Scrub Experiments

I love a good body scrub. The first scrub I ever used was the St. Ives apricot scrub, and even though I make my own scrubs now, that's still one of my favorites because it's creamy and doesn't separate. Also, when in the shower, I also love mixing together a facial scrub from Cetaphil liquid soap and baking soda. No kidding about the baking soda; it's so fine and gentle that you can use it every day.

The body scrubs I make for myself are usually just a mix of oils, glycerin, and salt. The scrub shown here on the left has jojoba oil, avocado oil, sunflower oil, sweet almond oil, vegetable glycerin, and kosher salt. I like that the kosher salt is so coarse, but the oils and glycerin separate from the salt, which requires a good mixing before use.

The other day, I decided to experiment with making a scrub that doesn't separate. Also, if I decide to offer my scrubs at Little Owl Soap, I want to make sure that there won't be so much separation that the jars would leak during shipping. First, I tried a mix of olive oil, sunflower oil, avocado oil, sweet almond oil, cocoa butter, shea butter, stearic acid, and emulsifying wax. I added plain white sugar, which, alas, is not vegan. It had a lot of body, as shown by the picture on the right, but it did experience a fair bit of separation. Additionally, the small grains of the sugar dissolved quickly in the stream of water from the shower.

For my second experiment, shown here on the left, I tried sunflower oil, avocado oil, sweet almond oil, mango butter, and a higher percentage of emulsifying wax and stearic acid than I had previously tried. To this, I added turbinado sugar, which is vegan. This batch cooled to a creamy paste. I really thought I was on to something, until I gave it a test run. It was actually a little bit too creamy, and I was disappointed with the texture of the sugar; I simply felt as if I didn't get enough exfoliating done.

In the end, I learned that I still preferred the salt scrub I usually toss together for myself, despite the separation. What kind of scrub do you prefer? An oil-rich scrub or a creamy, emulsified scrub? A salt scrub or a sugar scrub? So many options!