Brown Sugar Yummy Scrub

[xaipre]

I can pour water in my honey jar and it will not mold. I can pour water into my bottle of olive oil and that won't mold either. The only thing in the recipe that might mold is the oatmeal, but from it looks to me like the oatmeal will soak up the honey and the oil pretty quickly in the recipe, meaning that any water contact will not imbed itself in the oatmeal.

GSE as an antioxidant doesn't make any difference when it comes to mold. GSE extract that is commercially prepared often has chemicals in it that is also found in kitchen cleaning products.

Not all bacteria is bad bacteria by the way. Without bacteria and mold we wouldn't have yogurt, cheese, and prime steak. Those don't turn anyone green.

All I'm saying is that this recipe already has a preservative. Honey has been tested to resist all decomposition for over 100 years. I don't think one can say that about any other synthetic preservative. Before one goes around adding synthetic chemicals I think tests should be done to see if the honey is more than adequate. It might be, it might not. But I think it should be given a chance.

[Jadryga]

Hmm... even if this were to hold true, Xaipre, not all honeys are equal. All honeys have a certain degree of peroxidal activity, but these vary widely from honey to honey depending on the pollen source, and only certain honeys are certified to have anti-bacterial properties that are non-peroxidal, hence the "active" manuka honeys (which cost a bomb, by the way).

The amount of honey (as a sole preservative) you'd need to preserve your original product (depending on the complexity) would probably be impractical, let alone the amount needed to counter further contamination (dirty fingers and unpurified water, etc).

In addition to that, there is also the risk that the honey has been tampered with (additional sugars, etc).

As to the good vs. bad bacteria, it's true yes, that not all bacteria is bad. We do need a certain amount of good bacteria to function properly, but the potentially devastating consequences of breeding bad bacteria outweighs the benefits of keeping the good bacteria by far.

Honey as a preservative for complicated bath and body products is untried, untested and unverified. Synthetic preservatives aren't even 100% as is (goat's milk, anyone?).

I wouldn't risk it.

Maybe one day, if like you say, there's adequate testing and such. Until then, I'm not going to court a lawsuit with it

[candlelady]

Hi all!

I'm opening up another website for bath and body, and though I think the brown sugar scrub is totally awesome, is there another body scrub that isn't quite so "messy" in the tub. I'd hate to have to include a bottle of Fantastic with every purchase! LOL

Just kidding! But, the girls I work with are dying for a body scrub that is more on the romance/fresh line, not so much bakery, syrupy, etc....

Selling bakery down here in southeast Texas is very difficult. No disrespect meant at all!

If I use this recipe, can one substitute the brown sugar and maple syrup for something else? How about a pure sugar vs. brown sugar.

Sorry, don't mean to interrupt the thread, just asking.

Thanks gals (& guys).!

Carrie

[CareBear]

I think tests should be done to see if the honey is more than adequate. It might be, it might not. But I think it should be given a chance.

It is not. But if it's going to be tested, placing it around your house and looking at it isn't going to tell you diddley. Won't tell you if there is growth or if the growth is good or bad.

Oh, and don't forget to test every batch. Cause there are fluctuations in raw materials and I doubt you are working in a sterile environment so baddies can drop in any time.

Honey on it's own is stable for a number of reasons, one of which is that the concentration of sugars is so high (leading to a low water activity, ie.e, not much water available to promote growth). Add water and that concentration decreases. Jam with tons of sugar is very stable, but if your level of sugars is off then voila - moldy jam...

BTW: if you pour water in your jar of honey it probably will mold. you might not see it, but that doesn't mean it isn't there. yes, it depends on how much water. and water in oil can support the growth botulism (botulism loves a nice moist anaerobic environment) among other things.

climbing off my soap box now. class dismissed.

[MochaMama]

What about citric acid as a natural preservative at 1%? I saw a scrub on amazon.com that listed: vitamin C (citric acid) natural preservative.

I am going to do some research on this right now, but I thought I'd throw that out there.

Oh, here is the link for that scrub

http://www.amazon.com/WholeMade-Natural-Sugar-Scrub-oz/dp/B000GKBYEU

I threw "citric acid' in the search engine and more than one site said it's a natural preservative - however, don't know whether that would be for food or what.

Anyway, I love the recipe and will be trying it sometime soon.

[candlelady]

OK, I made this recipe, scented in Pink Sugar, packaged it up and gave it to 7 testers, ages 24-73 (73 being my mom) and everybody loved it! Especially for shaving the legs and underarms! I personally love it, the brown sugar is awesome!

I also made same recipe in Phoenix and Peppermint Eucalyptus (using white sugar) and the men loved the Phoenix and ALL loved the PE and are waiting to place orders! White sugar recipe and brown sugar recipe, not much on the "scrub" basis. But that's OK.

I've purchased MMS Glycerin Scrub Base and it's to die for, for facial and body scrubs!

Just an FYI!

Thanks for the recipe! It' a total winner!

[jlbrewer73]

candlelady - do you have more exact measurements than the original recipe post? I'm too much of a "type a" personality to just wing it..lolThanks!!

[Darbla]

Into 1 extra large bowl I put in 1 large bag of light brown sugar.

to that I add an equal amount of organic oatmeal (raw of course).

On that I sprinkle ground vanilla beans & coffee grounds (unused, dry), enough to cover the oatmeal.

On top of that I add about 1.5-2 cups honey (luckily I get this thru a friend of a friend, who is a beekeeper and it costs me next to nothing!)

I then add grapeseed oil and olive oil (or sweet almond, depends on what I have more of at the time) saturating the mix. Mix it really well and keep adding oils until it's the consistancy I like (just barely has a pool of oil on top) add a wee bit of maple syrup FO.

OK, question: the olive oil doesn't smell odd with the other stuff? I usually don't use olive oil in my homemade scrubs because I don't want to smell like an Italian restaurant.

[Mostly Lurkin]

I've never had a problem with using the Olive oil - no scent of it is detectable.