I’ve shared a couple emulsified sugar scrubs lately, and in the comments of one of them, Penny asked about salt. Something about her skin loving salt in scrubs, and how perhaps I should try it. Hmmm. Once I started thinking about salt, that quickly led to sea salt… and seaweed… and summer. And the ocean, and bathing suits, and a cold beer (or three) and a good book… and can you tell I’m itching for it to be summer? Ha! Anyhow, back to the scrub—we have ourselves an emulsified scrub with mineral rich sea salt, seaweed, and some great-for-our-skin oils to make a Seaside Emulsified Salt Scrub. That’s pretty awesome on its own—add a chilled cerveza and a great novel to step it up to extra great!
Emulsified scrubs are superior to non-emulsified scrubs for one simple, but oh-so-important reason: they emulsify with your bathwater. This has two major upsides. #1: They effectively turn into lotion on your skin as they emulsify with your bath water, which is obviously all kinds of awesome for your skin. #2: Because these scrubs emulsify with your bath water, getting out of your tub does not become a scene from Most Extreme Elimination Challenge. This is because the oils in the scrub emulsify with your bath water, heavily diluting them and allowing them to rinse down your drain rather than lurking in your tub like an oily assassin.
The oil part of this scrub is a blend of rich shea butter and light, silky grapeseed oil (which also adds a slight green hue). These ingredients are pretty interchangeable, though; you could use mango butter (or another soft butter) instead of the shea, and any light to mid-weight liquid oil (think sweet almond, safflower, sunflower, apricot kernel…) instead of the grapeseed. Just be sure to keep your choices inexpensive—no sense washing pricey oils down the drain!
A blend of two different types of sea salt brings the scrub—I used mostly fine, with a bit of coarse. I used a coarse Dead Sea Salt, but any sort of coarse salt will do—no need to be so posh! If you like a scrubbier scrub, feel free to tip the balance more in favour of the coarse grain salt and use less fine grain. I find this scrub is pretty mild as written, so if you’re attempting to sand blast some serious callouses, I’d definitely suggest tipping the balance a bit more in the favour of the coarse variety.
I wrapped things up with a touch of seaweed powder and some lemongrass essential oil. I used fairly little seaweed powder as I find I’m not crazy about the seaweedy smell in things, but if you like the smell of seaweed, you should be able to increase it up to 10g (or perhaps even more) without any trouble. Just go slowly and take notes! Lemongrass blends nicely with the briney scent of the seaweed and really brightens it up—and citrus essential oil should also work well, but there’s something about the herbal undertones of lemongrass that works beautifully with seaweed.
And that’s it! It’s really just a measure-melt-chill-whip project, which makes it delightfully accessible and simple. Enjoy your Seaside Emulsified Salt Scrub!
Seaside Emulsified Salt Scrub
20g | 0.71oz complete emulsifying wax (not beeswax!)
8g | 0.28oz stearic acid (USA / Canada / UK)
15g | 0.53 oz unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada) (refined or unrefined)
45g | 1.59oz grapeseed oil
2 drops Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)3g | 0.1oz seaweed powder
10g | 0.35oz coarse dead sea salt
40g | 1.41oz fine sea salt20 drops lemongrass essential oil
Prepare 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, stearic acid, shea butter, grapeseed oil, and vitamin E into a small, deep mixing bowl that is heat resistant—glass, metal, or ceramic are good choices. Place the mixing bowl in your prepared water bath to melt everything through.
Once everything has melted, remove the mixing bowl from the heat and dry the outside of it off with a dish towel. Leave it to solidify; I left mine in the fridge for about an hour.
When the base has solidified, weigh in the salt, seaweed, and lemongrass essential oil. Use electric beaters or a stand mixture to beat the mixture until it is light and fluffy, like when you’re creaming butter and sugar together at the start of a cookie recipe.
