MAKING shampoo bars??

[redneckprincess]

I would love to know how to make them, but I wouldnt know where to begin, even here If I posted in the wrong thread, please move and forgive, I wasnt sure..

has anyone ever made GOOD quality shampoo bars without spending alot of money??

how is it done?
what is needed?

Thanks in Advance

[cindy58]

Google "make a shampoo bar" and tons of articles come up.

[Madame J]

Or, look here (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=427).

[Merewen]

It's soap, so you would have to look into soapmaking. I considered it briefly, but you have to deal with lye and such, so I never did. Lye is dangerous so do lots of research and make sure you know what you are doing first!

[PhillyGirl26]

Shampoo bars? That's something new to me. Try searching for them on google

[redneckprincess]

ok thanks I will do that!!!

[Natalia]

The method is the same as soapmaking just using slightly different oils and you should probably supperfat so it isnt too drying. I hear castor oil makes a nice rich lather :) Good luck, do your research (as lye will melt certain metals), and be careful around lye! I know i saw a link to a great soap calculator on here once... wonder where the link is :confused:. You inputted your ingredients and it gives you a recipe by percent and weight.

[Dieselle]

I make my own shampoo bars with sodium cocosulfate and BTMS. I dissolve them (double boiler) and then add ingredients (oils, powders..)..

I put the bar in a mould in the fridge, and then in the freezer. That's all !

[AmericanWoman]

I've made regular soap before. I did a lot of research before I tried my first batch. Make sure you'r e comfortable with what you're doing before you start. Lye is hard to find too. my local hardware closed down and that's only place I could find pure lye. You do have to be careful with it.

[Fractalsofhair]

You can order lye online if you can't get it locally.

Also, it is soap making. Oil is expensive, so that's why shampoo bars are around $4-7 dollars per bar. Lye, you have to use stainless steel pots, which can cost a bit more, and you have to let them sit a few weeks before use. However, it could be a fun hobby to get into!

[Henna Sooq]

You can order lye online if you can't get it locally.

Also, it is soap making. Oil is expensive, so that's why shampoo bars are around $4-7 dollars per bar. Lye, you have to use stainless steel pots, which can cost a bit more, and you have to let them sit a few weeks before use. However, it could be a fun hobby to get into!

Did you find all the inormation you were looking for?

In my opinion it's still an expensive process, when starting up.

You can use a variety of methods: hot press in a crock pot, cold press, oven method, or a combination of oven method and cold press. There are a lot of tutorials online and youtube has some videos I'm sure.

The oils you use can get expensive and handling lye needs to be really taken into care and consideration. Especially around children. it is poisonous. Getting lye can sometimes be tough to find or to even ship.

But otherwise once you start up and have a good stock of items you can at least make many bars. I'd say getting some silicone molds might be cheaper as well and just a soap cutter. This would be the basic tools. The silicone molds can make about 1 bar and pop out really easily when you want to make small quantities at a time. I've seen silicone molds that hold like 4 bars per tray. That should really last you awhile!

I hope this has helped!! Making soaps is A LOT of fun though. Honestly I absolutely have fallen in love with them!

[Caldonia Sun]

I make soap in my crockpot and use it for body and hair. I like how my scalp feels when I use this soap, better than shampoo bars I have purchased. My DD and SIL use it on their hair, also. It has olive, coconut, jojoba, safflower and sweet almond oils. Oh yes, you MUST be careful with the lye; one little crystal on your hand will eat right through the skin. Don't ask how I know this :)

[Henna Sooq]

Sweet almond oil is a bar sounds really yummy!!! Crock pot method is probably the easiest I'd think. Crock pot would be considered hot press for most

[TinaDenali]

I just started making soap this month! It's so easy and fun, I really love it!!

I was worried about the lye, but it's really not a big deal for me. I mix up my lye water outside on my porch, come in and mix it with my oils and blend for a few minutes and then I'm done! Couldn't get any easier.

