Syndet Shampoo Bar Trials

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
@violets2217 yes, we should be getting a commission! šŸ¤£

Which shampoo bar mold did you buy? I think I'm going to cave in and get one. I like using my heart-shaped molds but since they are silicone, they get pushed out of shape with all the pressing.
 
Which shampoo bar mold did you buy?

Shampoo Bar Mold Press 2 2.25 2.5 2.75 | Etsy

I donā€™t know if the link will work. But it is TheMakerShoppe on Etsy they are on sale right now! It took forever to get to me (or it seemed like it) but you get to pick your width... and they are easy to use for manual press. I ordered a 2.25 inch diameter and maybe should have gone a bit wider so my 3 oz bars are not so tall. But they fit well in my hand and match my conditioner bar 3oz molds, so maybe not! šŸ˜³šŸ¤”šŸ˜
 
If you know someone who has a 3D printer - or have a decent sized school system - there's a free pattern on thingiverse for the 3pc puck mold. My city is around 20k population and we have 3d printers as part of the "shop" curriculum for both middle school and high school. The students print the things for free. We also have a secondary tech school that allows students to 3D print for free, and charges a small fee to the public.
 
Shampoo Bar Mold Press 2 2.25 2.5 2.75 | Etsy

I donā€™t know if the link will work. But it is TheMakerShoppe on Etsy they are on sale right now! It took forever to get to me (or it seemed like it) but you get to pick your width... and they are easy to use for manual press. I ordered a 2.25 inch diameter and maybe should have gone a bit wider so my 3 oz bars are not so tall. But they fit well in my hand and match my conditioner bar 3oz molds, so maybe not! šŸ˜³šŸ¤”šŸ˜
Did you get the standard material or the professional one?
 
Did you get the standard material or the professional one?
Just the standard. I didnā€™t read about the professional one but Iā€™m sure that one is more sturdy. Iā€™ve never owned anything 3-d printed, but there was all kinds of ā€œdonā€™t do thisā€ instructions for mine. But mine works very well and cleans up nice and easy! Last time I even hit it a few time with my rubber mallet just to make sure they were really pressed! Lol! And itā€™s still in working order.
 
Oh! Gotcha. Thanks for calling that to my attention! I remember seeing max %ā€™s listed on ingredients from WSP.
So do you suggest bringing the percentage down and using something else to even it out?
I use SLSa to even it out. It works for me and my testers and gives very nice lather. Also, apparently, the more surfactants you use, the milder the end product will be. You can always make a trial bar of each recipe adjustment you want to try and see what happens.

If youā€™re talking about the DIYBATHANDBODYSHOP Etsy store recipe, I ended up combining the powder SCI recipe and the SCI noodle recipe together and while following the directions somewhat... I mix the powdered together well, then add liquid and melted liquid ingredients and mix some more. I let it mix in the mixer for about 5 minutes. Then I add fragrance and preservative and mix a bit more! But once itā€™s all mixed I would just press it in a lined 1/3 cup measuring cup(2 oz) and pulled it out by the plastic wrap! That was the easiest for me. The noodle recipe didnā€™t stick together as well as I liked and the powder recipe kept cooling and not pressing smoothly.They all worked exceptionally well though! I did end up buying an cute little 3-D printed shampoo bar press on Etsy though. Itā€™s even easier! Sorry for rambling... I just love making the shampoo & conditioner bars!
My bars always stick together perfectly, and unmold easily. Here's what I do:

Warm the CAPB in a hot water bath. Use only SCI powder, not noodles, and add that next. Blend the CAPB and SCI together (with it still in the water bath if you can). You should get a smooth, creamy paste that stirs easily. Then add your other surfactants, if using any. Warm it back up if you need to before you add the melted ingredients (BTMS, cetyl alcohol, etc). If your surfactant paste is still warm/hot when you add the melted ingredients, it'll be much easier to blend everything together. Otherwise, the melted stuff will tend to cool and solidify as soon as it hits that cold surfactant paste (at least, that is my experience). If that happens, you get chunks of your re-solidified melted stuff in the bars that never got blended in. If you use noodles and they are never even warmed up, I don't think the paste of all the other ingredients is going to stick to them well enough, necessitating the pressure of a bath bomb press just to make them stay together. (I just got some noodles to experiment with, I'm going to have to make a few test bars.)

Once it all looks blended, I add my preservative and fragrance, and once that's about halfway mixed in I add a little mica. It makes it easier for my testers to remember which is shampoo and which is conditioner if only the shampoo is colored. The mica also helps me see when everything is fully incorporated.

I smoosh it down into silicone molds with my (gloved) hands and then freeze for an hour or two. I have some silicone cupcake cups from IKEA that are perfect for a 100g tester bar, but IKEA discontinued them recently. Once the bar is frozen all the way through, it will pop right out of the mold. Let it sit for a few days before using.

