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I'm not qualified to comment on health-issues, but what I will say is in my experience, the learning curve for making shampoo is long and expensive; if your hair and scalp are not healthy, it might be best to do enough research so that you can make a more informed choice in the shampoo aisle of...

Cracklin Birch is one of my best sellers, but I hate it! As far as working with it, it accelerates pretty quickly on me, as well (although sometimes, it seems to move slower; I always wonder what I did wrong/differently.). I use a 40% lye concentration and soap at 130F; that probably has a lot...

Give it a day and see how it looks tomorrow morning. I've notice that my soaps tend to thicken after about 12-24 hours. It seems to work better for me if things are of a similar temperature. If I add cold soap to hot HEC-thickened water, the temperature causes some lumps (but this seems to be...

You're welcome. And I'll say, it's too bad that the soap and cocoamidopropyl betaine stink so bad. Once I watered it down to a usable consistency, I held my breath and lathered up my hands; it's a great soap. Unfortunately, I haven't come across anything that would mitigate the smell. I...

Yes, do let us know, Stu. And welcome to the forum!

Full disclosure: I've been working with HEC from LotionCrafters for a few months, but I've only just figured out how to make it work in LS (at least, make it work for me!). I'm far from an expert, but I may be able to help you work through the process. First, the HEC from LotionCrafters has a...

The short of it--DON'T DO IT! The long of it-- Okay--I tried mixing the LS with cocoamidopropyl betaine. The liquid soap was made with the glycerin method and a KOH concentration of 33% (1 part KOH, 1 part water, 1 part glycerin). The oils were 10% castor oil, 20% coconut, 70% HO sunflower...

Can you provide us with your process (i.e. how are you incorporating into the LS)? EDITED TO ADD: Also, where are you purchasing the HEC from; I believe there are different grades.

I'd love to know what you think, so please keep us updated. I made some paste yesterday with 20% coconut and once it's diluted, I'm going to do more experimenting with the coco glucoside. I have some cocamidopropyl betaine, and I'll give that a try as well. I used the soap-surfactant blend...

Same with me. Soap as a shampoo is a cunning consort; it often tricks one into believing good things are happening. . . until it's too late. It took me about 2 months to realize that soap was destroying my hair and that the "adjustment period" was nothing more than a myth. At the time, my DH...

Recently, I've been experimenting with adding synthetic surfactants to liquid soap, and I like the results. My goal is to produce a more mild product through the use of less coconut oil, and through the mixing of surfactants with different ionic natures. Using less coconut is easy--just use...

I actually like this one. I made and sold it at an Oktoberfest last year, and even those who weren't drunk liked it. In cured CP soap, I think it smells more like toasted malt. In liquid soap, it was definitely very fruity (strawberry?). A little goes a long way in LS (it was very strong...

Take a look at this video and the recipe posted with it: I've made MP from shredded CP using this method (using shredded soap in place of the oils and NaOH in the recipe). You may have to add more solvents in order to get everything melted. Surprisingly, it worked rather well and lathered...

Not much I can add. In a recent thread, I added some updates about how I handle soy wax. I won't bore anyone, but if you want to know more, check out my response (post 12) here. earlene was kind enough to also link some older posts to that thread. As for the type of soy wax, I buy mine from...

You can buy a box of 100 on Amazon for $16.30--and free shipping! I've purchased from both LotionCrafter and this Amazon seller. The pH of your surfactants seem to be in the "hair-friendly" range--as are the quinoa and honeyquat. You might just be where you need to be, and without testing...

I'm right there with you, HowieRoll! I've been working on liquid shampoo for well over a year now. I thought it would go quicker, but there is some sort of magic in the commercial stuff that I can't quite figure out. . . . I love the ChemistsCorner, but I've never posted--well out of my...

Personally, I would try dropping the percentage of honeyquat down before eliminating it all together. While I generally agree that most conditioning ingredients are better off in a conditioner, I make an exception with polyquat 10. Without it, my hair was very draggy after rinsing the shampoo...

I should have also noted that the only surfactant in your formulas that I use is cocamidopropyl betaine; I'm unfamiliar with the rest, but they seem to be anionic, and it's a reaction between the anionic and (cationic) cocamidopropyl betaine that causes some thickening. I'm assuming that the...

I'm far from an expert, but this is what I'm noticing: Recipe 1 (way too thick): Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate 15% x .84 AS =12.6 Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate 5% x .95 AS = 4.75 Cocamidopropyl Betaine 10% x .30 AS = 3 Total Sufactant =20.35% Active Surfactant Recipe 2 (way too thin): Sodium Cocoyl...

Just thought I'd pop in since my ears were ringing! I very quickly skimmed through the old posts earlene mentioned, and aside from a glaring mistake in one of my post that I can't edit, I thought I'd update a few things: 1. These days, I start my formulating based on how much coconut and...