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16 February 2015

Lush DIY: Rock Star Soap Sugar Scrub


It was only a matter of time before I found new ways to enjoy my Lush products. Now that I have tried pretty much everything that Lush are currently offering in their shops and I'm on top of my Lush Kitchen orders, I have a little spare time to experiment and convert my favourite Lush products into other formats.

As I've made multiple shower gels, I felt it was time to branch out and try my hand at something else. As somebody who doesn't use that much soap, I seem to have an impressive surplus of the stuff hanging around, collecting dust. So why not transform this abandoned format into something a little more exciting? The All Things Lush UK DIY Sugar Scrub has been born. 

Video:



Review:

What you'll need:

-A Bowl
-A Spoon
-1-2 empty plastic tubs
-A cheese grater
-A blender

-100g of Rock Star Soap
-1 Cup (250g) sugar
-85g Solid Coconut Oil 

Begin by grating the whole block of soap with the biggest grater you can find. The blender will do most of the work at breaking the soap down so you don't have to worry about using the smallest setting on the grater. In fact, this will probably prove to be rather problematic and you may end up with most of the soap stuck in the grates if you do this! 

Once this has been done, add the sugar, coconut oil and grated soap into the blender. Depending on what sort of consistency you want, you will need to pick the right sort of sugar to match this. I find that white, granulated sugar works best for those who want an average exfoliator - one that isn't really harsh on the skin but one that will equally scrub away dry skin effectively. 

White sugar also works really well with the sweet and fruity scented soaps, while brown sugar would be more suited for soaps such as Yog Nog, Porridge and any other that has a creamy smell and texture to compliment the caramelised fragrance of the sugar. It's worth experimenting to see which works best for you, and you may even opt to remove sugar altogether and replace it with salt - something I will blog about very soon!

Blend all of the ingredients together, stopping every minute to give the mixture a good stir. You'll need to do this 3-4 times or until you notice that there is no longer any excess sugar up the sides of the blender. I would recommend that you use a blender like the one in my video as it's perfect for combining the ingredients together, whereas a smoothie maker-type blender won't do this as effectively. 

Spoon the mixture into the tubs and it's ready to use! It's that simple!

You may find that the coconut oil comes through quite a bit when you've first transferred it into the tubs, but this subsides slightly and becomes a sweet, wholesome base note that compliments the scent of the Rock Star perfectly. It also works as a great moisturiser in the shower, so while the sugar is exfoliating your skin and the soap is cleaning it, the coconut oil will help to replenish the body with essential oils and leave it feeling super soft. 

In regards to the coconut oil, I would only use this for very sweet scented soaps. Products such as Rock Star, The Godmother and Honey I Washed The Kids are perfect for this as the coconut compliments the candy element of each one. However, most other soaps would probably benefit from using almond oil or something less dominating instead. This is something I plan to test out in the next week or so and I'll reveal the outcome afterwards. 

To use Rock Star Sugar Scrub, take a tiny amount of the product and expose it to the smallest amount of water. Massage it on the area of skin you want to soften and you'll see that it lathers up like a soap but offers a gentle but rough texture to scrub away unwanted dirt and debris. 

My flatmates have been fighting over this all week and they all agree that it's as good as any one of Lush's regular scrubs. One in particular, claimed that it completely rid him of the itchy, dry and rather irritated areas that he had developed on his legs and had been trying to remove for the past couple of months. Result!

I would love to know if any of you plan on making this. Please send me pictures and links to your experiments, and for those planning on trying this out, good luck and enjoy!



30 comments

  1. Haha! A couple of months ago I tried almost this exact same thing! The only difference was that I melted the soap and coconut oil, let it cool then added the sugar. It turned out way too hard (similar to a sugar scrub) and I think I like your version way better! Will definitely be trying this!!

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    1. Well I hope it turns out as good as my one - this will now be a regular DIY job for me - I love it so much :)

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    2. I tried it already and LOVE it!!! The only problem is that I don't have a food processor so I tried in the blender and it wouldn't really blend it... I do have a stick blender that I will use to mix it up better but I was too excited so I tried it anyway and it's beautiful!! Great way to use up my surplus soap too!!

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    3. P.S. Have you tried this with a bath bomb yet?? I bet that would be amazing too!!

