Today we’re whipping up a bit of cherry pink summery fun! This perky pink sugar scrub smells wonderfully of juicy watermelon and fresh peppermint. A creamy base self-emulsifies with your bathwater, turning into lotion as you scrub away dead skin with the sugar in the formulation, leaving you with ultra-soft, smooth, and moisturized skin. Lovely!
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The bulk of this scrub is plain ol’ granulated sugar. It’s our primary exfoliant, and a great choice as it’s inexpensive, readily available all over the world, and water-soluble—meaning it’s wonderfully scrubby as you use the scrub, but dissolves into your bathwater once you rinse it off, making for a cleaner tub post-scrub but also meaning you don’t end up sitting on a layer of grit on the bottom of your tub. If you want something less scrubby you could use a finer sugar, like berry sugar (not icing sugar!). You could also use table salt, or a blend of sugar and salt (possibly playing with larger grain salts or sugars for a scrubbing boost, though start small on large grain things as that can get to be too much fairly easily). Please don’t use brown sugar—it has a higher moisture content than white sugar and we don’t want that in this project.
Our creamy base is primarily a blend of inexpensive fractionated coconut oil that’s been thickened with cetearyl alcohol. You could easily use a different lightweight liquid carrier oil instead of fractionated coconut oil, but I recommend sticking to inexpensive ones since this is a wash-off product. Scrubs like this can also be a good way to use up oils that are nearing the end of their shelf life as you use quite a lot of ’em and can really motor through the scrub with full-body usage.
The creamy base also contains some lovely watermelon seed oil and some emulsifying wax, which allows the scrub to self-emulsify with your bath water when you use it. Not only does this make for a lovely transformation from pink scrub to creamy white goodness, but it also means your bath doesn’t get super greasy and slippery, and your bath water gets all velvety and gorgeous.
A touch of pink mica turns our scrub into a watermelon-y pink, and some black poppyseeds complete the watermelon-y look of the scrub. You could also use a different small black exfoliant instead of poppyseeds; if you had some black salt that would work nicely, as would black jojoba beads or black bursting beds (though those are more of a skin-nourishing thing than an exfoliant—but with 49% sugar we aren’t short on exfoliants in this formulation!).
And that’s about it! Melt, chill, whip, and you’re done 🍉 Enjoy!
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Watermelon Mint Whipped Sugar Scrub
Heated Phase
9g | 9% Emulsifying Wax NF (USA / Canada / AU) or Polawax (USA / Canada)
18.25g | 18.25% fractionated coconut oil
10g | 10% watermelon seed oil
11g | 11% cetearyl alcohol (USA / Canada)
1g | 1% pink micaPost-heat phase
49g | 49% white sugar (USA / Canada)Cool down phase
0.25g | 0.25% Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)
0.2g | 0.2% peppermint essential oil (USA / Canada)
0.3g | 0.3% watermelon fragrance oil
1g | 1% poppy seedsPrepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer over low to medium-low heat in a wide, flat-bottomed sauté pan.
Weigh the heated phase ingredients into a medium-sized, deep, heat-resistant mixing bowl. Place the bowl in your prepared water bath to melt everything through.
Once the mixture has melted, remove it from the heat and stir in the sugar. Freeze the mixture in the bowl for five minutes, and then remove it promptly. Grab your electric mixer, and whip up the mixture for about 3 minutes, until it is fluffy and uniform.
Leave the scrub to fully cool to room temperature and then whip it again—I like to do the last whipping at room temperature to make sure it’ll stay nice and fluffy at room temperature. During this final whipping, you’ll weigh out the cooldown phase and whip that in as well.
And that’s it! Gently spoon the scrub into a jar—I used a 100g plastic jar from YellowBee for my 100g batch, and that worked well. 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 your skin and rinse off. Enjoy your lovely soft, exfoliated skin!
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. I highly recommend portioning 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, please include 0.5% Liquid Germall Plusâ„¢ (USA / Canada).
Substitutions
As always, be aware that making substitutions will change the final product. While these swaps won’t break the recipe, you will get a different final product than I did.
- As I’ve provided this recipe in percentages as well as grams you can easily calculate it to any size using a simple spreadsheet as I’ve explained in this post. As written in grams this recipe will make 100g.
- To learn more about the ingredients used in this recipe, including why they’re included and what you can substitute them with, please visit the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia. It doesn’t have everything in it yet, but there’s lots of good information there! If I have not given a specific substitution suggestion in this list please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
- You can use a different complete emulsifying wax instead of Polawax.
- You can use a different inexpensive lightweight carrier oil instead of fractionated coconut oil.
- You could use more fractionated coconut oil instead of the watermelon seed oil.
- You could try a blend of stearic acid and cetyl alcohol instead of the cetearyl alcohol. I’d probably start with 50/50 and see how that works.
- Do not increase the amount of peppermint essential oil used; it’s not irritating at this level, but high concentrations of menthol (a component of peppermint essential oil) in a hot bath can be.
- You can use a different fragrance/essential oil blend if you prefer.
- You could use salt instead of sugar.
- Read the pre-amble for alternatives to the poppyseeds.
Gifting Disclosure
The watermelon seed oil was gifted by Mystic Moments. The 100g plastic jar and pink mica were gifted by YellowBee.
Awesomesauce Marie….you rock…this sounds lovely and I have everything I need to make it!!!!
Woohoo! Happy making 😀
Hi Marie,
I looked for substitutions for the mica, but I didn’t see any. The obvious is to just leave out; however, I was wondering if red food coloring would be an acceptable substitution?
Thanks!
I’d tread very carefully there as food colouring will be A LOT more potent than mica, and it is likely in a glycerin base and therefore water-soluble, unlike the rest of the anhydrous formulation. It’s possible it could work, but keep those differences in mind!
