How to make Foaming Scrubs; Formulating for Beginners
- taralee
- Apr 12, 2022
- 7 min read
Updated: May 13, 2022
All ingredients used in this blog are naturally derived except for liquid germall plus and emulsifying wax NF. Use ritamulse SCG or olivem1000 instead of emulsifying wax NF.
Understand what you are making
Before you start making a product you first need to understand what the product is that you are making. A foaming scrub is an exfoliating product that also lathers and foams. So unlike anhydrous body scrubs they have to have some kind of cleansing surfactant to produce lather. That means this scrub is going to have to be an aqueous formula since all cleansing surfactants are aqueous. As I mentioned in my blog all about anhydrous scrubs, you can’t actually use sugar or salt in an aqueous scrub, because sugar and salt dissolves in water, but the type of foaming scrubs I’ll be talking about in this blog are actually an exception to that rule. (although the sugar can dissolve over time so it’s best to use a course sugar or a course salt to help counter that)
What ingredients are needed for foaming scrubs?
Surfactants
The best surfactant for foaming scrubs would be SCI (Sodium cocoyl isethionate) It is a specialty anionic powder surfactant made from all vegetable, renewable resources, primarily coconut. It is used to impart extra mildness, good after feel, and good foaming in many personal care and cleansing products. In other words, this surfactant comes in a powder form and it is gentle enough for sensitive skin and to be used on babies. SCI does need to be dissolved in a liquid surfactant so you need to pick out a liquid surfactant to pair the SCI with.
Cocamidopropyl betaine pairs perfectly with SCI. Cocamidopropyl betaine is an amphoteric surfactant so it helps increase mildness to your product and it also helps increase lather and foam.
You can use any other liquid surfactant, but you want to look for liquid surfactants with a ph between 4-6 so you don’t have to worry about adjusting the ph of your foaming scrub.
SCI has a ph between 5-6.5 and Cocamidopropyl betaine has a ph between 5-6 so when using both of these surfactants together you don’t have to worry about adjusting the ph of your end product making production faster and less of a hassle.
If you don’t understand ph then go read my blog all about ph or watch the video on my channel.
Hardender
You also need some kind of hardener for you foaming scrub so it has some structure to it. This way you can actually pick up your scrub and massage it in. The best ingredient for this is stearic acid.
why stearic acid?
It actually works like a surfactant.
It helps strip the skin of dirt & oil.
It moisturizes the skin
hardens the product
helps create a rich lather that feels velvety
has occlusive properties (helping skin remain hydrated to prevent or slow moisturize loss from skin.)
stearic acid isn’t an emulsifier
There is a common misconception that stearic acid is an emulsifier, but it is not. It isn’t strong enough to hold an emulsion. So if you want to add oil to this foaming scrub you will also have to use an emulsifier. Ritamulse SCG, emulsifying Wax NF, or olivem 1000 are good choices. Although the stearic acid is strong enough to keep 1-2% of your fragrance oil or essential oil emulsified, but not a high oil content.
Main ingredients needed for a foaming scrub;
liquid surfactant - cocamidopropyl betaine, foaming apple, AOS 40, DLS, foaming soy, plantapon LGC sorb, plantapon 611L UP, lauramidopropyl betaine, disodium cocoamphodiacetate
humectant - glycerin, propanedial, propylene glycol, sodium PCA, sodium lactate liquid
exfoliant - sugar, salt, coffee grounds, jojoba pearls, strawberry seeds, red raspberry seeds, cranberry seeds, walnut shell powder, jojoba beads, avocado powder, bamboo stem powder, etc.
Here is a simple whipped foaming scrub formula;
heated surfactant phase
heated oil phase
5% stearic acid
cool down phase
50% sugar
Directions;
combine all ingredients in the surfactant phase in a heat safe beaker and mix to combine
important!!!! wear a respirator when working with SCI
in a heat safe mixing bowl add in your stearic acid
melt both phases using a water bath. You may need to mix the surfactant phase to get the SCI to dissolve fully
once the SCI is dissolved and the stearic acid has melted pour the surfactant phase into the stearic acid and whip with a hand mixer
keep mixing until it gets super fluffy like marshmallow fluff.
