What Bath & Body Thing Have You Done Today?

[Tammyfarms]

I know this may sound a little silly, but I actually crocheted a "cup holder", for lack of a better term, that fits over my 4 cup pyrex. Wearing gloves I dip it into the heated water, wring it out a little, then snug it onto the pyrex, then wrap a dry kitchen towel around it to keep it warm long enough to pour whatever I'm making. Works really great for lip balms, salves etc.

That doesn’t sound silly at all! I love the idea.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

I found a great thread about dissolving/melting SCI, including a description of @DeeAnna sous vide method. The key thing I picked up is to dissolve/melt the SCI in the liquid surfactants only, without the thickener/hardener, fats, etc.

 

[Maple_Street_Bath]

What would you add to the shampoo bars (hot pour or regular) for a beard wash?

Bear with me... this might be a little crazy... I was intrigued with the Humblebee-Brambleberry conditioning shampoo bar project (https://www.brambleberry.com/articl...ar-project/PS000363.html?cgid=1-in_the_studio) but I didn't want to fiddle around with a large size batch and didn't have all the ingredients to do it... so ... I took one of my conditioner bars and chunked it up, and added to my shampoo bar recipe. My recipe is kind of similar to Humblebee More Mango recipe in that it's formable play dough, but the conditioner chunks went in just fine. I used about 20g of conditioner chunks for a 200g shampoo bar recipe. I gave a bar to my bearded hubs to try, and it's his favorite for washing his face/beard. I make it for him and our ZZ-top bearded friend (along with his new favorite leave-in conditioner).

I think for short beards like my husbands, the little bit of extra conditioning from the chunks is really all that's needed, but longer/fuller beards like my friend's are gonna need extra product anyways. When you're testing, make sure you use testers who have realistic expectations. If they don't do regular beard grooming (I mean the daily wash, condition, combing/brushing - you'd be surprised how many guys stop at just the washing...), they shouldn't expect a beard wash bar to magically tame every stray hair and train their beard (they still have to do that themselves). As long as they understand that it's the clean and skin feel they're testing... I think you'll get good feedback. Guys who spend the time on beard grooming already will be able to tell if it made their grooming process easier or harder.

 

[Misschief]

Bear with me... this might be a little crazy... I was intrigued with the Humblebee-Brambleberry conditioning shampoo bar project (https://www.brambleberry.com/articl...ar-project/PS000363.html?cgid=1-in_the_studio) but I didn't want to fiddle around with a large size batch and didn't have all the ingredients to do it... so ... I took one of my conditioner bars and chunked it up, and added to my shampoo bar recipe. My recipe is kind of similar to Humblebee More Mango recipe in that it's formable play dough, but the conditioner chunks went in just fine. I used about 20g of conditioner chunks for a 200g shampoo bar recipe. I gave a bar to my bearded hubs to try, and it's his favorite for washing his face/beard. I make it for him and our ZZ-top bearded friend (along with his new favorite leave-in conditioner).

I think for short beards like my husbands, the little bit of extra conditioning from the chunks is really all that's needed, but longer/fuller beards like my friend's are gonna need extra product anyways. When you're testing, make sure you use testers who have realistic expectations. If they don't do regular beard grooming (I mean the daily wash, condition, combing/brushing - you'd be surprised how many guys stop at just the washing...), they shouldn't expect a beard wash bar to magically tame every stray hair and train their beard (they still have to do that themselves). As long as they understand that it's the clean and skin feel they're testing... I think you'll get good feedback. Guys who spend the time on beard grooming already will be able to tell if it made their grooming process easier or harder.

Thank you! That was very helpful.