Soap Making Exfoliants 

Soap Making Exfoliants will help to strip away the top layer of dead skin cells. There are many different exfoliating agents.  Rough abrasives such as pumice to mild lavender exfoliants all the way to soft and gentle clay materials used in cosmetics and facial scrubs.  

Rough, Abrasive Exfoliants

First, lets cover the rough and abrasives. To clean dirty greasy hands, add an abrasive material into your soap. Use a pumice, black sand or a white sand to get the job done. 

Use Pumice, A gray colored volcanic rock.  Purchase this in the crushed-up pulverized form. Add the pumice at early trace. Mix thoroughly to create an abrasive soap that will loosen and remove grease and dirt from your hands and fingernails.  Add 5% to 10% pulverized pumice based off the total oil amount used in your soap batch.

Use magnetite black sands found on beaches and in dry river banks. Sand will make a good abrasive bar of soap and cleans dirty greasy hands.  Use 5% - 10% black sand based off the total oil amount of your soap batch. 

Use a quartz white sand found on beaches and in dry river banks.  Just like the black sand it will make a good abrasive soap for cleaning dirty hands.  Use 5% - 10% white sand based off the total oil amount of your soap batch.

Moderate Soap Making Exfoliants

Oatmeal, one of many good and moderate soap making exfoliants to use.  

Make sure to grind up the whole oats to a fine powder using an electric coffee grinder.   Add the powdered oatmeal at trace. Make sure to mix it up well. Use 5% to 10% powdered oats based off the total oil weight of the batch. 

Orange Peels are another moderate exfoliating agent to add to your soaps. First peel your oranges and dry out the peels until they are hard and brittle.  Grind the peels into a fine powder with your electric coffee grinder. Add the powdered orange peels at early trace.  Mix well to disperse evenly throughout the soap.  The amount to use is 5% to 10% based off the total oil weight for the soap batch.  

Lavender Buds make another great exfoliating agent that is moderate and good for hand washing and showering soaps.  Pick your lavender buds from the garden or purchase them from your health food store. Make sure they are dried out before you grind them up to a fine powder. Add them to the soap at trace. The amount to use is 5% - 10% based off the total oil weight of the soap batch.

Gentle, Soft Clay Powders. 

These gentle exfoliating agents are clay powders that are often used as ingredients in facial masks and scrubs.  Condition your skin by adding these clay powders to your soaps. The clay powders suited for this task are Bentonite Clay powder, Kaolin White Clay powder, and Red Moroccan Clay powder.

Bentonite clay powder is an excellent cosmetic exfoliating agent. It is also a great clay to add to your shaving soaps as it has a slippery texture which helps razors to glide over skin better. Bentonite clay is also used as one of the ingredients in facial masks as it cleanses the skin quite well. 

Kaolin White Clay powder is excellent for sensitive skin. It is found in cosmetics and is used as a thickening agent. It will remove toxins from the skin as it gently exfoliates and cleanses.

Red Moroccan Clay powder is one of the natural soap making exfoliants that will nourish skin and reduce the size of pores. It’s a moisturizing agent and a deodorizer. Add this during early trace. Add this clay powder at 2% to 5% of the total oil amount for the soap batch.