My first round of Syndopour shampoo bars are made. The short story - the bars I made today turned out perfectly, but something went awry in yesterday’s effort.
For context, Syndopour is a new melt and pour syndet base by Stephenson. There’s another thread by @earlene discussing Syndopour, here. In addition to the YT videos by Royalty Soaps and Ellen Ruth that were linked in the other thread, I found one by Sunshine Soap and Candle Company and one by the Soap Kitchen in the UK for a facial cleansing bar. There’s also a shampoo bar YT by the Soap Kitchen, here, but the list of ingredients gives a different base.
Photos up front. The long explanation of how I made them is below.
Day 2: happy, happy!
white, round - unadulterated base
green, round - green tea extract, matcha tea powder, rosemary eo
I got the idea to use the “travel size“ bee molds from the Ellen Ruth video.
Day 1: not happy, for reason explained below
pink, square - NS Queen of Hearts mica (by volume, 3x as much colorant as the other batches from Day 1), BB Wild Rose FO (I used 2%, but will use 1% the next time); I washed my hands with the lower pink bar midday today and dinged it because it was still quite soft.
lavender, square - ultramarine violet, lavandin eo
green, square - blend of green and yellow oxides, lavandin & rosemary eos, provitamin B5 and silk amino acids; additives inspired by Sunshine Soap and Candle Co.
The square bars were made yesterday and all were still a bit soft and sticky this morning, at least 18 hours after they were made. Each color was made separately as 112-150 g of base split into two cavities of the mold. The suggested limit for additives is 3%, including fragrance up to 2%. I added 2% FO or EO to each batch. The green squares have additional additives totaling 1% of batch weight. I did not count the colorants in the additives. Each colorant was suspended by adding a tiny spritz of 91% IPA, which also was not counted in the additives. By tiny, I mean a few drops, based on what I saw in the bottom of the 30 ml beaker I spritzed into. That’s except for the green bars where I spritzed twice so the B5 additive would dissolve. The instructions are to heat the base to 80C. I heated each batch in the microwave until it was about 80-90% melted and then stirred until the last of the base was melted. I was worried about overshooting the correct temp and may have been below 80C, but the base was nicely fluid each time and I didn’t bother to write down the temperature at the melted/fluid point.
Based on the YT videos by Royalty Soap and Ellen Ruth and the product information, I expected the bars to firm up pretty quickly and get harder overnight. Instead I got soft and sticky. Since I didn’t make a control bar yesterday, I figured I better do it today. For the three smaller bars I made this morning, I heated the base to 80C +/- 2C. The white ones were made in one batch and are the unadulterated base. One white bar was un-molded after an hour and was just the tiniest bit soft. The second white bar was un-molded several hours later and was firm. The round green bar is made with matcha tea powder that I counted as an additive. It suspended easily into a mixture of the other additives (green tea extract in glycerin and water, plus the EO). I removed that bar from the mold after about three hours and it’s shiny gorgeous. There’s no preservative for the tea, so I will need to watch it and do some research.
Something I did yesterday caused a problem in all three batches. The alcohol? The temperature? Both? The soft bars seem to be getting a bit firmer as the day goes on, but they’re still softer than the bars made today. Based on the photos, it looks like the square green bars with the extra 1% additives were the stickiest coming out of the mold, Perhaps the additives also played a role?
The Day 1 bar that I tried earlier today made nice lather with some good size bubbles, but I don’t think testing a soft bar is a fair test and will wait at least another day before I take one into the shower.
For context, Syndopour is a new melt and pour syndet base by Stephenson. There’s another thread by @earlene discussing Syndopour, here. In addition to the YT videos by Royalty Soaps and Ellen Ruth that were linked in the other thread, I found one by Sunshine Soap and Candle Company and one by the Soap Kitchen in the UK for a facial cleansing bar. There’s also a shampoo bar YT by the Soap Kitchen, here, but the list of ingredients gives a different base.
Photos up front. The long explanation of how I made them is below.
![E636B9B9-91BD-48FA-8DDD-ED20B59E7548.jpeg E636B9B9-91BD-48FA-8DDD-ED20B59E7548.jpeg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/soapmakingforum/data/attachments/64/64303-73bde1630edee877b981296a8be6ecca.jpg)
![7FDDC44D-6343-4EC3-82BF-4012B651F5BB.jpeg 7FDDC44D-6343-4EC3-82BF-4012B651F5BB.jpeg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/soapmakingforum/data/attach/64/64304-7FDDC44D-6343-4EC3-82BF-4012B651F5BB.jpeg)
Day 2: happy, happy!
white, round - unadulterated base
green, round - green tea extract, matcha tea powder, rosemary eo
I got the idea to use the “travel size“ bee molds from the Ellen Ruth video.
Day 1: not happy, for reason explained below
pink, square - NS Queen of Hearts mica (by volume, 3x as much colorant as the other batches from Day 1), BB Wild Rose FO (I used 2%, but will use 1% the next time); I washed my hands with the lower pink bar midday today and dinged it because it was still quite soft.
lavender, square - ultramarine violet, lavandin eo
green, square - blend of green and yellow oxides, lavandin & rosemary eos, provitamin B5 and silk amino acids; additives inspired by Sunshine Soap and Candle Co.
The square bars were made yesterday and all were still a bit soft and sticky this morning, at least 18 hours after they were made. Each color was made separately as 112-150 g of base split into two cavities of the mold. The suggested limit for additives is 3%, including fragrance up to 2%. I added 2% FO or EO to each batch. The green squares have additional additives totaling 1% of batch weight. I did not count the colorants in the additives. Each colorant was suspended by adding a tiny spritz of 91% IPA, which also was not counted in the additives. By tiny, I mean a few drops, based on what I saw in the bottom of the 30 ml beaker I spritzed into. That’s except for the green bars where I spritzed twice so the B5 additive would dissolve. The instructions are to heat the base to 80C. I heated each batch in the microwave until it was about 80-90% melted and then stirred until the last of the base was melted. I was worried about overshooting the correct temp and may have been below 80C, but the base was nicely fluid each time and I didn’t bother to write down the temperature at the melted/fluid point.
Based on the YT videos by Royalty Soap and Ellen Ruth and the product information, I expected the bars to firm up pretty quickly and get harder overnight. Instead I got soft and sticky. Since I didn’t make a control bar yesterday, I figured I better do it today. For the three smaller bars I made this morning, I heated the base to 80C +/- 2C. The white ones were made in one batch and are the unadulterated base. One white bar was un-molded after an hour and was just the tiniest bit soft. The second white bar was un-molded several hours later and was firm. The round green bar is made with matcha tea powder that I counted as an additive. It suspended easily into a mixture of the other additives (green tea extract in glycerin and water, plus the EO). I removed that bar from the mold after about three hours and it’s shiny gorgeous. There’s no preservative for the tea, so I will need to watch it and do some research.
Something I did yesterday caused a problem in all three batches. The alcohol? The temperature? Both? The soft bars seem to be getting a bit firmer as the day goes on, but they’re still softer than the bars made today. Based on the photos, it looks like the square green bars with the extra 1% additives were the stickiest coming out of the mold, Perhaps the additives also played a role?
The Day 1 bar that I tried earlier today made nice lather with some good size bubbles, but I don’t think testing a soft bar is a fair test and will wait at least another day before I take one into the shower.
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