Refresh my memory - this is the recipe from the dutch lady? I'm trying to remember what she was using for hardener, but I've been down a few rabbit holes the last few weeks and was supposed to be in Albuquerque but seem to be in Cheyboygan.
Reporting in on my Modified More Mango bars... after using for 2 weeks, I'm really happy with my hair. I've had no fading from my salon color - my hair dresser and I were concerned with the color used on my stubborn gray streaks, but so far even that is holding well. My bar and my husband's bar are both holding up through drop testing
so this is already putting them in the lead of any other shampoo bar we've used. My husband is really happy with how his hair is behaving and has already placed a replacement order, lol. I do want to order (and will, I just haven't got to it yet) C14-16 to see if it makes a difference, and expand my surfactant knowledge/experience. The larger batch bars that I had to add a bunch of water to are dried out now but still holding together very well despite some cracking on their surface. They've been dropped tested and handled excessively while I was playing with packaging options (wrapping, and trying different label and band sizes). I'll be doing a mail test later this week when I send one to my cousin to try out.
I'm debating starting a conditioner bar thread (one of the rabbit holes I've been down), but for the moment I'll just jot it down here.
I've never used a conditioner bar before, so I'm not entirely sure what to look for in a good performing bar, so my comments are completely based on only using this one bar. I took the recipe from the Dutch Lady (found in this
post) and made a few tweaks. Off the top of my head:
I replaced the coconut oil with babassu - I have a raw coconut oil sensitivity, I'm fine with it in soap, lotions but just straight CO will turn my skin instantly bright red and itchy, I wasn't sure how I would react to it mixed with other ingredients in a conditioner bar so I decided to play it safe.
Instead of Argan oil I used sunflower oil - I didn't want to use my precious argan in something I might not like, so I chose a light liquid oil that absorbs quickly.
I did take out about 1-2% of the liquid oil and replace that with broccoli seed oil - it's a natural alternative to silicones (if I remember right, if not, well then I guess I added it by mistake!)
Oh, and then the big one, I didn't have cetearyl alcohol, so I used a 70/30 blend of cetyl alcohol and stearic acid.
My husband and I have been using this for a few days now - I've used it twice, he's used it 3 times, I think. I broke the bar almost perfectly in half when I unmolded it (it was mostly frozen), so we're able to both try it out. He likes it, which I found interesting as he told me that he doesn't use conditioner. He really uses a lot, he says he rubs it around until his hands look like they're covered in lotion. I'm a bit more conservative, I just use enough to feel a light covering on my hair. He really likes it so far, his hair is prone to being oily and this seems to not make him more oily. I like my hair the day after washing, but on skip day I wasn't as big of a fan. My hair didn't look greasy, but it felt a bit more oily and looked flat/weighed down. We're going to keep playing with this one, and more than likely I will be messing with the recipe again, I'm not a fan of how easily the bar melted just carrying it from the soap dungeon to the shower. Likely this bar wouldn't survive a summer in my house (no air conditioning). I may try a butter with a bit higher melting point instead of the babassu, or a mix of the two.
I used to order 3 or 4 bars once a year, and use them as my only shower product, except for shaving. It worked well when I was a single gal traveling the globe and showering in random marina bathrooms, but I have seen the light since joining this forum! I'm on my last bar anyway, so I'm getting increasingly desperate for an alternative. This is great info though for anyone else stumbling across this thread.