Lightly spoon the whipped scrub into a 250mL/8oz tin. To use, portion out a small amount of scrub into a shower-safe container, and take that container into the shower or bath with you. Massage small amounts of the scrub into damp skin and rinse off (avoid broken skin—salt stings on broken skin!). Enjoy your lovely soft, exfoliated epidermis!
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this scrub does not contain any water, it does not require a broad-spectrum preservative (broad spectrum preservatives ward off microbial growth, and microbes require water to live—no water, no microbes!). Be sure to keep it dry to ensure it lasts as long as possible—don’t let any water get into the container and it should easily last a year. If you are not adding a preservative you must portion out the amount you want to use into a small shower-safe container for use so you are never taking the master batch into the bath/shower, where it is very likely to become contaminated with water as you’ll be dipping into it with wet hands. If you plan on giving this scrub away or taking it into the shower/bath with you, please include 1% phenonip (USA | Canada)—phenonip is an oil-soluble broad spectrum preservative, so it will work to protect this 100% oil-based concoction.
Love the sound of this scrub Marie,and I have all the ingredients except the seaweed, the smell of which makes me feel ill lol so I will leave that out, and will make this at the weekend 😀 Thank you for all the hard work you do and the great recipes you bring us.I hope you are under contract for another book or two.
Awesome! Thanks so much 🙂 No further book news at this time, though the publishing industry is a very slow one, so I wouldn’t take that to mean much in any way! 😛
Hi!
Such a great recipe, thank you for sharing! 🙂
I am a certified aromatherapist and wanted to let you know that Lemongrass should be used at 0.5%, which 2-3 drops per oz, or 28 grams. For this recipe, the total number of drops is safer at 10-13 drops.
A great resource for your aroma bookshelf is Robert Tisserand’s Essential Oil Safety.
Thank you,
Beth
Hey Beth! I do have Tisserand’s book, it’s wonderful! I did weigh out the lemongrass EO and 20 drops = 0.43 grams, which = 0.3% in this recipe. It’s just that most of my readers do not have a scale that precise, so I provide drop measurements instead.
Also, given that this is a product designed to be diluted at use in water, and rinsed off almost immediately, I’m not certain your calculations apply; from my reading, that’s more for leave-on products applied at the strength they’re made at. Am I incorrect? I haven’t read the entire tome, so feel free to direct me to the correct page!
Hi Marie,
Thank you for your thoughtful response, and YAY for Robert’s book. 🙂
Technically, yes, you can use this dilution as it is a rinse off product. I suggest caution to your readers as Lemongrass is high in Aldehydes (Geranial and Neral), which are skin and mucous membrane irritants. Everyone’s skin is different some people can tolerate an oil such as Lemongrass at this dilution and other cannot. I also suggest caution as oxidized Aldehydes oils can be skin irritating, and damaging. A safer alternative is Lemongrass-Rhodinol rich. A wonderful Canadian company is Aliksir. 🙂
I hope this helps.
Warmly,
Beth
“This dilution” is still below the recommended level, though—0.3% < 0.5%... and then with the dilution in the water, it's even lower. I'm certainly not setting out to be an essential oil educator, and with such a low usage level I don't think such a warning is warranted. It's always here in your comments, though 🙂
How many ounces does this recipe make? I read through…did I miss it somewhere?
How much does this recipe make?
Also, I list the size of container I fill in the formulation instructions 🙂
Love this recipe – any chance I could use candelilla as the emulsifier?
Candelila is not an emulsifying wax, it’s a regular wax. This means the scrub will not be an ’emulsified’ sugar scrub with all the associated delightful properties. It will still be a salt scrub but that much candelila will make it a very hard/stiff base (difficult to scoop out and use)
As Penny and Joey said, candelilla wax is not an emulsifier, do not use it in place of emulsifying wax!!! Read the article Marie linked in the recipe to learn more about emulsifying waxes http://www.humblebeeandme.com/faqs/dont-like-sounds-emulsifying-wax-can-use-beeswax-plant-based-wax-instead/
Everyone who has chimed in is correct—you can’t use something that isn’t an emulsifier as an emulsifier 🙂
Thanks everyone, I’ve never used Candelilla wax before, and when I researched it, I found several posts calling it an emulsifier, so thank you for clearing that up!
