My day consists of a full time job in which I run constantly, a mad dash home to cook a semi-nutritious meal for my family and, I swear, hours of cleaning up afterwards. (I mean, how can one meal look like a natural disaster occurred in my house??) Not to mention the GIANT pile of laundry that sits around mocking me. Every day. To say I am tired is a giant overstatement. This doesn’t leave much time in my day to take care of me, much less my skin. With all the extra handwashing we do now, my skin gets to lookin’ like sandpaper pretty quickly!
Enter Sugar Scrubs to save the day!
What is a Sugar Scrub?
Sugar Scrubs are made primarily with (spoiler alert) sugar, emulsifying ingredients (I’ll get more into this in a moment) and a combination of oils and butters. Each company that manufactures sugar scrubs has their own recipe of oils and butters so it is always a good idea to check the ingredient listing, especially if you have an allergy.
Sugar is used in scrubs exclusively for its exfoliation properties. There is some debate as to how often you should exfoliate, everyone seems to agree that we do need exfoliation from time to time. Exfoliation simply is the process of removing dead skin cells from the top layer of our skin. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, we lose anywhere from 30,000 to 40,000 skin cells EVERY DAY. Thus the need for exfoliation. Sugar scrubs are considered “mechanical exfoliation” since you are using a tool and not chemicals to exfoliate. If you are wondering how often to exfoliate, do a quick Google search for your specific skin type. Not sure what your skin type is? Check out this quiz from Ask the Scientists.
The emulsifying ingredients in a sugar scrub are where the magic happen. Emulsifiers will, simply put, bind oils and waters together. This means that once you use an emulsified sugar scrub (most sugar scrubs use emulsifiers) and rinse it off, it will feel like lotion on the skin. See what I mean about magic?
Want to learn more about emulsifiers? Read more HERE.
The manufacturer will also include different oils and butters into the sugar scrub based on their recipe. This is what tends to differ the most between manufacturers. Some companies like to use butters for a bigger lotiony feel on the skin. Other companies like to use oils that are lighter and will absorb into the skin easily. Still other companies will use a mixture of the two. This is strictly up to preference. I once used a sugar scrub at a craft fair and it was so thick I could not wash it off my skin. It look a lot of scrubbing and endless paper towels to wipe it off. I will say that it made my skin very soft, but I didn’t like how thick it was. Another time I found one that was made of lighter oils and I felt my skin was dry after only an hour. For my skin type, I need a sugar scrub that has butters which will stay on my skin and oils that will be absorbed.
Can you make sugar scrubs at home? Absolutely. Is it worth the expense? Depends on how often you go through sugar scrubs. If you religously use a scrub every week and tend to buy more than 1 a month from your local skin care store? Then it may very well be worth it to you. If you don’t use it that often, then it might not be worth the expense.
To help you decide, I found a recipe online on the blog Oh The Things We’ll Make. Using this recipe, let’s break down the ingredients with some average prices per ingredient:
Sugar – found in any grocery store. I can get a 4 pound bag at my local HyVee for $2.39. Our recipe calls for 150 grams so we will estimate our cost per batch at $.20
Oil – she used sweet almond oil in her recipe so we will price that out – I found a 16 oz container on Amazon for $8.37. We need 50 g for our recipe, so we will estimate a cost of $1.05.
Cocoa butter – Again I found this on Amazon, and at 10g, our recipe cost would be an estimate of $1.78 .
Shea butter – You can also find this on Amazon, at 10g this makes our cost per recipe an estimated $.03.
Beeswax – A 2 pound bag of beeswax pellets on Amazon runs for $12.99. You can get it cheaper if you buy it in bars and shred your own for your recipe. (I recommend pellets for their ease of use, but if cost is a factor you can cut costs on this). The 10g needed for our recipe makes our cost $.14.
Emulsifying Wax – This is one of the biggest expenses in our recipe. Remember, this is where the magic happens. I like this Ewax from Wholesale Supplies Plus. At 15g, our recipe cost is $.66.
Preservative – This is a step you can skip if 1.) you are only using it at home and can refrigerate between uses; 2.) you can use it within a week; and 3.) you never allow water to enter your container which means you only use a spoon or scoop to get the scrub out, never wet hands. If you don’t think you can follow through with these 3 rules, don’t skip the preservative. Water introduces bacteria into our product and the preservative insures your product won’t go bad before you use it all. I like Phenonip which runs 2oz for $8.39 on Wholesale Supplies Plus. At the 1g needed for our recipe that’s about $.15.
Essential oil or fragrance oil – We are going to price out lavender essential oil for the purposes of this recipe. If you are wanting a fragrance oil, these can be a little less expensive – this again is personal preference. Don’t know how to get a quality essential oil? This article from GREATIST is a good guide. For our recipe we will get our lavender essential oil from Amazon. Our recipe calls for 1 g, but lavender essential oil is known for not being very strong smelling. I would recommend doubling it. At 2 g, it would add $1.50 to our recipe cost.
This doesn’t include the containers to put the scrub in. You can use any lidded container, but understand that once you use it for a cosmetic product, you can’t use it again for food. If you need to buy containers, that will also add to the cost. Assuming you are going to use a container at home, your cost for 1 batch of sugar scrub is $5.51.
At Heart of Nebraska Specialty Soaps & More, our sugar scrubs have both butters and absorbable oils for the best effect on the skin. And at $8 for an 8 ounce container, you get the exfoliating and moisturizing benefits for a fraction of the cost. Check out our complete line of sugar scrubs HERE.
