Quick Guide: Using Exfoliants in Soap and Skin Care Products

Who doesn’t love a good scrub? Polishing off dead skin cells to revel the soft, smooth, and radiant skin that lies beneath is a real treat. Creating recipes for exfoliation can be as simple or complex a process as you’d like to make it, but whether you are concocting a two-ingredient sugar scrub or a complex foaming facial scrub you’ll want to be sure and use the right exfoliant for the job.

Factors like particle size, texture, and shape help determine the strength and potential abrasiveness of natural exfoliants. Below, we’ve shared a quick guide to finding the best exfoliant for your formulation. Click on an ingredient’s name to learn more about it or add it to your cart on From Nature With Love.

Exfoliant Profiles

Exfoliating Seeds
Seeds add interest, color, and medium-strength exfoliation to body scrubs, soaps, and pedicure treatments. Keep in mind that these natural ingredients will vary in weight and density and will often sink or float in formulations that aren’t crafted for suspension.

• Black Raspberry Fruit Seeds
• Blackberry Fruit Seeds
• Blueberry Fruit Seeds
• Cranberry Fruit Seeds
• Dutch Blue Poppy Seeds
• Kiwi Fruit Seeds
• Raspberry Fruit Seeds

Fruit Seed Powders
These powdered seed ingredients offer a more gentle exfoliation experience along with a touch of color. These are perfect for inclusion in a wide range of products, but really shine when added to facial scrubs, gentle body scrubs, and soaps.

• Grape Seed Powder
• Raspberry Seed Powder
• Rose Hip Seed Powder
• Vanilla Bean Specks

Grain Powders
These natural powdered grains are wonderful for use in body scrubs and soaps. Try adding them to facial scrubs and masques as well.

Gentle

• Colloidal Oat Flour
• Organic Whole Oat Flour
• Rice Powder, Fine

Medium-Strength

• Chickpea Flour
• Rice Bran Powder, Fine

Jojoba Wax Beads
Jojoba Wax Beads offer a bright, colorful, and environmentally responsible alternative to plastic-based micro-beads. They look gorgeous in clear scrubs for the body or face and their round shape allows them to exfoliate effectively with minimal scratching or scouring.

• Baby Blue
• Blue
• Brown
• Green
• Plum
• Red
• Sierra Blue
• Sweet Honey
• White
• Yellow

Mineral Powders
These mineral-based ingredients offer extremely powerful exfoliation and are often reserved for use in pedicure treatments or intense body scrubs.

• Dead Sea Mud Powder
• Pumice Powder

Nut and Seed Meals
Finely milled meals made from seeds and nuts add natural exfoliation in a range of strengths from gentle to abrasive. The gentle and medium-strength ingredients can be added to both facial and body products while the more powerful ingredients are best used in pedicure treatments and intensive scrubs.

Gentle

• Rose Hip Seed Powder

Medium-Strength

• Almond Flour
• Coconut Shell Powder
• Grape Seed Powder
• Grape Seed Powder
• Walnut Shell Powder, Fine

Powerful

• Walnut Shell Powder, Medium

Plant Fibers
These fibers are all very soft – making them suitable for both facial and body use. Bamboo Flour is a little unique, however, in that it can provide powerful exfoliation while remaining soft and gentle. It is often used as a main ingredient for natural dermabrasion formulas.

• Bamboo Flour (Banslochan)
• Blueberry Fruit Fiber
• Cranberry Fruit Fiber

Salts
A classic ingredient for body and pedicure scrubs, salts make an ideal main ingredient for scrubs. Fine grain sizes make the best choices for body care.

• Bolivian Pink Salt, Fine
• Dead Sea Salt, Fine
• Dendritic Salt
• Epsom Salt
• Himalayan Pink Salt, Fine
• Sea Salt, Fine

Sugars
Similar in nature and traditional uses to salt, sugar is usually preferred over salt for sensitive skin and after-shave scrubs. Unlike salt, sugar does not cause a burning sensation when applied to minor nicks or scrapes.

• Evaporated Cane Sugar
• Demerara Sugar
• Turbinado Sugar

Exfoliants by Formulation Type

Best Exfoliants for Facial Care

• Bamboo Flour (Banslochan)
• Chickpea Flour
• Colloidal Oat Flour
• Grape Seed Powder
• Jojoba Wax Beads
• Grape Seed Powder
• Organic Whole Oat Flour
• Raspberry Seed Powder
• Rice Powder, Fine
• Vanilla Bean Specks

Best Exfoliants for Body Scrubs

• Almond Flour
• Black Raspberry Fruit Seeds
• Blackberry Fruit Seeds
• Blueberry Fruit Seeds
• Bolivian Pink Salt, Fine
• Chickpea Flour
• Coconut Shell Powder
• Cranberry Fruit Seeds
• Dead Sea Salt, Fine
• Demerara Sugar
• Dendritic Salt
• Dutch Blue Poppy Seeds
• Epsom Salt
• Evaporated Cane Sugar
• Grape Seed Powder
• Himalayan Pink Salt, Fine
• Kiwi Fruit Seeds
• Grape Seed Powder
• Raspberry Fruit Seeds
• Rice Bran Powder, Fine
• Sea Salt, Fine
• Turbinado Sugar
• Walnut Shell Powder, Fine

Best Mild to Medium Strength Exfoliants for Bar Soaps

• Almond Flour
• Chickpea Flour
• Coconut Shell Powder
• Colloidal Oat Flour
• Grape Seed Powder
• Grape Seed Powder
• Organic Whole Oat Flour
• Raspberry Seed Powder
• Rice Powder, Fine
• Rice Bran Powder, Fine
• Rose Hip Seed Powder
• Vanilla Bean Specks

Best Medium to Strong Exfoliants for Bar Soaps

• Black Raspberry Fruit Seeds
• Blackberry Fruit Seeds
• Blueberry Fruit Seeds
• Cranberry Fruit Seeds

Dead Sea Mud Powder

• Dutch Blue Poppy Seeds
• Kiwi Fruit Seeds
• Pumice Powder
• Raspberry Fruit Seeds
• Walnut Shell Powder, Medium

Best Exfoliants for Pedicure Products

• Bolivian Pink Salt, Fine
• Dead Sea Mud Powder
• Dead Sea Salt, Fine
• Demerara Sugar
• Dendritic Salt
• Epsom Salt
• Evaporated Cane Sugar
• Himalayan Pink Salt, Fine
• Pumice Powder
• Sea Salt, Fine
• Turbinado Sugar
• Walnut Shell Powder, Medium