The first few batches I made are superfatter too much for my hair, but my husband LOVES them! His hair is a bit denser and dryer than mine, so it doesn't make his oily. I need to go back to my soap calculator and make a recipe with a lower superfatting so that I can try it on my head. :)

In my two batches that I made I used coconut oil, olive oil, sweet almond oil, cocobutter and macadamia nut oil. To my first batch I didn't add any scent, and to my second I added 1 oz of vanilla extract. Oh, they both smell SO great! Like cookies baking. I want to eat them (but I don't!)!!

Anyhow, soap making is very fun. I let the whole lye things scare me out of soapmaking for several years, so don't let it stop you. It's not THAT scary - you just cannot be careless.

Here's the site I use for my soap calc:
http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcwp.asp

It's a great website! It does all the hard work for you, and when you're done it prepares a recipe sheet for you that shows how lathery, hard, conditioning, etc your final product will be. It's been a huge help for me, I wouldn't have been able to make soap without it, I think! :) It seems confusing at first, but you'll get it. If you need help with it, just let me know. :)

[Henna Sooq]

Tina, it can be a bit scary around kids. For me personally anyhow. Jut having a seperate, and sectioned off work aera puts my mind at ease.

It sounds like you are making soem awesome bars!! I want to play around more with scents too, but I don't really believe a soap needs to have a million ingredients. Like I always wonder why? Isn't the focus to concentrate on a few ingredients so that those percentages can be higher and that way you get the more concentrated benefits of that particular oil/blend of oils? Like from adding 15% to 5% is a big difference. Anyhow everyone decides on how they want to do it in the end, and the amazing thing is that it is like creating your own recipe.

Is there a website that has a list of essential oils where you can mix and match and like let's say I want to use lemongrass and then I can add a few other ones like 1-2 more to make a special scent? is there a site that allows you to choose a few oils and then gives you the end result? Like an example of what it could smell like or if the combination is good or not?

It's hard not to eat them especially not the ones with cocoa butter as Tina has said about the yummy smelling ones! Vanilla extract must be amazing!

[TinaDenali]

Henna Soog,

I don't have any kids, but yes - I'm sure it can be hard to feel comfortable making soap if there are little ones around! I had to have my husband keep the pets away from the kitchen while I was making my soap. :)

I feel the same way - I just want a few ingredients in my soap. In my first batch I only used 4 different oils, and in my second I used 5 because I got low on one :)

As far as blending essential oils: I am really into aromatherapy and have a pretty decent sized collection of essential oils. I like to blend them to come up with lovely and exotic scents, and it's really easy. What I do is put together up to three or four essential oils and place one or two drops of each on a q-tip. Then I put those q-tips in a glass jar for a few hours. Then I come back to it and take a whiff and see if I like it. I've made some really lovely things this way, it works great for me. Here's a website, too, that gives some different combos:
http://www.snowdriftfarm.com/form_scentblends.html (These are the winter ones, on the left you can click for other seasons:))
I've never tried any of them, though, so I can't vouch for them. :)

[Henna Sooq]

That sounds like a really nice idea! I have a descent collection of essential oils but I want to explore with other ones, but of course money always holds me back. I don't want to waste either and buy an oil I really won't use.... :) I already have too many things.

I really like how you test out the new scents you blend. I will have to try that out.

Thanks :) This is def a reason I like LHC

[Henna Sooq]

I def am going to stay away from fragrant scents though and use only essential oils

[redneckprincess]

Thanks for all the input..I have decided against making them...sounds to difficult for me...I'll just continue buying them..thanks :)

[Henna Sooq]

in the future, for sure! Once it starts happening, they practically flow out of you.

[Elbereth]

I think we had a discussion on making shampoo bars somewhere on boards. Don't remember where, but use the search function.

I have made my own shampoo bars for two years now. IMO, it is NOT expensive to start with. I use cold process method, and mostly I need common household items, such as a mixer, liquid thermometer, accurate kitchen scale, a big kettle, baking pans, and protective equipment such as an apron and rubber gloves. The oils I use are basic oils that I buy from grocery store: coconut, sunflower, rapeseed etc. I buy fragrance and lye online, and buy a larger amount at one time. My shampoo recipe is very simple, so making shampoo is for me just as easy as making soap.

