Help with solid conditioner bar, please

[emma_m]

Hi all,

Brand new to this, so please bear with me

I want to make a solid conditioner bar using this recipe from https://herpackinglist.com/2014/07/diy-solid-conditioner/ :
Basic recipe
30% (15g) cocoa butter (Amazon)
30% (15g) incroquat* (behentrimonium chloride) (Amazon)
20% (10g) cetyl alcohol (Amazon)
20% (10g) nourishing oil of your choice – argan (which I used because I still had some), jojoba, almond, grape seed, olive, coconut…

I've got all the other ingredients, but I can't seem to find a palm oil free conditioning agent (ie the incroquat/behentrimonium chloride/BTMS). It's really important to me that what I make is palm oil free. Some of the BTMS I've found says it's from 'sustainable sources', but I'm pretty sure there is no such thing really as sustainable palm oil...

Can anyone here advise where I might source a palm oil free conditioning agent in the UK, please? If there is no such thing, I'd also be keen to make a liquid conditioner using cocoa butter and cetearyl alcohol (as I have these ingredients already). So if you have a recipe you like I'd love to hear it, please.

Thanks in advance!

Emma

 

[DeeAnna]

Can't help you with the palm free BTMS. What I can say is BTMS and cetyl alcohol are good ingredients in conditioners, because they can condition hair in their own right. I wouldn't advise using another emulsifier or thickener for that reason. Cetearyl alcohol is a mixture of cetyl and stearyl alcohols, and that's fine too.

I also want to say 50% fat is a LOT of fat for a hair conditioner. I hope you don't have fine hair like mine, because that would be too much for my mop of hair. My solid conditioner bar is only 15% fat (10% solid and 5% liquid). Even 15% can be borderline too much if I apply the conditioner a little heavier than normal.

 

[emma_m]

Thanks for all this! I actually ended up with cetearyl rather than cetyl alcohol for the palm oil (couldn't find a palm oil free cetyl, so subbed in a palm oil free cetearyl). I did a bit of reading before subbing it, but relieved to hear cetearyl will do the job!

I think I maybe have the opposite hair type to you - mine's thick and curly, and takes a lot of moisturising! All but impossible to weigh down. Reckon the fat content will be OK with my hair?

Thanks again!

Emma

 

[DeeAnna]

"...Reckon the fat content will be OK with my hair?..."

Your hair type and mine are quite different and I'm not a hair care professional to know about other hair types besides my own. You'll have to try it and see.