetyl alcohol, etc.) would be useful.

My scrub recipe is basically liquid and solid fats, emulsifier, preservative, sugar, colorant, and fragrance. I don't include any thickener or wax because the solid fat adds sufficient thickness all on its own. Here's the thread where I share my recipe: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=60629

 

[DisneyMom]

You are all so helpful! THANK YOU! Deana, thank you for explaining what the Stearic does. With that in mind, I think we'll try another batch and take it out. We've been playing around with lots of different recipes and tweaking them, and I think we're narrowing down on a recipe we really like. Once we've finalized it, I'll come back here and post our recipe so that others looking for another recipe or place to start can try it out.

 

[DeeAnna]

I think there are a lot of good solutions to this problem. Mine is definitely not the One True Way -- it just works for me. I hope you find a solution that you like too.