We filmed this Soap Queen TV episode earlier in the summer with Erin Pikor of Naiad Soap Arts. We had so much fun on the set (she’s such a hoot to work with)! We couldn’t fit in all of the hilarious out-takes, but don’t worry, we squeezed a couple in.
In this episode, Erin and I demonstrate how to make (and use) not just one, but 3 scrub recipes! The first is Erin’s Salt Glow Scrub with sea salt and nourishing oils. Next, Erin shows how to make her Gentle Facial Scrub with Lavender and Green Zeolite Clay. And finally, I show my favorite sugar lip scrub with luxurious Shea Butter and the super yummy Buttercreme Flavor.
Ingredients and Tools for Each Recipe
 Salt Glow:
- 1 ½ cups Fine Sea Salt
- 4 ½ oz Apricot Kernel Oil
- ½ oz Meadowfoam Oil
- 1 Teaspoon Orange Peel Powder
- 7 grams Polysorbate 80
- 1 mL Kumquat Fragrance Oil
- Bail Jar Container
 Gentle Facial Scrub:
- ½ Cup Green Zeolite Clay
- 1 Tablespoon Sodium Bicarbonate
- 1 Tablespoon Lemon Peel Powder
- 1 Tablespoon Lavender Buds
- 10 drops Hungarian Lavender Essential Oil
- Whisk
- Bail Jar Container
 Lip Sugar Scrub:
- 0.7 oz Yellow Beeswax
- 0.6 oz Avocado Oil
- 0.7 oz Sweet Almond Oil
- 0.2 oz Vitamin E Oil
- 1 oz Shea Butter
- 6 mL Buttercreme Flavoring
- 4 mL Lip Smackin’ Sweetener
- 3 oz Granulated Sugar
- Classy Black Lip Pot
Hi!!! One question on the lip scrub. Can I use turbinado sugar? I never buy white sugar and rather use turbinado sugar, if possible. Thank you
Hi Nydia!
Turbinado sugar would be okay, but it does have fairly large granules, so it’s possible that it may be a little harsh for the lips. Regular sugar has finer granules, and is a little more gentle. That being said, it’s a personal preference! Before you try out the whole recipe, I would recommend mixing your sugar with a small amount of oil and trying it on your lips first to see what you think 🙂
-Amanda with Bramble Berry
In the video AM says to switch out Almond Oil for Olive oil if someone is allergic to nuts. What about in soaps when I mix my colorants with Sweet Almond Oil?? Could the soap be a problem for someone allergic to nuts???
Hi Sabrina!
If you or somebody you know is allergic to nuts, I would recommend using Sunflower Oil to mix your colorants :).Because almonds are a tree nut, it’s very possible that using Almond Oil in soap can cause somebody who is allergic to nuts an allergic reaction. If you or somebody you know is allergic to nuts, I would recommend testing the soap in a small area to check for irritation 🙂
-Amanda with Bramble Berry
Gentle Facial Scrub:
If I wanted to add sweet almond oil & Phenonip to preserve to the whole recipe in a jar to sell, how much of each would I need?
Hi Debbra!
If you’d like to add preservative to these recipes, you can use it at a rate of .5%-1% of your total recipe. How much Sweet Almond Oil will depend on what kind of texture you’d like the scrub to have.I would start with a few tablespoons, mix, and see what you think 🙂
-Amanda with Bramble Berry
I want to use pink sea salt in the body scrub recipe as well as Hello Sweet Thang FO. Since the FO has vanillin, will it discolor the pink salt and oils and do I have to add a color stabilizer to avoid this?
Good morning, Emily!
Because this is a body scrub and not a soap, the discoloration is not going to affect your final product as much. I would suggest making a small test batch to see if you like how it turns out.
Unfortunately, the Vanilla Color Stabilizer only works well in melt & pour, and marginally well in cold process and isn’t to be used in any toiletry-type products like this scrub.