When in doubt, check Point of Interest!
Can I use it on face?
Nina, the skin on your face is much more sensitive and delicate than the rest of you body. You don’t want to use anything coarser than a clay on your face.
As several others have said, I really wouldn’t—unless you are a storm trooper and wear that helmet 24/7 😛
Nicole: Candelilla is not an emulsifier, so it really wouldn’t work. Looking at the ingredients exactly as written in the post, I wouldn’t use this recipe on my face. That coarse salt could pose some potential skin issues if you’re not careful. If you only use fine salt and go gently, yup!
Marie! So… which do you like better? Salt? Sugar? Both? I do like both salt and sugar. I’ve got tubs of both in my shower. Thank goodness for Chinese bathrooms. Laundry machine, toilet, sink and shower is one room. I’ve got lots of shelves put up to hold all this stuff! I got my hands on some seaweed powder I’ve been using it in masks, but a question about powders in your scrubs. I’ve added dead sea mud, clays, moringa powder (of course), sea buckthorn powder (another of course) and a few other powders to my scrubs and found that when I go to rinse off, the powders usually like to hang out on my skin. Which is kind of funny sometimes. Did you find that with the seaweed?
I so want to make more scrubs today now!! Woot woot! They are in crazy demand.
I’m honestly not sure I notice a difference… is that sacrilege?! I haven’t found the seaweed clings to my skin, but there really isn’t that much of it in the scrub (the smell… erk…). I imagine the e-wax helps with rinse-off, too.
Nope! Not sacrilege at all! I find with the salt my skin feels better (not to touch, but from the inside if that makes any sense). I’ve discovered that people love it and feel weird like me, they are like and don’t feel the difference, or just find it drying.
Lady DIY, I’m trying to write an inventory and I keep seeing New Comment New Comment!
I’m slowly whittling the backlog down from north of 100! I’m in the 30’s now. Whew. I need a clone, man.
I can imagine you need a clone! You’re plate must be wicked full! I should really stop leaving comments!
Nah!
Apricot, rice bran and wheat germ as your liquid oils, some coconut, beeswax, stearic acid, wee bit of yellow and green micas, some lemon and lime essential oil and layer it? You’ve got the most amazing lemon lime body scrub.
Now shhhh! I’m trying to work here!
Oooooer. Well, I’m on a making hiatus while I travel, but I imagine I shall return thoroughly refreshed and inspired!
This looks great – thanks for sharing!
Thanks for reading! Happy making 🙂
Hi Marie. If I wanted to add some surfactant to this to make it more cleansing & use as a stand alone cleaner, could I?
You could, BUT remember that fat impedes lather, and this is almost entirely fat. If I were you, I’d swap some of the liquid oil for a solubilizer like Polysorbate 80 for improved wash off 🙂
What is the purpose of the stearic acid in this recipe? I’d love to give this a try! I’ve always wanted to switch over my oil based sugar scrub recipes to a less death-defying emulsified one, but I assumed a preservative would be necessary and I didn’t want that. So this is great, thanks Marie 🙂
It provides structure so you can whip it and the salt will stay suspended. If you eliminate it you will end up with a sloppy mixture that won’t whip up or hold its shape or salt in suspension.
Just wondering about the need for both the emulsifying wax as well as the stearic acid. Do they provide totally different qualities to the final product or can you get away with using just the emulsifying wax in order to get the oils emulsified enough to go down the drain instead of coating the shower floor.I have emulsemulse. Hope that is suitable for this purpose. Thank you!
Stearic acid provides structure so you can whip it and the salt will stay suspended. If you eliminate it you will end up with a sloppy mixture that won’t whip up or hold its shape or salt in suspension. The emulsifying wax is the emulsifier—they don’t do the same thing, and I don’t recommend using just one. Emulsimulse will work!