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    4. I'm sorry to hear you had a few problems but I'm glad that the hand blender worked a little better! I haven't tried this with a bath bomb yet - I'm waiting on my order of almond oil to do this! However, it's one of the top ones on my list because I'd love to find more ways to utilise my bath bombs/favourite scents :)

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  2. The photo of the grated up rockstar looks so pretty :)

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  3. Wow I bet bohemian, sandstone, and dirty would be great to try as well! I like lush soaps but like you have said before, they are so drying! Thanks Jen!

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  4. Wonderful idea - I need to try this! Though I don't have a blender, not sure if an electric hand whisk/mixer thing would work?

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  5. This is incredible. I am so inspired to get this stuff a go myself with any excess soap as I always have loads. I am also obsessed with sugar scrubs. Do you have instagram? I am sure you would have some great pictures up!

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    1. I'm glad this has inspired you - it's a great way to use up those soaps that you love the smell of but don't necessarily want to use if they dry you out. I do have an Instagram - it's @allthingslushuk :)

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    2. Made it myself! http://yourfavouritekindofstyle.blogspot.co.uk/
      Credited you obviously for the idea and instructions! More to come!

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  6. I'm in need of some new body scrub soon, SO I'll definitely be giving this a go! :D

    https://theremightbecoffee.wordpress.com/

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  7. If you like the result with the coconut oil, you can get unscented coconut oil from just about any soap making shop. That way you get the same texture without the coconut scent that would clash with something like Dirty or Sea Vegetable. ��

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    1. Wow - I didn't know this, thank you so much. This sounds perfect for those more citrusy soaps - I'm going to go and buy some now : )

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  8. I love Fairy Ring, but it's been staining our white sink so I decided to make it into a scrub and I love it. Very sad that it was seasonal. Thank you for this diy '3'

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  9. Hoping to try this at the weekend. I also am going to try and make cinnamon and vanilla lip scrub. I am excited - I will let you know how I get on. Any idea how lon it will last, like a use by? Making my own labels and want to make my own cartoony pic and do a made by!

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    1. Oooh - that lip scrub sounds gorgeous! Let me know how it went! If say that this scrub should last for months. The reason being that soap tends to last years, the sugar won't go off so will last ages and the coconut oil again lasts for years so I pot could easily last 4-6 months, maybe even longer :)

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    2. assuming no water comes in contact with storage container :) then it should be fine .. but if concerned add a preservative.. after all you can't always see bacteria growing :D

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  10. Thanks for this idea! I made a scrub with fairy ring soap (because I knew I wouldn't use it up as just soap), coconut sugar, and unscented/ organic coconut oil (I have so much just waiting to be used!) Makes my skin so soft :)

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  11. I made this with Honey I Washed the Kids and olive oil on hand since I didn't have coconut oil, and this is the most genius thing I've seen since sliced bread! Jen, you're amazing!

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  12. I made this with Honey I Washed the Kids and olive oil on hand since I didn't have coconut oil, and this is the most genius thing I've seen since sliced bread! Jen, you're amazing!

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    1. That sounds amazing! I have both almond and cocoa butter now so I'm going to attempt it with other other soaps. Glad I could help :)

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  14. I made this just yesterday, except, we don't have caster sugar at home, so I used raw suagr.
    When I (rarely) exfoliate, I like a really harsh scrub, and it is perfect! I get a super harsh scrub, and only for $10AUD! (I bought a 160g block of soap so I'd get more, and multiplied ingredients by 1.5)
    I find my consistency looks rather different to yours though, mine feels more like Curly Wurly Shampoo, if you've ever felt it or put some in your fingers, it's very *wet* feeling, and doesn't look as dry as yours does. It works great for me, and Might even pick up some seasonal soaps tp try this with! I like the smells of the soaps, but I don't like using them, so this might be my way of smelling Comforter in the shower while I wait for Comforter shower cream in Aus. i really want to try this with Yog Nog and Snow cake soap!

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  15. omg the thought of doing this with yog nog soap is too much... looks like i have something to do this weekend! amazing!

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  16. Have you tried to do any salt scrubs with the soaps? I prefer salt scrubs to sugar scrubs and i was thinking of trying yog nog out and it would be great help to know if it went well for you

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  17. I will use this idea for a friend's birthday using Sunrise!! Also where would you get the coconut oil from?

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  18. Ah! This is genius, lol! Omg, I was wondering what the crap to do with all the soaps I have (super over-drying, no matter how moisturizing they are supposed to be). Can't wait to try this! Will probably have to add some other oils, though, vitamin E perhaps. How exciting to think they won't have to be over-priced drawer potpourri anymore... :)

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