The first thing I should get out of the way in regards to these Chocolate Sugar Scrub Nuggets is this: please don’t eat them. You will be sorely tempted, and I’m guessing they probably don’t taste all that bad. After all, they are mostly cocoa butter and sugar, and that right there is sort of white chocolate, so I can understand the temptation, but you really shouldn’t. Truly. Save these nuggets for the bath, and pick up some proper nuggets for nomming from a place that does not specialize in exfoliation and bath treats that lie.
These Chocolate Sugar Scrub Nuggets were born from a recipe request from Maggie, who had purchased some little cocoa butter salt scrub bon-bons at a local store. She said they left her smelling like chocolate and exfoliated her skin, but was hoping to make her own given the rate she was going through them. Challenge accepted!
I decided to base these nuggets on my Lavender Meadow Bath Melts. I love how those emulsify right into bath water, and that definitely seemed like a desirable trait in a set of mini exfoliating body butter bars that were designed to be used in the bath or shower. Technically, there’s no reason you couldn’t use these outside of the shower or bath, but I think you’ll find you want the sugar off of you sooner rather than later, making the bath/shower approach a convenient one.
The originals Maggie purchased used salt as the exfoliant, but I decided to go with sugar as it doesn’t sting if you have any open wounds, and stickiness really isn’t a factor when you’re rinsing immediately after/mid use. For fragrance I decided to add a bit of cocoa absolute to really amp up the mouth watering chocolate factor. Yum!
Because these little dudes are designed to melt into the skin easily, they need to be stored somewhere relatively cool so they stay solid-ish. I did make these firmer than the bath melts to account for the fact you’d be handling them and not want them to immediately turn to mush, but they will soften fairly quickly in your hand. I would highly recommend making them in single-use sizes as once they are wet, they really should be used entirely or discarded—once they’re wet they’ll be prime targets for mould and other gross things. I used this awesome little hexagonal ice cube tray to make mine.
Alright, let’s dive in! These little Chocolate Sugar Scrub Nuggets are basically just measure-melt-pour-chill, so you’ve got no reason not to 😉
Chocolate Sugar Scrub Nuggets
10g | 0.35oz complete emulsifying wax (not beeswax!)
10g | 0.35oz refined shea butter (USA / Canada)
22g | 0.78oz cocoa butter (USA / Canada)65g | 0.88oz white sugar (USA / Canada)
15 drops cocoa absolutePrepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer over low to medium-low heat in a small saucepan.
Weigh the emulsifying wax, shea butter, and cocoa butter into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Place the measuring cup in your prepared water bath to melt everything through.
Once the butters and emulsifying wax are completely liquid, remove the measuring cup from the heat and stir to combine. Continue to stir with a flexible silicone spatula, adding the sugar and cocoa absolute.
When the mixture is somewhat viscous (the sugar doesn’t immediately sink back to the bottom), pour it into your mould. This part isn’t all that pretty, sadly. Try your best to get equal amounts of sugar and oil into each little compartment of your mould, scrape out the last of the sugar, and put them somewhere cold to set up. I went with my porch because it is winter in Canada, but your fridge or freezer will also work.
Once they’ve set up, pop ’em out of your mould and that’s it! Store them somewhere cool and dry, and only get one wet when you intend to use it up immediately. To use, massage the Chocolate Sugar Scrub Nugget into your skin and rinse off the sugar.
Because these little scrub nuggets are 100% oil based, they do not require a broad-spectrum preservative (broad spectrum preservatives ward off microbial growth, and microbes require water to live—no water, no microbes!). However, once you get one wet, use it up all at once—once it’s wet, it can mould. Kept reasonably cool and dry, they should last at least a year before any of the oils go rancid. If you notice it starts to smell like old nuts or crayons, that’s a sign that the oils have begun to oxidize; chuck it out and make a fresh batch if that happens.
Can you use something else besides cocoa absolute?
Of course! Just think about essential oils that pair well with chocolate 😉
Hey Marie! Lovely recipe! I tried the bath melts and love them but I had to store them in the refrigerator as I had some out and they melted. We are usually averaging about 37 degrees Celsius during the day. Glad these are a bit harder will leave a few out and see what happens. Could I possibly add some cocoa powder to this to make it chocolate brown?
Thanks, Candy! I’m very envious of your weather—we are closer to -37°C these days (though it’s been a couple weeks since that happened last, thankfully!). You can definitely add a bit of cocoa powder to make them brown! Just remember you will likely be wiping it out of your tub, so keep that in mind when deciding how much to add 😉 Happy making!
Once again, you are amazing!! I made something similar to these last year, however- no sugar or shea butter, or cocoa butter either. They were cough drops! Honey, coconut oil, and a tad bit of lemon essential oil. Yum! You could actually eat those!
Ha! Definitely don’t use these as cough drops 😛
Hey Marie, I have been toying with the idea of using coffee as a scent and for its uplifting and immune boosting properties in my balms. I have been trying to work out why it is not as popular as some other essential oils (I very rarely see it in online stores), as most people who don’t enjoy drinking coffee usually enjoy the smell. I was wondering if you have known anyone to try coffee essential oil or absolutes in their products, and whether this is something you have ever done yourself? I am still new to DIYing so sorry if this comment is off topic. I am learning so much so fast here (thanks to your articles), and although I am still on your basic recipes, I would like to advance to soap making, and the idea of creating something unique also really excites me!