add in mica powder and whip again
once cooled to 100°f add in the cool down phase and whip again
jar up scrub and let sit until the next day to get final viscosity
thoughts; This formula lathers and spreads really well, but it has a very mild exfoliation to it since I used basic white granulated sugar only at 50%. This is also due to the ingredients used in the formula. The SCI and stearic acid soften the feel of the sugar. To make it more abrasive you could use a courser sugar (sugar in the raw), a courser salt or some other kind of exfoliator like coffee grounds, which are much more abrasive than salt or sugar. Using a courser exfoliant is actually recommended since this is aqueous it can cause the sugar or salt to dissolve over time. This scrub is the fluffiest out of all the recipes in this blog. It spreads easily, but also is the least abrasive out of all the recipes. I don't believe this scrub would keep it's form well if you used a pipping bag. So if you want this scrub to be harder and hold its form better increase the percentage of the stearic acid.
Whipped Foaming Scrub w/ Oil
heated surfactant phase
heated oil phase
2% stearic acid
cool down phase
63% sugar or other exfoliants
1% fragrance oil or essential oil & mica powder if desired
Directions;
combine all ingredients in the surfactant phase in a heat safe beaker and mix to combine
important!!!! wear a respirator when working with SCI
in a heat safe mixing bowl add in the ingredients in the heated oil phase
melt both phases using a water bath. You may need to mix the surfactant phase to get the SCI to dissolve fully
once the SCI is dissolved and the oil phase has melted pour the surfactant phase into the oil phase and mix with a hand mixer
keep mixing until it starts clumping together
add in mica powder and mix again
once cooled to 100°f add in the cool down phase and mix again. This scrub won't get super fluffy like the last one. It is more of a putty texture.
jar up scrub and let sit until the next day to get final viscosity
thoughts; at first I wasn't the biggest fan of this scrub due to how thick it was, but the more I used it the more I fell in love with it. It does take a bit longer to work into your skin compared to the first fluffy recipe, but it doesn't take much longer. It is more abrasive than the last scrub due to the higher percentage of sugar, so I'd imagine if you use a more course exfoliant it would be a pretty abrasive scrub. This scrub does keep it's form much better than the first one, but may be pretty tough to squeeze out of a pipping bag, but I do think it is possible. (I hate using pipping bags so I didn't attempt it with any of these.)
other ingredients to add;
You can add any water or oil soluble ingredients you would like into foaming scrubs as long as it isn't cationic. Cationic and anionic ingredients can not be used together. SCI is an anionic surfactant.
butters
extracts
proteins
powders
vitamins
etc.
Example of advanced whipped foaming scrub formula
heated surfactant phase
heated oil phase
3% mango butter
2% stearic acid
3% oil
cool down phase
53.5% sugar
1% fragrance oil
Directions;
combine all ingredients in the surfactant phase in a heat safe beaker and mix to combine
important!!!! wear a respirator when working with SCI
in a heat safe mixing bowl add in the ingredients in the heated oil phase
melt both phases using a water bath. You may need to mix the surfactant phase to get the SCI to dissolve fully
once the SCI is dissolved and the oil phase has melted pour the surfactant phase into the oil phase and whip with a hand mixer
keep mixing until it starts clumping together
add in mica powder and mix again
once cooled to 100°f add in the cool down phase and mix again. This scrub won't get as fluffy as the first one, but it will get fluffier than the last one.
jar up scrub and let sit until the next day to get final viscosity
thoughts; this scrub is the perfect in between for the last two formulas. So if the first formula was to soft and the second one is to hard then this one should be just right :) I also think this one would be perfect for pipping bags. It lathers up and spreads wonderfully and I think anyone would be happy with this formula. If you are going to try only one I think this may be the best one to go for, but honestly I recommend trying them all so you can get a good idea of how all of them feel. (feel free to adjust the formula. You don’t need the cranberry seeds or the strawberry extract. I was just giving examples of other things you can add to the scrubs)
Conclusion
There are so many different formulas you could use to make a foaming scrub, so feel free to tweak these recipes as needed to get them to be perfect and unique to you. This blog is mainly focusing on foaming scrubs with SCI as those are the only types of foaming scrubs I've made, but they are also the most popular foaming scrubs on the market. I'm sure you could make all kinds of different foaming scrubs like a gel based foaming scrub, but I've never made one, although that does sound fun. Let me know if you wanna see a recipe like that. Alright, hope you enjoyed reading this blog! Thanks for all the love and support. Leave your questions below :)
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