Hi Marie, Loved your book! Can we use Optiphen Plus or Liquid Germal Plus for the preservative? I believe I read that Optiphen is now being used successfully in 100% oil based scrubs…Thanks
I believe I used LGP for this one; there seems to be some debate about the water soluble/oil soluble preservative for anhydrous concoctions that may be contaminated with water. Given the pH requirements of Optiphen Plus I’d be hesitant to recommend it here as it’s hard to predict pH when the amount of water could vary so greatly.
I LOVE that you are sharing more emulsified scrub recipes – I had never thought of using an emulsifier before! It gives you the freedom to use all kinds of oils and butters without worrying about the scrub being overly greasy. I am definitely getting some emulsifying wax next time I order supplies :]
Yay! I, too, am a big fan of the no-longer-lethal bath experience Happy scrubbing!
Could dead sea mud be used as an alternative for the seaweed powder?
If you have the dry powder/clay, for sure, but I wouldn’t add the liquidy mud as it’s got water in it and is nearly impossible to preserve safely at home 🙂
I thought I had followed the recipe but it turned out to be far from fluffy. When I took it out of the fridge it was hard as rock and I had to break it up before trying to get through it with the mixer. Apparently I did something wrong. Any ideas. Love the ingredients and would like to try it again……. Thanks.
It just sounds like you left it in the fridge for longer than necessary—you basically “froze” the oil, so of course it was too hard. It’ll soften back up at room temperature!
thanks I’ll try it again. I only left it in the fridge for an hour but I didn’t let it come to room temp before I tried working with it…………….
Good work.
Think of it like butter—it’s much easier to whip at room temperature, but not liquid!
Hi Marie, again thank you! I wanted to let you know that I did not have seaweed but I had green tea so I used that instead and WOW love it, I made a double batch so I can share it with my mom as her legs sure needs a bit of a scrub! My legs are so smooth, you are a genius! Thank you again
Woo! Sounds like you made a hybrid with this scrub 🙂 Enjoy those smooth gams!
If I added Polysorbate 20 to this would it also help with an overly greasy feeling? Im new to salt scrubs and I thought Polysorbate added can help with feel and also slipperiness? is that true?
Hi Marie,
I’ve worked out that in this recipe the emulsifying wax is over 20% of the total weight (not including the powders) while Susan from Point of interest suggests using 10% of emulsifying wax- so there’s less oil in your recipe than her formula. Could you please kindly explain what the higher percentage of emulsifying wax does to the product?
Thanks a lot,
Huong
It can offer more thorough rise-off and emulsifying, but could also be drying for people with very dry-prone skin (not something I’ve found to be problematic in a product used in the shower/bath, but something to consider for a product like a cleansing balm). I haven’t read her post on it, but for a project like this that’s more of a general guideline that is also dependant on the rest of the formula. Hope that helps!
Hi, can I use lavender and eucalyptus essential oils with out lemongrass essential oil?
Yup!
hi marie!!
Can i replace the stearic acid? can I use cosgard as broad spectrum conservative?
Is there a way to add beeswax to make it less fluffy and a bit thicker – trying to bottle in tubes
I really don’t recommend adding beeswax unless you want a product that leaves the skin very sticky (learn more here, mistake #2!). Try Cetearyl Alcohol instead 🙂 Happy making!
Hi Marie,
Just wondering if I could use Isopropyl Myristate as the emulsifier ?
Thank you for any help. I have bought a massive amount of Kelp powder so really need to find things to use with it. Could you make this with other powders like a carob powder and some coffee grounds ?
Hi Sarah! Isopropyl myristate (IPM) is not an emulsifier. Learn more about it in the Humblebee & Me DIY Encyclopedia (https://www.humblebeeandme.com/diy-encyclopedia/) 🙂
You could play with the powders in this, just be aware of how scrubby they are in relation to how much scrub you might want in the end product. Happy making!
Hi Marie, im having problem with my scrub. it smells wax or like a candle, and oil is floating up after a day or two, what should i do?