I hope that this helps! =)
-Becky with Bramble Berry
That does help. Thank you! One more question, though. How crucial is the orange peel powder to the body scrub recipe? Can I leave it out, or should I substitute it with something else?
Hi Emily!
The orange powder is not super crucial, you could use whatever powder you’d like or just leave it out completely! Hope this helps 🙂
-Amanda with Bramble Berry
I will be selling Whipped Sugar Scrubs and Whipped Salt scrubs using Ewax and Stearic acid recipes,some with Epsom salt and the others with Dead Sea Salt which I know is partially Sodium Chloride already. But I do not want to use a preservative in my products. will adding Sodium Chloride do the trick to preserve these products? If so, they will be sold in 4oz containers so I’m not sure how much will suffice.
Good morning, Jennifer!
If you are making whipped salt and sugar scrubs and they contain water, we do suggest adding a preservative to make sure that no microbes, mold or bacteria is growing in your product! Sodium Chloride is actually not a preservative and wouldn’t prevent bacteria from growing in your batch.
For more on our preservatives (and what isn’t a preservative), here is a great blog post that I often refer to:
Talk It Out Tuesday: Preservatives: https://soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/lotion/talk-it-out-tuesday-preservatives/
If you recipe doesn’t contain water, you don’t necessarily have to add a preservative. Some people do to make sure that any wet or grimy hands don’t cause things to grow in their scrubs.
I hope that this helps! If you have any other questions, let us know. =)
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Hi Becky,
For the gental facial scrub, will Optiphen work as well, I do not have Optiphen Plus yet.
Good morning, Willie!
If you are making the gentle facial scrub and you want to preserve it, we do suggest using Optiphen Plus because it is water-soluble. But, if you decide to use an oil base to hydrate the facial scrub, you can totally use Optiphen (oil-soluble) to preserve it in the shower. =)
Optiphen: https://www.brambleberry.com/Optiphen-P3682.aspx
Optiphen Plus: https://www.brambleberry.com/Optiphen-Plus-P5253.aspx
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Hi,
I made the Lip Scrub and I love how it makes my lips feel.
Question is there away to make it not so hard and thick?
Thank you,
Belinda
Good morning, Belinda!
If you want to make the lip scrub a little less hard, I’d suggest cutting down on the beeswax in the recipe by a small amount. The best way to test if your lip scrub is the right consistency and hardness for you is to follow the frozen spoon trick.
All you need to do is put a couple of spoons in the freezer. When you are ready, you dip the frozen spoons into the liquid mixture and it will harden up immediately on the spoon. That way you will be able to see what the consistency is before it fully hardens. Then you can make any adjustments you need.
You can see the trick in action in this Soap Queen TV episode: http://vimeo.com/26122357
I hope this helps! 🙂
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Totally sharing a link to this episode for my 12 days of DIY for holidays on my blog!
Thank you so much, Stephanie! We hope you enjoy these recipes as much as we have. 🙂
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Thank you Becky! I was using way too much fragrant oil than was necessary. I will explain this to my friends. They pretty much wanted it heavily scented and I felt it was way too much. I am glad I asked. Thank you.
Glad we were able to help figure it out! For other bath and body products like soap, you can always add a bit extra fragrance because it is a wash-off product. But, the fragrance calculator is an excellent resource to get that exact amount you are looking for.
Fragrance Calculator: https://www.brambleberry.com/Pages/Fragrance-Calculator.aspx
-Becky with Bramble Berry
When making a facial scrub, how much essential or fragrant oil do you use? Is there such a thing as putting too much.
When adding fragrance or essential oils to any of your products we really like to stay in a small amount for the face, typically .1 oz per 16 ounces of product, keeping it very mild and barely there since it is going to be so close to the nose. And, if you are worried, it’s always better to use less than more in a facial scrub! I hope this helps. 🙂
-Becky with Bramble Berry
So can fragrant oils be used on the face or just essential oils? Thanks.
Good morning, Elaine!
