Provided herein are beads comprising at least one structuring agent and least one powder, and a novel process for making same. In one aspect, the process includes solubilzing at least one structuring agent with a solvent in the presence of at least one powder under turbulent high shear mixing to form small, nonspherical nucleated seeds of about 3 mm or less in diameter, and thereafter allowing the nucleated seeds to accrete under laminar low shear mixing to obtain substantially spherical beads of a desired size.