Hello! Can I use olivem 1000 or PEG 1000 instead
Emulsifying waxNF?
Olivem1000 would be the easiest swap of the 2 options you mention. Happy making!
What about pumice instead?
I don’t recommend it—it won’t dissolve the way the sugar will, making for an uncomfortable sitting-on experience + it could clog pipes (there’s way more sugar here than I would ever use for an insoluble exfoliant). Happy making!
Good evening I want to ask you if I can use this scrub for face scrub or if you suggest something else
Thank you very much
I really don’t recommend it—it’s far too harsh for the face. I have shared several face scrubs and face polishes; do a search for those 🙂
What about all stearic acid instead of cetearyl?
This is covered in the substitutions list here on this page 🙂 Happy making!
Hi Marie! Since I love coffee so much, what do you think of adding coffee into the scrub? Or cacao powder? Will it turn okay?
You can try it, but I sure find coffee grounds make a massive mess in the shower. I’d use a coffee essential oil instead for scent but no mess!
Hello Marie,
As I have posted on your video on YT, I made this as soon as you have posted it, following your recipe (almost entirely) and instructions.
I must say I love the how it turned out, how it feels on my skin when I apply it and how my skin feels after rinsing it off <3
I used Olivem 1000 (can't find in Romania Emulsifying wax NF or Polawax) and Olivem 1000 is the one I can get my hands on. I do have a question, when I rinse it off my skin with warm water it starts to spread some kind of smell… like old soap or similar like that. It's very strong and I feel it only when I start to rinse it off (so I imagine it's because of contact with lots of water).
Is it possible that Olivem 1000 gives this smell?
Hmmmm. It sounds a bit like one of your oils might be ever-so-slightly rancid, and that the heat of the bathwater is allowing the scent to amplify to the point of being noticeable. Could that be the case? Perhaps try sniffing your carrier oils and seeing if you get a similar note from any of them?
Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
Thank you for replying ^_^ You are too sweet!
I tried to go with your suggestion and I didn’t feel any strange smell from sniffing the inside of the bottles.
Then I took it one step further and I put some drops of each oil in my hand (fractionated coconut oil & watermelon) and rub it with water like washing my hands. I did feel like MAYBE, just maybe the watermelon had an almost unnoticeable scent. But I have just opened the 100ml bottle when doing this scrub, so this is making me think that my mind is playing me tricks.
Then I tried again (in my hands, wash with water) with the scrub and the difference of smell is not even comparable, the scrub smell is much much higher.
I don’t know what to say, I will continue to investigate 🙂
Thank you for being active and present, please never stop DIYing!
Hi Marie I am trying not to use plastic do you think that adding more cetearyl alcohol could make this firm enough to be a bar? or would that just not work. I do not want to use wax, I hate the feel of it on my skin. Thanks in advance
Try it an find out! 🙂
Hi Marie
I am so grateful for your website and your recipes you are amazing thank you.
I would like to ask you about preservatives for sugar scrubs I can see that you do not mention them for this recipe. What is the shelf life ?
If I want to sell this product do you suggest using a preservative?
Thanks again Lora x
Please read the italics section on shelf life above, and this on selling 🙂 Happy making!
Hi can I use olivem1000 instead of emulsifying wax NF.
Also can I heat this in the microwave instead of double boiler.
Thanks
Yep, I can confirm that it won’t incorporate and if it does its only temporary
Hi, Is it possible to make this recipe with water since there’s an emulsifier?
No; sugar + water = sugar water, not a scrub 🙂
Do you think dead sea salt would work with this or would it be too coarse to whip? If so would salt be better in the passionfruit recipe instead do you think ? Thank you
A challenge with dead sea salt is that it really loves to attract moisture, so I wonder if that might be a problem here. I’d start with a small batch and see what you think 🙂
can I not use vitamin e instead I use germall plus?
Also can I not use essential oil at all. Use fragrance oil to substitute it?
Please look up both vitamin E and Liquid Germallâ„¢ Plus (INCI: Propylene Glycol, Diazolidinyl Urea, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate) in the Humblebee & Me DIY Encyclopedia (https://www.humblebeeandme.com/diy-encyclopedia/) to learn about how different they are, and why you cannot use one instead of the other in any formulation.
As per the substitutions list, “You can use a different fragrance/essential oil blend if you prefer.”
Happy making!
When adding germall, do you take away 0.5% from another oil? If so, which oil do you take away from?
Generally the liquid oil there’s the most of 🙂
Can i use it for sale?? I want you the method of whipped butter for the body
I wanted to say I made this ingredients I had on hand and love it, however I have since found it to either be melting on becoming un-emulsified.
Here is what i used that’s different from your formula. Percentages kept the same.
Cetearyl Alcohol (and) Ceteareth-20 for the ewax (what I use in my lotion formulas)
50:50 mix of cetyl alcohol and stearic acid
Safflower oil instead of watermelon
Rice bran oil instead of fractionated coconut.
Fragrance oil (no EO)
I pretty much used these same ingredients across the board with many of your other scrub recipes. The only one that is not experiencing this separation problem is the polysorbate formula you have. However I want to discontinue the use of polysorbate. Any tips to what might be happened? Thank you!
Hi Marie!
I thought that Liquid Germall Plus was insoluble in anhydrous formulations since it’s normally used for water heavy formulas. Does it still disperse and work properly for this product?
Does ritamulse scg work as an emulsifier in a recipe like this?
Yup!
hello! can i incorporate some butters instead of oil?
Hello ! I do not have watermelon seed oil available. May I use only coconut oil?
Thank you !