Sunset shampoo bars - pressed or poured?

[KiwiMoose]

I’m looking at recipes for shampoo bars and would rather have pourable bars than ones I have to press with a shampoo bar mold. Why are there two different ways, and which is better?
Is it entirely recipe dependent? If I don’t press soaps that should be pressed, will they disintegrate when used?
TIA

 

[Dawni]

I was under the impression that the pressed soaps are "drier" than the pourable ones, as in with less wet ingredients, so you will have to press em somehow for them to hold together.

Also, I understand that the pressed ones won't be as ph balanced as fully melted ones, because the unmelted noodles would have their own ph and the rest of the stuff will/could have a different one.

This is a good post to read if you haven't already.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Lol - sunset = syndet with autocorrect

 

[Dawni]

Initially I thought you already nade em, one pressed and one poured and you were asking us which looks better haha

 

[justjacqui]

When I opened the thread I was expecting to see some shampoo bars with beautiful sunset colors

The shampoo bars that are generally considered pourable such as the ones in Swiftcraftymonkeys website/blog are still not really pourable they are more "glopped" (for lack of a better word) into the mold after the ingredients are melted and blended. These bars tend to have a number of different surfactants such as SCI/SLSa/Cocoamidopropylbetaine and you can also add butters and conditioners. These bars can be pH balanced depending on the surfactants selected.

I have never had any trouble with these types of bars disintegrating.

I have never made a pressed type of bar so I can't really comment on them but some of the recipes out there don't seem to be much more that SLS or SCS pressed into a shape which is not what I would consider mild.

Hope this helps.

 

[KiwiMoose]

When I opened the thread I was expecting to see some shampoo bars with beautiful sunset colors

The shampoo bars that are generally considered pourable such as the ones in Swiftcraftymonkeys website/blog are still not really pourable they are more "glopped" (for lack of a better word) into the mold after the ingredients are melted and blended. These bars tend to have a number of different surfactants such as SCI/SLSa/Cocoamidopropylbetaine and you can also add butters and conditioners. These bars can be pH balanced depending on the surfactants selected.

I have never had any trouble with these types of bars disintegrating.

I have never made a pressed type of bar so I can't really comment on them but some of the recipes out there don't seem to be much more that SLS or SCS pressed into a shape which is not what I would consider mild.

Hope this helps.

Thank you Jacqui - that helps immeasurably. Glopped is fine by me. My recipe will include both SCI, SLSA and then Decyl Glucoside and maybe Varisoft if I can ever get an understanding on what it actually does

 

[Carolyne Thrasher]

I was under the impression that the pressed soaps are "drier" than the pourable ones, as in with less wet ingredients, so you will have to press em somehow for them to hold together.

Also, I understand that the pressed ones won't be as ph balanced as fully melted ones, because the unmelted noodles would have their own ph and the rest of the stuff will/could have a different one.

This is a good post to read if you haven't already.

I make a pressed syndet bar but I melt my sci and slsa. Because they have such a high melt point and the recipe includes btms 50 and Cetyl alcohol by the time it cools enough to add my preservative it is a very moldable, play doh like consistency.

 

[amd]

I took one of the WSP recipes and followed the directions for a pressed bar - basically took a melted recipe but made it as if it were a press recipe. (I feel like I'm not explaining myself well, so if you're confused then it's not you it's me) It was rather loose and didn't form as neatly into the press mold, but it did form and set up. I've been using it in my shower and maybe I'm crazy but I think it works better than the melted version.

Note: the only change I made to the actual recipe was the size (so that I could make two 75g bars) and I swapped out the sodium lactate for stearic acid.

The reason I made that swap was because previous versions became mushy in the shower the more they were used.
You can see from the recipe that this does have a much higher amount of Cocamidopropyl Betaine (what they call Bubble Up) than is usually used in a pressed bar, but it did still work. Also note in case someone is interested in using this recipe, the Conditioning Plus emulsifying wax used in this recipe is the same as BTMS-25.

So there's my two cents... I think the pressed version works better, and they're less of a heartache for me to make at 10 minutes compared to almost 40 minutes per batch.

 

[Carolyne Thrasher]

Made these tonight. I “melt” down the surfactants. It really doesn’t turn into a liquid. More of a paste. So I melt kokum butter, btms 50 and cetyl alc first. Then I add the sci and slsa (both powder) and the capb with mica. Mush and fold over double boiler until it’s a smooth paste and the colorant is incorporated. Take off heat and when under 80 c I add panthenol, keratin, fragrance and optiphen. Mix well. Then I pull out hunks (wearing gloves) measuring out 3.7 oz per bar and form into a loose ball and set aside. Then when the batch is all measured out into lumps I use a press I got off Etsy. I have to use Saran Wrap but only 2 small pieces and per batch not bar. Set aside to dry down 3-5 days. Used brambleberry rose quartz on this batch. I really did find bespoke’s book to be the best one. I was a little disappointed in switch craft monkeys book.

 

[KiwiMoose]

They look good Carolyne! I was wondering if I might be less stressed if I smooshed mine instead of trying to pour - it really sets up so fast! Do you reckon I could plop them into a cavity mold and smoosh them with the bottom of a glass or something into the mold?

 

[Dawni]

Do you reckon I could plop them into a cavity mold and smoosh them with the bottom of a glass or something into the mold?

I know someone who does that here. She uses a candle holder, glops her mixture in that, and uses the bottom of a small glass that fits almost exactly the candle holder to mush it down. I'll see if she can share a pic (we're not close lol) but she doesn't sell.

 

[Steve85569]

Thought i was gonna see "Hombre" shampoo bars.

Looks like CT had the answer we were all looking for.

 

[SideDoorSoaps]

I was able to mold my bars into little round cakes by hand. I just can’t get my mold to work. They just didn’t seem to dry out.