If you want to use the bath bomb press method to make cute shapes, I would still recommend they be frozen for a few hours after pressing. This really helps them harden up.
 
(I just got some noodles to experiment with, I'm going to have to make a few test bars.)
Thanks for the awesome suggestions! They work so much better. I still used part noodles and part powder (I just like the look of the noodles once you start using the bars!) but warming the surfactants with the melted ingredients definitely gives more time to mix and press while still pliable! I read your post before falling asleep, so of course I dreamed of making shampoo and conditioner bars! As soon as I was fully awake I got started whipping up a small batch and used a wee bit of my free sample mica Firefly from Nurture Soap and Mediterranean Fig FO from WSP. They look and smell so cheerful and happy!
BA33D78C-7858-44C8-A93B-56272E4769AC.jpeg
 
Thanks for the awesome suggestions! They work so much better. I still used part noodles and part powder (I just like the look of the noodles once you start using the bars!) but warming the surfactants with the melted ingredients definitely gives more time to mix and press while still pliable! I read your post before falling asleep, so of course I dreamed of making shampoo and conditioner bars! As soon as I was fully awake I got started whipping up a small batch and used a wee bit of my free sample mica Firefly from Nurture Soap and Mediterranean Fig FO from WSP. They look and smell so cheerful and happy!
View attachment 55188
Good, I'm glad it worked for you. It surprises me how many tutorials don't mention warming the surfactants before adding the melted stuff. Even Susan at swiftcraftymonkey says if you use powdered SCI you don't have to warm it, so that's how I made my first batch and it just didn't work for me. So now I always warm it up and it's so much easier.

Mediterranean Fig is one FO that keeps catching my eye at WSP, but I haven't ordered any yet. Does it smell pretty true to the description?
 
Question about presses for syndet bars: I have the single shampoo bar press mold in my Etsy cart, but am dithering about whether I should just try my mooncake press to see how that goes. It works great for bath bombs and shower steamers. Has anyone here tried it with syndet bars?

My concern is that the top patterns are pretty intricate, and that the syndet batter might stick to it. I do have some cyclomethicone that could be wiped on for a mold release if that would help. The other option is a layer plastic wrap, but again, with the intricate top design, I think the plastic wrap would really muddle things up.
 
Question about presses for syndet bars: I have the single shampoo bar press mold in my Etsy cart, but am dithering about whether I should just try my mooncake press to see how that goes. It works great for bath bombs and shower steamers. Has anyone here tried it with syndet bars?

My concern is that the top patterns are pretty intricate, and that the syndet batter might stick to it. I do have some cyclomethicone that could be wiped on for a mold release if that would help. The other option is a layer plastic wrap, but again, with the intricate top design, I think the plastic wrap would really muddle things up.
I tried my moon cake presses first and they just stuck to the press. Every time! I was picking shampoo bar out of the flower design and it never released no matter what temp it was. Maybe if the were lined with plastic wrap or something thin. I didnā€™t try that. I just moved on to my measuring cups!
 
I tried my moon cake presses first and they just stuck to the press. Every time! I was picking shampoo bar out of the flower design and it never released no matter what temp it was. Maybe if the were lined with plastic wrap or something thin. I didnā€™t try that. I just moved on to my measuring cups!
Thanks, that's what I was afraid of. I'll either have to try the cyclomethicone or perhaps some oil as a release agent, or just bite the bullet and get the molds. I'm leaning towards the molds since I don't want to get halfway into the project, find that I don't like using the mooncake press, and then have to switch gears to another mold or press in the middle of making these.

OTOH, if I had the back-up method all prepped ahead of time, it might be worth a go. I really can't order things right now since I'm afraid they won't arrive before our move on the 31st.
 
It surprises me how many tutorials don't mention warming the surfactants before adding the melted stuff.
The recipe & directions I bought so warm up the surfactants.. I just watched another and tried not heating them up and it was a bit easier to press for me. This time after I mixed the surfactants well I added half to the melting oils, then after everything was melted added it back into the kitchen aide and mixed well and added fragrance and preservative. One reason i didnā€™t like heating it all is I always worry about putting in the preservative to hot! But warming it up is much easier to mix and press!
The Mediterranean Fig, I think it is a sweet fruity yet spicy fragrance. I liked it once I used it, but at first I thought it was too sweet. Honestly I donā€™t think I read the description when I bought it, I think it was on sale and thought it sounded cool! After I made the bars this morning my kids said it smelled like a laundry mat... I donā€™t know if that is good or bad?!?!?
 
