Shampoo bar is too soft

[soapybubbles]

I tried making a shampoo bar with rice flour. I made it as simple as possible (no gardeners or thickeners) just to see the true effect of rice flour. It's now been 4 days of drying and the shampoo is still soft (like play dough). What do you recommend to harden it? I'm thinking maybe stearic acid or sodium lactate? Which is better and won't affect the lather? Formula:

SCI flakes 37%
Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulphonate 22%
Rice Flour 16%
Almond Oil 9%
Cocamidopropyl Betaine 14%
Fragrance/Essential Oil 1%
Preservative 1%

 

[lsg]

You might take a look at this Simple Sulfate-Free Shampoo Bar - Humblebee & Me

 

[soapybubbles]

You might take a look at this Simple Sulfate-Free Shampoo Bar - Humblebee & Me

I did but she uses SLSa which creates a harder bar

 

[AliOop]

I did but she uses SLSa which creates a harder bar

I think you are missing the point of comparing your recipe to the one @lsg suggested.

Your recipe uses 1% less of dry powders (surfactants and rice flour) and 4% more liquid CapB than the other recipe. That alone will make your bar significantly softer.

However, I suspect that the biggest culprit is using 9% almond oil instead of 10% distilled water. A liquid oil will will keep your bar soft forever, whereas water will actually harden your bar as it dries (evaporates). You really cannot substitute one for the other in this (or many other) recipes.

Try following the suggested recipe as written except for substituting your SCI and C-14 in place of the SLSa.

 

[soapybubbles]

I think you are missing the point of comparing your recipe to the one @lsg suggested.

Your recipe uses 1% less of dry powders (surfactants and rice flour) and 4% more liquid CapB than the other recipe. That alone will make your bar significantly softer.

However, I suspect that the biggest culprit is using 9% almond oil instead of 10% distilled water. A liquid oil will will keep your bar soft forever, whereas water will actually harden your bar as it dries (evaporates). You really cannot substitute one for the other in this (or many other) recipes.

Try following the suggested recipe as written except for substituting your SCI and C-14 in place of the SLSa.

Thank you so much! I didn't realise that the oil would have been the biggest culprit. Will definitely re-formulate. Okay so since I've added my preservative, do you think I can melt and add a few ingredients that will harden it up? Or just start from scratch :/

 

[AliOop]

Is it a small batch? If so, I would make another small batch of the same size, using the Humblebee recipe as a guide to offset the extra CapB and add more solids. And definitely use distilled water instead of oil! Don't add the preservative until you melt the two batches together to see if you can create one batch that is firm enough for your liking. Also, put them in the fridge or freezer for 24 hours after you make them. That will draw out some of the moisture and help them harden even more.

The other option is to test your soft shampoo bars as they are. If they work well, they can be your personal-use shampoo while you work on another recipe.

 

[NewlyCreative]

I made the bar from the humblebee and me recipe! It takes a long time to dry out - weeks! I was not able to unmold it for days. It was at least a week (if not longer) before the bar lost a play doh consistency.

At 2 months it’s hard but crumbly

 

[soapybubbles]

Is it a small batch? If so, I would make another small batch of the same size, using the Humblebee recipe as a guide to offset the extra CapB and add more solids. And definitely use distilled water instead of oil! Don't add the preservative until you melt the two batches together to see if you can create one batch that is firm enough for your liking. Also, put them in the fridge or freezer for 24 hours after you make them. That will draw out some of the moisture and help them harden even more.

The other option is to test your soft shampoo bars as they are. If they work well, they can be your personal-use shampoo while you work on another recipe.

It is a small batch, yes. I think will make another batch and add BTMS-25 & stearic acid as my solids, replace the oil for water and put them in the freezer.

However, do you think I should melt everything altogether including the surfactants? Or should I keep the dry ingredients, dry? Will I still achieve mouldable shampoo bars? Or will it turn into a glop?

I really appreciate your guidance thank you!!

 

[soapybubbles]

I made the bar from the humblebee and me recipe! It takes a long time to dry out - weeks! I was not able to unmold it for days. It was at least a week (if not longer) before the bar lost a play doh consistency.

At 2 months it’s hard but crumbly

Wait, what?! That's a long time...

 

[AliOop]

It is a small batch, yes. I think will make another batch and add BTMS-25 & stearic acid as my solids, replace the oil for water and put them in the freezer.

However, do you think I should melt everything altogether including the surfactants? Or should I keep the dry ingredients, dry? Will I still achieve mouldable shampoo bars? Or will it turn into a glop?

I really appreciate your guidance thank you!!

I prefer to melt everything together; the bars turn out less crumbly for me that way.

I personally don’t add BTMS to my shampoo bars, only conditioner bars. I also think the dry surfactant powders will work better for what you want to achieve in this situation, which is a shampoo bar, not a conditioner bar. Whatever you do, let us know how it turns out.