We always use fragrance oils on your face or skin with a carrier oil because they should never be used straight on the face or the body. When using Essential Oils (EO’s) or Fragrance Oils (FO’s), we like to stick to the usage rate of .1 ounce per pound of product. And remember not to use any skin-irritants like cinnamon, clove, peppermint, or spearmint on the face! 🙂
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Thanks for the answer – can you verify, though, if it is better to add water or oil to create the right consistency for the benzonite clay scrub. This is the face scrub from the soap making tutorial and it does not say. Thanks, Shelley
Good morning, Shelley!
If you are referring to the gentle facial scrub from this tutorial, then we would suggest adding water to this recipe and using a water-soluble preservative like Optiphen Plus.
Optiphen Plus:https://www.brambleberry.com/Optiphen-Plus-P5253.aspx
If you want to stick to oils as your liquid, you can use the Optiphen as your preservative as it is an oil-soluble preservative.
Optiphen: https://www.brambleberry.com/Optiphen-P3682.aspx
I hope this helps!
-Becky with Bramble Berry
I have sold some of the rose clay and dead sea salt scrubs and everyone has been very pleased with them. I did have a question on the face scrub though. I sold those in a 4oz jar dry because I did not want to have to add a preservative. A customer has come back and asked me what would be a good oil to add to this to make it easier to use. Is it better to add water with a preservative (Optiphen?) or can I just add something like Sweet Almond oil with no preservative. I didn’t want to do the wrong thing. Thanks!
Hi Shelley!
Since your customer will be dipping her wet hands into an oily and wet product, we do suggest adding a preservative to be on the safe side. I’d suggest Optiphen in this case. 🙂
Optiphen: https://www.brambleberry.com/Optiphen-P3682.aspx
-Becky with Bramble Berry
I can’t ver hear your videos for the video stops and I miss words. Does this scrub haveto be regrigerated? When putting in jar do we haveto keep air out.
Good morning, Janice!
None of these scrubs need to be refrigerated and once they are in the jars you should be just fine! If you are having problems with the video cutting out, try this link on YouTube (it might work better for you)”
How to Make 3 Scrub Recipes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AU8pqpFy4g&feature=plcp
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Thanks Becky
Thanks Becky :-). Sea salt & the salt used in the kitchen, are they both different. Pls excuse my ignorance.
Good morning, Jasmine!
The regular salt and that you find in your kitchen and sea salt are actually two different kinds. Kitchen salt is more fine and small-grained while sea salts tend to be larger in size and more exfoliating. Here are some of the fun salts that Bramble Berry carries:
Dendritic Salt: https://www.brambleberry.com/Dendritic-Salt-P4879.aspx
Epsom Salt, Coarse: https://www.brambleberry.com/Epsom-Salt-Coarse-P5121.aspx
Epsom Salt, Extra Fine: https://www.brambleberry.com/Epsom-Salt-Extra-Fine-P5120.aspx
Fine Grained Dead Sea Salt: https://www.brambleberry.com/Fine-Grained-Dead-Sea-Salt-P4085.aspx
Medium Grain Dead Sea Salt: https://www.brambleberry.com/Medium-Grain-Dead-Sea-Salt-P4084.aspx
Pink Sea Salt, Coarse: https://www.brambleberry.com/Pink-Sea-Salt-Coarse-P5089.aspx
Pink Sea Salt, Small: https://www.brambleberry.com/Pink-Sea-Salt-Small-P5087.aspx
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Is the facial scrub recipe for one jar? I apologize if this question is answered somewhere on this page. I couldn’t find it.
Good morning, Leah!
The facial scrub recipe on this tutorial is just for one 4 ounce bail jar, but you can double the recipe to make it bigger if you’d like.
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Can I use iodized salt instead of sea salt?