I make shampoo bars using a sous vide method -- in other words, I melt the ingredients inside a heavy weight plastic bag that's been placed in a hot water bath (bain marie).

I prefer to use bags meant for vacuum sealing (Foodsaver type bags) because they are a lot less prone to leak. Others use freezer weight food bags (Ziploc). The ingredients go into the bag and the bag gets partly submerged in the hot water that's just deep enough to cover the ingredients. I roll the open top over several times and close it with a "binder clip". That seals the top of the bag in case the top slips under the water. This bag method makes it easy to mix the ingredients -- I wrap the bag in a small towel and smoosh it with my hands.

When the ingredients are melted and well smooshed together, I lay the unopened bag on the counter and use a bench scraper (or the edge of a spoon or butter knife) to scrape the paste into the middle of the bag. This is much like pushing frosting around in a pastry bag. After the paste is in a tidy lump, I let it cool to room temperature. (I've also cooled the paste in the refrigerator and that works well.)

If you want to add heat sensitive ingredients, wait until the paste has cooled to the right temperature, open the bag so the lump of paste is exposed and add the ingredients. Close the bag and smoosh until well mixed* and then let the paste cool further to room temp or refrigerator temp. Be sure to allow enough time for the center of the paste to cool so the paste isn't quite so awful sticky.

When cool, I cut the bag open, peel the plastic back, and portion the paste into individual silicone molds. I press the paste with my fingers into the mold. After the paste is in the molds, I'll wet my fingers and smooth off the exposed paste so it's a little more tidy. Tap a little bit, check the underside of the molds to make sure they're not distorted, and done. I don't make bars for sale, or I'd pay more attention to getting the paste deep into all the crevices for the smoothest look.

I've also hand-formed patties if I didn't feel like messing with the molds. Freeze the bars for at least several hours, and then gently work the bars out of their molds. They usually come out fairly cleanly.

Another trick I think is helpful is to put the fresh bars on waxed or parchment paper or plastic food wrap and leave them in a frost free refrigerator (not freezer) for some days. The low humidity in the fridge helps the bars to dry out and firm up nicely. If your house air is fairly dry, just leaving them in the open would also work. Sometimes I make these bars in summer when the humidity is really high, and the only way I can get them firm and dry is to use the fridge.

Even after they've firmed up, I also store my shampoo bars in the fridge, because they seem more prone to absorbing water from the air than soap. I don't have to worry about the bars softening in humid weather if the bars stay in the fridge.

One caveat about fridge storage -- if you like to use fragrance in your shampoo bars, you might want to keep the bars in an airtight container if refrigerating them for a long-ish time. I have a second fridge in my pantry where I keep essential oils, short-lived fats, garden produce, pop (Midwestern US lingo for soda), and adult beverages. I could only smell a tiny hint of scent from the unwrapped shampoo bars, but that was enough to taint the flavor of lightly wrapped foods (bread, cookies) stored in the freezer part of the fridge. A lesson learned the hard way. :rolleyes:

* One way to ensure last-minute ingredients are well mixed into the paste is to add a small amount of colorant to the paste along with the additives. I often use ultramarine blue, but a mica would also work nicely. When the color is evenly distributed throughout the paste, it's a safe bet the other additives are also mixed in well.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the awesome suggestions! They work so much better. I still used part noodles and part powder (I just like the look of the noodles once you start using the bars!) but warming the surfactants with the melted ingredients definitely gives more time to mix and press while still pliable! I read your post before falling asleep, so of course I dreamed of making shampoo and conditioner bars! As soon as I was fully awake I got started whipping up a small batch and used a wee bit of my free sample mica Firefly from Nurture Soap and Mediterranean Fig FO from WSP. They look and smell so cheerful and happy!
View attachment 55188
These look great? Which recipe did you use? I feel so intimidated as I have been just making cold process soap.
 
These look great? Which recipe did you use? I feel so intimidated as I have been just making cold process soap.

I bought the awesome recipes for the shampoo and conditioner bars from the DIYbathandbody shop on Esty. They are great recipes, works exceptionally well and easy to make. Well worth the money spent!
 
I make shampoo bars using a sous vide method -- in other words, I melt the ingredients inside a heavy weight plastic bag that's been placed in a hot water bath (bain marie).

Great method and no sink full of dirty dishes to clean up! Thanks! You always have the best advice!
 
I highly recommend that Esty shop! every recipe that I've gotten from them has been the best ever!!! And I've bought 6 recipes from that shop so far.
Have you used the conditioner bars? I have been a hairdresser for a very long time and everyone asks me about the shampoo bars . I canā€™t recommend until I have I tried it. May not be for me as my hair is naturally black and I bleach it so I can have Royal blue hair! Eager to try the shampoo bar recipe .
 
Back
Top