Syndet shampoo bar recipe help needed

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What is it? What’s your total liquid percentage? Isn’t panthenol a liquid?

Arrgghhh no my panthenol is a powder BUT! my germail plus is a liquid ‍♀️ So thats 20.5 gms if liquid out of a total 100gms. OK back to drawing board. I would love to do your recipe but it didnt work well for your friend with curls. I have to figure this out because i so badly want to make my own shampoo
 
Arrgghhh no my panthenol is a powder BUT! my germail plus is a liquid ‍♀️ So thats 20.5 gms if liquid out of a total 100gms. OK back to drawing board. I would love to do your recipe but it didnt work well for your friend with curls. I have to figure this out because i so badly want to make my own shampoo
That was my first one - she hasn’t tried the second recipe which has a few tweaks. Try it: https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/syndet-shampoo-bar-trials.77482/
 
It does not look that you have to much liquid but I try not to go over 11% of liquid , Is your silk liquid or powder?
 
Hi Dahila my silk is powder but my total liquid is too much. I did something wrong because after a couple of days the bar is still sticky/tacky. I have to try again with some tweaks. Also its almost like there is too much chemical or something because after i washed my hair it was like i had a chemical taste in my mouth.
 
I read somewhere that shea butter is better for dry hair than cocoa butter - it's more moisturising. If you have frizzy hair I would be careful about using too many humectants, because they will exacerbate the problem. I went with varisoft EQ65 in my recipe as an alternative to stearic acid and cetearyl alcohol. I'm sure it contributes to hardness because it sure takes a high heat and long time to melt! My original recipe had 13% liquids (but 15% varisoft), then I changed it and it now has 16% ( with 10% varisoft), and now my foaming apple has arrived from America (!) I will try it with 19% liquids (and 12% varisoft). We'll see how the hardness holds out.
 
The bar that my head really likes is from Unwrapped Life but holy smokes it has SLS in it and a ton of oils. I have no idea how it stays hard and how it can be healthy. SLS is bad for body and environment. Im wondering if they are not posting all their ingredients.

Anyway KiwiMoose my fingers are crossed that your recipe will be the one. I will try mine again since i have the ingredients and see what happens.
 
The bar that my head really likes is from Unwrapped Life but holy smokes it has SLS in it and a ton of oils. I have no idea how it stays hard and how it can be healthy. SLS is bad for body and environment. Im wondering if they are not posting all their ingredients.

Anyway KiwiMoose my fingers are crossed that your recipe will be the one. I will try mine again since i have the ingredients and see what happens.
Why don't you try a few different recipes? Humblebee&Me has some nice ones too, the ones I have tried worked very well for me. (They usually use Coco betaine though and KM did not want that.)
 
Hi Dahila my silk is powder but my total liquid is too much. I did something wrong because after a couple of days the bar is still sticky/tacky. I have to try again with some tweaks. Also its almost like there is too much chemical or something because after i washed my hair it was like i had a chemical taste in my mouth.
this is why I make tine batches first when I get what I want from shampoo adequate ph , foaming, moisturizing and gentleness, skin not itchy, shiny hair, then I go and do bigger batches, It seems that you have silk peptides they are good, very small molecule and they do penetrate the hair, With all due respect none of Susan shampoo bar is working for me, It is always soft. I get her books to support her, cause she deserve it, but shampoo bars hm not as good as the other stuff. you need to find the way to mix the surfacants so you do not have wet thing . I press mine almost dry
 
Why don't you try a few different recipes? Humblebee&Me has some nice ones too, the ones I have tried worked very well for me. (They usually use Coco betaine though and KM did not want that.)

yes I am a Humblebee member as well as a Swift Craft Monkey member (which is where i formulated my recipe from), but i do like KM’s thought process as i do want less chemically ingredients especially after this trial on my head. Took a whole day to get rid of that taste in my mouth.
 