Hi Jasmine! We have found that the sea salt works the best for exfoliation purposes. But, if you are in a pinch, iodized salt is going to work just fine. 🙂
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Really excited to try the face scrub! I’ve been reformulating my recipe for a face scrub bar and it’s not going so well, so maybe this will be better. Is the Green Zeolite clay optimal? Or will some of the other clays like Rose, Rhassoul, or Sea clay work fine too?
Hi Katenik!
You can use other clays like Rose, Rhassoul, Sea or any clay of your choice in this recipe. We used the Green Zeolite Clay because we found that it is a particularly mild clay that works very well in facial scrubs. 🙂
Green Zeolite Clay: https://www.brambleberry.com/Green-Zeolite-Clay-P4960.aspx
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Quick update: I made the scrub again with more Polysorbate 80 and it did the trick! It’s all holding together and the scrub is super easy to rinse off. Now I need to master the Tapioca Powder in my body butter. 🙂 Thanks Becky!
~Evie
I am so happy to hear that it worked for you, Evie! And, I know you can totally master the body butter, I’d start out with about 1 tablespoon of Tapioca Powder per ounce of product and go up from there until you like the feeling and consistency! 🙂
-Becky with Bramble Berry
would the sweet meyer lemon or lemon verbena fragrance oil, or lemon essential oil be good alternatives for the lavender in the facial scrub recipe?
Hi Elizabeth!
We used Lavender in our scrubs because it has been known to help calm the skin and is a great essential oil to work with. You can totally use any of those lemons as an alternative, and Lemon Essential Oils is great for facial cleanser. Just be aware that Lemon Essential Oil is a photosensitizer. I hope this helps! 🙂
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Hi Becky! Yup – I used the Polysorbate 80. I even used a little more than the recipe called for. I think I will add just a bit more and, as you suggested, not fill it up so much. Thank you!
~Evie
Hi! I finally had a chance to make the salt glow recipe. It’s terrific but I noticed that the oil settles to the bottom of the jar. When the jar is full it’s hard to shake or stir to redistribute. Is there anything I could do or add to make it stay more mixed together?
~Evie
Hi Evie!
When you made the salt glow recipe were you including the Polysorbate 80? The Polysorbate is a super great emulsifier that helps to keep those oils from settling to the bottom of the jar. But, if you are still having problems, I’d suggest not filling the jar as full so that you would have room to shake or stir it up if that happens again.
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Love the video! Could you substitute the green zeolite clay with white kaolin? Does kaolin have exfoliating properties? I have everything on hand but the zeolite. I can’t wait to try these recipes. Thanks for being such a fantastic resource!!
Good morning, Nikki!
You could definitely substitute the Kaolin Clay for the Green Zeolite. Kaolin is a bit smoother in consistency then the Green Zeolite but it would still give a lovely texture and feel. 🙂
Kaolin Clay: https://www.brambleberry.com/Kaolin-Clay-P3235.aspx
-Becky with Bramble Berry
I can’t wait to make these. Just wondering if I could sub the Orange peel powder with something else that isn’t citrus?
Hi Barbara!
If you wanted to use another scrubby ingredient instead of the Orange Peel Powder, you totally could. I’d suggest trying out some Shredded Loofah or an exfoliant of your choice!
Shredded Loofah: https://www.brambleberry.com/Shredded-Loofah-P3252.aspx
Exfoliants: https://www.brambleberry.com/Exfoliants-C158.aspx#
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Another neat project.
Does Brambleberry still sell the bail jars? It was not listed on the website.
Hi Heidi!
We are currently sourcing the bail jars and they will be back up on the site as soon as we get them back in! So keep your eyes peeled. 🙂
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Could you add the water to the zeolite clay scrub prior to packaging if you add a preservative?
Hi Jenna!
If you add the water and preservative to the Gentle Facial Scrub before you package, there should be no problems with it! 🙂
-Becky with Bramble Berry
How many Classy Black Lip Pots are used?? And thanks for recipes will have to try.
Good morning, Gretta!