Also, handling lye is NOT that scary if you follow your recipe and simple precautions, such as wearing protective clothing, protecting surfaces, keeping pets and children out of the way when you make soap/shampoo and clean up well right after you have finished. For me, making soap takes about 1½ hours with all the necessary arrangements and cleaning, and after that there's just cutting the soap on the following day and waiting for it to cure. Just follow the instructions carefully and you will be fine. There are plenty of detailed instructions available online, and once you learn the process, it is really no more difficult than cooking. The only differences are that you need to measure everything carefully and follow safety instructions when you handle lye.

The results are just fabulous. My simple homemade bars are (for my hair) better than CV bars, and that is saying something since I loved CV for years before I started making my own shampoo.

[TinaDenali]

Elbereth-

Would you mind sharing your recipe? I've tried two different ones for shampoo and they leave my hair greasy. I don't want to keep making batches that don't turn out!

I'd love to hear yours :)

[Henna Sooq]

Tina have you ever used an ACV or conditioner afterwards? Because after a few washes I too feel a bit greasy and must use those to balance it all out.

[TinaDenali]

Henna Soog,

I am currently soaking some lavender in ACV for a rinse. It's something I've never tried but would like to! So maybe that's the ticket! I am washing my hair tomorrow, so I can try that out!

Thanks!! :) :)

[minnie may]

Elbereth & Tina, I'm investigating soapmaking at the moment and in the long run I would love to try making hairsoap too, so I'd be very grateful too if you shared your sucessful hairsoap recicpies :-)

[Henna Sooq]

Tina I really feel the acv or conditioner after the shampoo bar is the trick, because I can't stand the build up either.

For great shampoo bar recipes this would be my guideline:

Choose a few base oils such as olive oil, cocoa butter, shea butter, sweet almond oil, jojoba oil etc. Like maybe at least 3 of them and up to 5 or as desired, and use the soap calculator to determine how much of each and play around with the numbers until you are happy.

Choose 1 oil to superfat your soaps, and superfatting is basically a small percentage of your whole log. The calculators do factor that one in. Or you just adjust the lye amount so that you have a percentage off of lye so their are extra oils in the recipe. But not too much. This percentage varies between people and their methods. I've heard anywhere from 2% to up to 10% but remember oils can eventually go rancid, so I wouldn't make it a very high percentage personally.

Then decide on the essential oil or oils you want to be added. Then any additives, herbs, fun stuff you want in your bar. Just mix them all together as per the instructions found online and you are good to go :)

That's a general jist on it

[TinaDenali]

Henna Soog,

I finally got around to straining my lavender ACV and used it in my hair after my shampoo bar! It worked wonders!! Thank you so much!!

[little_cherry]

Hey Henna Sooq :)

How long have you been making shampoo bars for? I just have to say that the cocoveda is heavenly!

I've been making my own soap for a while...I just made a custom olive oil castile soap for my face with rhassoul, castor, amla. It does a wonderful job at clearing my face. It's very dark, though!

I'd love to make a shampoo bar out of camellia oil...*ponders*

[Henna Sooq]

Henna Soog,

I finally got around to straining my lavender ACV and used it in my hair after my shampoo bar! It worked wonders!! Thank you so much!!

Oh wow, you're going to have to post up your recipe!! I'm gonna have to try it out.

[Henna Sooq]

Little Cherry, you trying to get recipes from me, ie camellia :) LOL!!

I've been making them personal for a little while now but started with a soap consultant, who makes soaps for so many years now. I decided to take matters into my own hands. I really love it. Just as much as I love doing henna (body art). I find each recipe is a special formulation and becomes this amazing creation.

Cocoveda is a good one. Glad it turned out well!!

we're going to have to have a soap making party! New Directions is having an open house May 15th too!!