Sugar scrub cp soap, can it be done?

[Rahmi]

Hi all, I woke up in the middle of the night and thought about this.

I've read a few posts about Mayren's sugar scrub recipe, which is adding sugar and oils/butter to a rebatch soap.

But...can sugar scrub soap be done just like salt bar soaps?
If I add it to the very last before pouring into mold, will they stay as sugar particles, or will they melt and cause problems?

Has anyone tried? Thanks!

 

[Obsidian]

Years ago one of our members did make a sugar scrub soap and she sent me a piece.

I lathered very little and melted so quickly, it didn't act like a scrub at all. It made the skin feel a bit weird and sticky too. I only used it a couple times before throwing it away.

She didn't like it either and tossed the whole batch. I can't tell you anything about the recipe, its been too long.

 

[DeeAnna]

The sugar will dissolve in the water until the water in the soap becomes saturated with sugar. I've tried to make sugar scrubs with cream soap. The sugar dissolves and the mixture became gloppy and not very scrubby. By the time I added enough sugar so some crystals remained, the mixture was unpleasant. Just .... ewwww.

Salt in soap does basically the same thing -- dissolves in the water until the concentration of salt dissolved in the water reaches saturation. Salt becomes saturated in water at a much lower concentration than sugar. So you get a scrubby product with less salt as compared with using sugar.

My fave is an emulsifying sugar scrub -- at a minimum it includes an emulsifier, oils, and sugar -- the texture stays nice and the scrub rinses off nicely. An easier type of sugar scrub would be a mix of oils and sugar -- easier for sure, but the fats don't rinse off cleanly and can make the tub or shower slippery.

 

[amd]

My first thought was yes... and my second thought was eww... Salt is commonly used as a [food] preservative, which I think makes it more resistant to mold/bacteria, sugar is more of food to the mold/bacteria, so I think if you do get enough sugar in the soap to stay crystallized, that it would quickly mold or run the risk of unseen bacteria, which would be a health hazard.

I did try a sugar scrub bar that used a mixture of foaming bath base, mp soap and sugar, but it wasn't stellar either. Similar to Obsidian's experience above, the sugar bar just didn't lather, it didn't scrub well, and it left me feeling sticky.

Like DeeAnna, I prefer an emulsifying sugar scrub, or a sugar scrub made with a foaming bath base (which is made of surfactants, not lye based soap).