Solid Shampoo Bar Recipe

Myself and my family have been testing various shampoo bar recipes for literally months. We’ve had more than a few duds (a bar that turned to mushy goop as soon as it gets wet, or the bar with un-melted SCI noodles that look like worms to name a few)

But now we have it. The shampoo bar recipe that has passed the test phase and is ready to go out into the world!

As with all my recipes, I try to make them as accessible to as many people as possible, which means I don’t use lots of fancy ingredients that could be unaffordable to some people. I’m going to be releasing more shampoo bar recipes in the future with some of these fancier ingredients, but rest assured, this basic bar is perfectly fine and if this is the only shampoo bar you ever make, you’re golden!

Ingredients:

Phase A
128g SCI – powdered (it’s very important you use the powdered SCI)
88g Cocamidopropyl betaine

Phase B
20g Coconut oil
12g BTMS-50
2g Stearic acid

Phase C
124g SLSa
8g Sodium lactate

Phase D
6g Natural silicone
2g Liquid germal plus
4g Fragrance or Essential oil

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Tools & Equipment

Hot plate
Double boiler or pot
Heat safe bowl
Scales
Spoon
6 x Handmade Soap Moulds
Dust mask

Step One:

Setup a double boiler to a low heat. You want the water just below boiling, so it’s hot enough to melt what’s in the bowl, but not so hot that the water is boiling away and spitting out of the pot. To do this fill a pot of water about half way up (I start with boiling water so it doesn’t take long to get going), then place a bowl on top of the pot. If you’ve ever melted chocolate before, this is the exact same thing.

Step Two:

Weigh the SCI and Cocamidopropyl betaine (Phase A) and put into the bowl to begin melting. Please be gentle when stirring so you don’t create extra dust, and make sure you wear a dust mask to avoid irritating your airways.

Because this recipe uses SCI powder, it only takes a few minutes to melt and turn into a thick mashed potato like consistency.

Step Three:

Next add Phase B ingredients. Leave to melt. Stirring as you go. The consistency will get thick and gloopy.

Step Four:

Add the SLSa, and very gently mix into the paste. I like to fold it in as if I were baking. This helps to minimize the dust cloud. Once you have a really thick mashed potato consistency. Add the sodium lactate and mix well. I use the back of my spoon to really smoosh things down so I get rid of any little clumps of powder and get a nice smooth texture. It should be like really thick, smooth mashed potato. Take off the double boiler and add Phase D. Mix well.

Step Five:

Now scoop out some mixture and plop it into the mould. There isn’t really an elegant way to do this, just glop it and go! Try and smooth down the shampoo with the back of the spoon. I also found using a hot knife worked really well to smooth the bars – just like icing a cake! Pop the bars into the freezer for an hour or two. Then simply press the shampoo bars out of the moulds and set aside to harden overnight.

Notes

• You can add colour to these bars using mica, or another cosmetic colourant. Start with 1/4tsp of mica added with Phase B
• Choose any skin safe fragrance or essential oil blend you like!
• We recommend using powdered SCI for this recipe. You can use the noodles, but it could take about an hour to melt instead of the few minutes it takes the powder