I have been experimenting with making a shampoo bar. My hair is fine, long and tends toward oily. I shampoo every other day and lather, rinse and repeat. Every bar I tried left my hair oily and flat. I finally came up with this formula. I have been using this basic formula almost three months, the last two changes I made were to add White Willow bark and .5% and then increase it to 1%. White willow bark contains salicin which is similar to aspirin. Do not recommend using it if you are allergic to aspirin. If you leave it out, just add more clay. A 50 gram bar lasts me about 6 weeks. I do not recommend a silicone mold for this bar. I use a shampoo bar mold and press. The PH tested to 5.96.
This formula is very loosely based on several recipes on Humblebee and Me’s website. The instructions are copied from hers and changes made where necessary.
Shampoo bar with green sea clay
Put on your dust mask and weigh the dry surfactants into a bowl. Stir until uniform.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add all the wet ingredients.
Put on a pair of nitrile gloves and blend thoroughly with your hands.
Once the mixture is uniform, you’ll be left with a stiff, easily-moldable dough.
If your dough is too sticky, you’ll need to add some starch (arrowroot starch and cornstarch are good choices). This is likely to happen if you used a larger grain SCI than I did, as it has less surface area to absorb moisture.
If your dough is too dry, you’ll need to add a few drops of water. This is likely to happen if you used a finer grain SCI than I did, as it has more surface area and will absorb more moisture. I used a very finely powdered SCI, so it is unlikely this will happen.
Put the mixture into a mold, press, remove and leave the bar to dry. Arrowroot powder on the surfaces of the mold will help release the bar.
I’d recommend at least 3–4 days (that’s enough time for the bars to lose ~3% of their weight). If you live somewhere quite humid I’d err on the side of more drying time rather than less as I live somewhere really dry, so that’s what my drying times are based on.
Hope this is helpful!
This formula is very loosely based on several recipes on Humblebee and Me’s website. The instructions are copied from hers and changes made where necessary.
Shampoo bar with green sea clay
| Dry phase | 50 grams | 100 grams | |
40 | Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate (SCI) | 20 | 40 |
23 | Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate (SLSa) | 11.5 | 23 |
13 | Green Sea Clay | 6.5 | 13 |
0.5 | Rosehip Powder | 0.25 | 0.5 |
0.5 | Rosemary Powder | 0.25 | 0.5 |
1 | White Willow Bark Powder | 0.5 | 1 |
| Wet phase | |||
12 | Sulfosuccinate | 6 | 12 |
4 | Hydrolyzed Keratin Protein | 2 | 4 |
5 | Cammellia Seed Oil | 2.5 | 5 |
0.2 | Rosemary EO | 0.1 | 0.2 |
0.2 | Lemon EO | 0.1 | 0.2 |
0.5 | Liquid Germall Plus™ | 0.25 | 0.5 |
0.1 | Vitamin E | 0.05 | 0.1 |
100 | 50 | 100 |
Put on your dust mask and weigh the dry surfactants into a bowl. Stir until uniform.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add all the wet ingredients.
Put on a pair of nitrile gloves and blend thoroughly with your hands.
Once the mixture is uniform, you’ll be left with a stiff, easily-moldable dough.
If your dough is too sticky, you’ll need to add some starch (arrowroot starch and cornstarch are good choices). This is likely to happen if you used a larger grain SCI than I did, as it has less surface area to absorb moisture.
If your dough is too dry, you’ll need to add a few drops of water. This is likely to happen if you used a finer grain SCI than I did, as it has more surface area and will absorb more moisture. I used a very finely powdered SCI, so it is unlikely this will happen.
Put the mixture into a mold, press, remove and leave the bar to dry. Arrowroot powder on the surfaces of the mold will help release the bar.
I’d recommend at least 3–4 days (that’s enough time for the bars to lose ~3% of their weight). If you live somewhere quite humid I’d err on the side of more drying time rather than less as I live somewhere really dry, so that’s what my drying times are based on.
Hope this is helpful!