Hi Neal~ Marie has a lot of recipes with coffee eo that I’ve run across! Just type in coffee essential oil in the search bar and you’ll get your wish!
Marie~ I’m going to eat these. Don’t try to stop me!
Well… alright haha. Report back!
Hey Neil! I LOVE the smell of coffee in things I’ve used the essential oil in quite a few projects, as well as coffee bean infused oil. The search function should help turn up those projects for you (make sure you try “mocha” as well as “coffee”) 🙂 This one is a particular fave, as is this! Coffee = da bomb 😀 Happy making! I’m thrilled to hear you’re learning lots and enjoying getting your hands dirty (and oh-so-soft, I’m sure 😉 ).
Oh, I am sure this would work well with coffee! Personally, I use coffee grounds as a body scrub (lovely smell, and the coffee oils leave the skin ultra soft, but the mess in the shower is a downside), and I do have a coffee-scented soap fragrance (no EO, sadly) I’ve used in bath fizzies and lip balms, among other things.
If you wanted a different fragrance of a sugar scrub than the chocolate, do you think you would substitute Kokum butter or Illipe butter vs the cocoa butter. Was thinking of making a tropical floral or lavender fragranced sugar scrub. Or would the cocoa butter not interfere with the other types of fragrance.
I’d probably recommend using a deodorized cocoa butter since I’m certain the hardness/melting point would stay the same if you did 🙂
Holy sweet mother of cocoa beans. Travel sized sugar/salt scrubs! I never would have thought of using an ice cube tray I’ve always just used a 50g tin!
I wonder…. hummm….. I love salt on my skin. So maybe…. adding in some salt and coffee grinds with some menthol crystals and a wee bit of that steric acid (the hardening one most use in soaps) for keeping it hard… cocoa coffee mint? I love DIY!
Huh. I have these teeny tiny heart molds. I wonder. I’ve been thinking of finding a way to take the “cold snap” and doing something like this with some salt or sugar to make it a scrub. I’ll give it a go!
And e-wax! Don’t forget the e-wax! 😀 Have fun 😉
These look lovely and I am very tempted to make them right alway, although I must admit I usually satisfy all my exfoliating needs by repurposing the coffee grounds. :p ;D
Can I just ask what the emulsifying wax does in this receipe? I thought that was only necessary if there was a watery phase involved, but maybe here it helps with the sugar being hydrophilic?
The water phase is your bath water 😉
*facepalm* The bathwater! I don’t think I would have ever guessed. Thank you for helping me see the obvious. 😀
Hahaha no worries 🙂
They sound great! Im on the mission to create a big scrubbar so I can scrub and oilup at the same. I started with just salt and coconutoil, but I want a big handy bar. Then I added beeswax to harden it, this was before finding your blog and learning more about ingredients lol, it was totally awefull! Im now over the shock and ready to dive in again. I just found some Lush Buffy dupe-recipes and now ran into these lovely scrubbies. They sound amazing and quite similar.
Loooong story short, can I just make this into a large bar? Any other advise? Thanks, ur the best!
I honestly would not. For starters, you’d need a preservative, and I’d probably steer you towards parabens for this one as it contains lots of bug food (TONS of sugar) and you want to get it wet multiple times and store it somewhere hot and humid (LUSH uses parabens for a reason—their products are FULL of bacterial temptations). Also, these nuggets are soft enough that I think you would have a hard time keeping a bar as a bar… it would turn to a mushy blob. So, yeah. Long story short—nuggets are best. They work just as well, but are much easier to make and use safely and efficiently 🙂
Thanks! I just got my big order from New Directions and it’s playtime! Yaaay.
I already tried the Buffy-dupe before i remembered this recipe and my comment. So I just read your reply just now.
In the Buffy there’s beans, rice and almond (and coffee in mine). Uhm, lots of food! However, Lush doesn’t add anyting as a perservative (https://uk.lush.com/products/buffy)What ur saying really makes sense though. I’ll look for a nuggets-mold. 🙂
Another question about the emulsifier in it, I’m thinking it’ll help to prevent a slippy shower? But doesn’t it also wash the great oils of your skin?
I’m surprised LUSH doesn’t have a preservative in that, frankly. It should since it’s designed to be wetted many times. If it was a single use thing it would be fine, but from the photos it looks too big for that.
The emulsifier helps with some rinse off, but unless you are actively scrubbing the oil off it won’t make the oil immediately slip off you—it’ll help the oil emulsify with the water already on your skin and turn into lotion 🙂
I just made these and they came out exactly like Marie’s! So easy. I made this scent and also orange/clove. I will put them is small baggies with ribbon for holiday gifts for my clients.
YAY! I’m so glad 😀 Enjoy and thanks for DIYing with me!
hey Marie,
LOOONNGGG time no talk. LOL. Curious if BTMS-50 would work. It’s the only other thing i use besides beeswax. I tried looking up your ewax info page, but i kept getting an error 🙁
You could certainly try it! I didn’t use it as it is my most expensive emulsifying wax, but it is a complete emulsifying wax, as called for in the recipe 🙂
Could I use these as scrubs to rub on my scalp?
Sorry, I have another question. If I made the nuggets and put them in a mold that is large and doesn’t have separate cavities, would I still be able to remove the whole block and cut the nuggets into the shapes/sizes that I like? I know it sounds like a silly question, but I figure it would be best to ask an expert. Thanks! 🙂