For the lip sugar scrub, you would need about 19-20 of the classy black lip pots!
https://www.brambleberry.com/Classy-Lip-Butter-Pot-With-Window-P3023.aspx
-Becky with Bramble Berry
To make the lip scrub vegan could I use Carnuba or Candelilla and would i use half the amount of beeswax?
Hi Fuchia! Because Candelilla Wax is more brittle and harder then regular Beeswax, you’d want to use about half or a little more then what is called for in this recipe. I’d go with about .4 – .5 ounces of Candelilla Wax. I hope this helps and let us know how it turns out for you! 🙂
https://www.brambleberry.com/Candellila-Wax-P4207.aspx
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Becky,
Thanks for the information and I will let you know when I try it out.
Oh! By the way. Can I just take lemon peel, dry it and then put it through food processor to get the lemon peel powder?
Hi Lora! As long as it is dried lemon peel powder I think it would be fabulous to try out in a scrub. You’ll have to let us know how it works for you. 🙂
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Hi Becky
Just loved these scrubs – had a thought – have you every tried making a scrub using dried lemon verbena.
Regards
Mae
We haven’t made a scrub with dried lemon verbena, but it does sound super scrumptious and should work just fine! If you do try it, you’ll have to let us know how it turns out. 🙂
-Becky with Bramble Berry
So nice to see you ladies together! Great colaboration!
I’m also curious about which preservative could be used in the salt glow and at which percentage. I have Germaben.
Hi Kirsten!
For the Salt Glow recipe, you could use either the Optiphen or Phenonip as a preservative. You would use the Phenonip at a rate of .5 – 1% of the total weight of your product. While you’d use the Optiphen at .5 – 1.5% of the total weight of your product.
https://www.brambleberry.com/Phenonip-P4038.aspx
https://www.brambleberry.com/Optiphen-P3682.aspx
-Becky with Bramble Berry
I am not smart enough to figure out how much
preservative to use. How much would you use
for the recipe ypu made?
For the salt glow – approximately .17 oz. of preservative for the 17 ounce project.
Thanks so much. Since we have cups,oz,grams and
ml I couldnt figure out how to do the math for
.05 percent.
Janie Braswell
Can I use polysorbate 20 instead of 80?
Absolutely! Either Polysorbate 20 or 80 will work as an emulsifier in this recipe. 🙂
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Just wondering…can we go without the Polysorbate 20, or is there something else that can be used in place of this. What about a preservative?
Thanks.
Hi Natasha!
You can try using Polysorbate 20 instead of the Polysorbate 80. But, it’s totally okay to skip that ingredient as it just helps with rinsing the scrub off the skin.
And you don’t have to use a preservative (especially if you use it outside the shower), but if you wanted to use one, we’d suggest Optiphen or Phenonip!
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Phenonip: https://www.brambleberry.com/Phenonip-P4038.aspx
Optiphen: https://www.brambleberry.com/Optiphen-P3682.aspx
I’ve never made scrubs before, but I ddefinitely want to try one now! Such a fun video. 🙂
You should try them and let us know how they turn out for you! =)
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Yeah! I woke up to a new SQ video…I have missed them!
xo
Mariah
Great work, I liked the videos. I will definitely try making them for myself
Can’t wait to hear how they turn out! 🙂
-Becky with Bramble Berry
The scrubs sound great. The only problem is that the sugar, and the amount needed, were left out of the list of ingredients for the Lip Sugar Scrub. Sorry to be fussy but I just thought you should know.
Loved the outtakes!!
The amount of sugar used was 3oz. It is at the bottom of the recipe list.
Does the amount of sugar show above in the text following these ingredients;
4 mL Lip Smackin’ Sweetener
Classy Black Lip Pot
I don’t see it either just thought I’d mention that. Perhaps the amount of sugar is only on the video?
Hi Suzanne!
The text might be a little hard to see, but the sugar amount on the blog post is listed at 3 ounces. We really appreciate you pointing it out to us, sometimes things can be a little hard to see. =)
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Love the scrubs