What glycolic acid percentage is best for a private label body scrub?

The best glycolic acid percentage for a private label body scrub depends on your target consumer, your regulatory markets, and whether the product is positioned as a daily-use maintenance scrub or a corrective treatment product.

For a daily-use body scrub, 3%–5% glycolic acid at a pH of 3.5–4.5 provides meaningful exfoliation without sensitization risk for most skin types. This concentration range is the most defensible from a safety standpoint, the easiest to get through a safety assessment, and the most appealing to mass-market consumers who are cautious about actives.

For a weekly or bi-weekly treatment scrub making more specific skin-texture or keratosis pilaris improvement claims, 8%–10% glycolic acid at pH 3.2–3.8 is a commonly used range. At this level, the exfoliating effect is pronounced, the product can credibly support before-and-after claims, and the formulation is still within the EU Cosmetics Regulation's rinse-off limit of 10% for consumer products. However, a mandatory EU consumer warning is required for any AHA product above 10%: 'Contains AHA. Follow the directions for use. Use sun protection.'

Above 10% is technically achievable in the US (no federal concentration ceiling for leave-off cosmetic AHAs, though the FDA has issued guidance recommending caution above 10% for rinse-off and 15% for professional-use products), but it significantly complicates your EU regulatory pathway, increases the burden of your safety assessment, and narrows your retailer options because many US retailers — particularly Ulta and Target — have clean-beauty standards that restrict high-AHA concentrations.

One nuance often missed: the total AHA load matters, not just glycolic acid in isolation. If your formula combines glycolic acid (6%) with lactic acid (3%) for a combined AHA load of 9%, EU regulators treat the combined figure when assessing the threshold for the mandatory warning. Disclose all AHAs to your cosmetic chemist and your safety assessor upfront.

For keratosis pilaris body scrubs specifically — a popular niche — the combination of 8% glycolic acid with urea (5%–10%) is well-established in dermatology literature and gives your product a credible clinical angle without requiring a drug claim. Your manufacturer's cosmetic chemist should be familiar with this pairing.

AJ Cosmo Labs connects you with formulators who have direct experience in AHA body care, so you can have this concentration conversation with someone who has run the stability data, not just read about it.