I made some shampoo bars yesterday. Red Ginger and Saffron FO from Candle Science. Sooooo good.
What Bath & Body Thing Have You Done Today?
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Maple_Street_Bath
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Ahhhh! Thank you for this find. I've been attempting a body wash formula from a reputable YTuber and have not for the life of me get the SCI to dissolve. Making note for when I get back to this experiment. It will be a minute because I'm going back to the drawing board on my conditioner bar. I was using BTMS-25 and sal butter (plus the usual conditioner bar suspects) - but then I don't know what happened, the price at NDA sky rocketed, so I switched suppliers. After six months (stored in a soap room only fridge) the sal butter started to stink badly. Supplier told me it had a short shelf life, which was never an issue with what I got at NDA, so I suspect their stock was old before it got to me. I really wasn't happy with any of the other butters I was trying out in my recipe. I decided to go back to NDA despite the price, and they no longer carry Sal Butter at all. I'm going back to the drawing board and reformulating the whole mess. Long story short: Fixing what I broke so I can't play with body wash or bath bombs.
I’ve done one test run with the first DIY B&B pourable shampoo bar I made and it worked well, seemed plenty hard, left my hair feeling clean and my scalp was not itchy. On the downside, I was hoping for more bubbles. I was surprised that this first test bar is somewhat similar to the Syndopour bars I made last year. In particular, the quality of the lather is similar, which may not be surprising since both are based on SCI. They are both quite different from the Sodium Coco Sulfate-based Lush bar I bought in February. That bar makes bigger and possibly more silky feeling bubbles. Will do another round of testing tomorrow.
This! Yes! I also find the DIY B&B pourable shampoo bar lather lacking, although my hair and scalp feel good after using it. I've made two other bars with richer lather: the DIY solid shampoo bar and the Humblebee & Me Pink Clay Mosaic Shampoo Bars. (Mine don't come out as mosaics because I use powdered SCI instead of noodles.) My theory is the addition of SLSa in these two recipes makes the difference in the lather.
I haven't made the pourable diy b&b one yet, but agree that both the regular one and a humblebee one I made (I think the white chocolate one, adapted for scent and to add rice protein) have plenty of lather. I think @SoapSisters slsa theory is a good one.
@SoapSisters @not_ally That’s great news about the SLSa. As luck would have it, WSP sent me three 2 oz bags of SLSa when they were supposed to send me something else. When they fulfilled my original order they told me to keep the SLSa. It’s powdered, so I may try it in the pourable recipe to replace some or all of the SCI.
My pourable recipe has SCI, SLSa, Foaming Apple and DLS. Have started using my latest Red Ginger and Saffron fragranced ones - and boy, do they smell good! They seem to lather better than my last batch, despite the recipe being the same. The only reason i can think of is that I 'cooked' this batch longer because there were a ton of clumps in the SCI (which I've never experienced before) and so I spent ages smooshing them all against the side of the jug to break them up. It ended up over the heat for about 15 minutes longer than it usually is - so maybe the SCI integrated/melted better than usual?
That’s funny about the pourable shampoo not being sudsy - mine is super sudsy. I do get mine to be really dissolved before pouring - I’m not sure why that would matter though.
I have the DIY B&B pourable bars recipe as well but haven't tried it yet. Thanks for the heads up ... adding SLSa in place of some SCI in my recipe. 
One thing I still haven’t wrapped my head around is the objective with the SCI or similar. Am I trying to get it to melt -or- am I trying to get it to dissolve -or- both? I had my batter up to just below 200 F before I poured. My phase A didn’t get clear, but it was very fluid. With the hard water at my house, testing is always a struggle. I stayed in a hotel last night for a work trip. Should have brought the bar with me!
All this talk of shampoo bars.... I'm working on a men's line, beardos specifically. What would you add to the shampoo bars (hot pour or regular) for a beard wash?
I always thought that it was just supposed to melt. After reading all these posts, I'm wondering if it even does that, or if it just softens enough so that it incorporates well with other ingredients into a homogenous batter.
Are you able to add any showerhead filters to help with the hard water, or do they just gum up too quickly?
Also, what is this work of which you speak? You retired!
Something nice for the face/hair like camellia oil.
I tried my DIY pourable shampoo bar last night. As mentioned above I was unimpressed with the lather. My next batch will definitely include both SCI and SLSa. My last recipe used about half of each so I’m thinking of starting there.
The good news is that my hair feels great. I was concerned that the use of oils would weigh down my oily hair but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I will know more tomorrow and Wednesday.
The good news is that my hair feels great. I was concerned that the use of oils would weigh down my oily hair but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I will know more tomorrow and Wednesday.
We live on the edge of a salt marsh on the edge of a bay, which is not the ideal place to have a well. Our water softener helps tremendously, but we still have high TDS. It’s enough to affect soap lather, but not to drive me to buy a whole house RO system.Are you able to add any showerhead filters to help with the hard water, or do they just gum up too quickly?
Also, what is this work of which you speak? You retired!
I’m out of administration, but don’t fully retire until the end of the year. Eight months to go!
@Tammyfarms if you don’t mind me asking - what oils and additives did you use in your test bar?
@KiwiMoose do you use camellia oil in your shampoo bars? I just got some of that as a free sample.
No but I've been thinking about it. I have some I used to use in my shave soap, but I've stopped making shave soap, so I need to use it up. The blurb here sounds good: https://www.purenature.co.nz/products/camellia-oil-organic?_pos=1&_psq=camel&_ss=e&_v=1.0
I love camellia oil in my face creams. Just made this one this past weekend and it's beautiful!
I used the recipe for oily hair which contains rice bran and castor oils. I figured I would try the recipe as written first, before I start modifying it. I only made 50 grams so not too much wasted product if I don’t like it.
Congratulations on nearing retirement! I highly recommend it!
I just realized I hadn’t replied your question about melting. For the pourable bar I had all of phase 1, without the SCI and kaolin clay, completely melted. When I added the SCI and clay it was the consistency of a medium thick paste that got thick and hard as it cooled. I had to warm it in the microwave several times to keep it workable so I could add phase 2. That mixture also cooled quickly and had to be warmed a couple times. Others have mentioned using the oven or a double boiler with the water near the top of the container to melt phase 1 and I think both of these might be better at keeping the mixture warm as the container would be warmer.
The SCM instructions are to melt the emulsifier in one container and mix the SCI and liquid surfactant in another bowl, that gets mixed with the cool down phase and the melted emulsifier is added last. The SCI is not heated.
I am going to try experimenting with adding SCI at different times to see what works for me. I will report back.
Edited to add: Not melting the SCI only applies to the powder. I have seen recipes from others with prills or noodles that does not call for melting.
This is so amazing! I love the colour contrasts you choose.
It is so neat to have looked into the technique and see the overlap between painting and pouring this soap. I hope to get there, still currently very excited about my failings.
Beautiful work, always so much fun to look at.
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.
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