this is why I make tine batches first when I get what I want from shampoo adequate ph , foaming, moisturizing and gentleness, skin not itchy, shiny hair, then I go and do bigger batches, It seems that you have silk peptides they are good, very small molecule and they do penetrate the hair, With all due respect none of Susan shampoo bar is working for me, It is always soft. I get her books to support her, cause she deserve it, but shampoo bars hm not as good as the other stuff. you need to find the way to mix the surfacants so you do not have wet thing . I press mine almost dry

I agree Dahila i too am supporting SCM and Humblebee because they are an inspiration, but yes i am not impressed with the basic recipe from SCM. Having said that it was my very first try at this so am kinda proud of myself. It actually worked but just not great on my head lol.
 
@Gaisy59 - So, I'm trying the 'Curly Girl' method on my hair and make my own syndet shampoo bars. They are hard as a rock, last me for a couple of months (I don't shampoo daily any more) and are gentle on my hair. The curly girl method is a way to get your curls/waves under control and if you're interested in trying it - just google it and youtube it - that's what I did! lol
I use not so much butter in my recipe, but rather come Cocamidopopyl Betaine (which I call coco B because that's quite a mouthful) but it's a very gentle surfactant and makes a ton of lather!
Good luck in taming your curls!
 
I am subscribed to SCM and I do get a lot of info from her site - but I just use that info to help formulate by own recipe. My recipe is kind of a hotch-potch of lots of different recipes that I've read, all rolled into one.
This morning in the shower I used my latest recipe which is good, then I used my first recipe (which has now broken in half as it's gotten smaller - my DH has been using that one), and then, just to compare I used the Lush one. Yes, I do have THREE shampoo bars in my shower - what of it? ;)
The Lush one is far superior in terms of lathering and gentleness BUT as we know it is almost entirely SLS used as the surfactant. https://www.lushusa.com/stories/article_dont-stress-sls.html. I love the Lush one - I would just make that if I could. The problem is that I'm trying to replicate the quality of a bar by using completely different ingredients, so it will probably never happen.
 
I am subscribed to SCM and I do get a lot of info from her site - but I just use that info to help formulate by own recipe. My recipe is kind of a hotch-potch of lots of different recipes that I've read, all rolled into one.
This morning in the shower I used my latest recipe which is good, then I used my first recipe (which has now broken in half as it's gotten smaller - my DH has been using that one), and then, just to compare I used the Lush one. Yes, I do have THREE shampoo bars in my shower - what of it? ;)
The Lush one is far superior in terms of lathering and gentleness BUT as we know it is almost entirely SLS used as the surfactant. https://www.lushusa.com/stories/article_dont-stress-sls.html. I love the Lush one - I would just make that if I could. The problem is that I'm trying to replicate the quality of a bar by using completely different ingredients, so it will probably never happen.

Yes! My unwrapped life bar basically has sls and its bad but it feels so good lol. And i dont use Lush products because they are not the healthiest.
 
yes I am a Humblebee member as well as a Swift Craft Monkey member (which is where i formulated my recipe from), but i do like KM’s thought process as i do want less chemically ingredients especially after this trial on my head. Took a whole day to get rid of that taste in my mouth.
I may be wrong but if I remember right @KiwiMoose doesn't use C-Betaine because it is an irritant. If you are making shampoo just for yourself, and are not allergic to it, it would make formulating much easier. It is a gentle surfactant, and not "more chemical" than SLSa or Amphosol. (I'm not quite sure what "chemical" means anyway....)
I like formulating my own things too, but for formulating a good shampoo it is quite essential to have some accurate pH testing device, which I don't at the moment. So I don't try to do it from scratch because in terms of pH it is very difficult if not impossible to calculate where you end up, without actually testing it.

FWIW, as mentioned in another thread, I recently got a commercial syndet shampoo bar and quite like it. It has plenty of lather. They don't use SLS (nor coco betaine as far as I can tell), so it is certainly possible.
 

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