Anyone make or use shampoo bars?

[Steveca]

I've been wanting to make soap for so long it isn't funny. This week I finally took the plunge and ordered supplies... Guess what everybody's getting for xmas this year. I've been using this soap/lye calculator to fine tune my first recipe to the characteristics I want : http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp

So far this is what I have tuned it to:

Canola 30%
Coconut oil 29%
Castor oil 7%
Almond oil (sweet) 5%
Olive Oil 20%
Lard 9%

I hope my stuff comes before the weekend.

I've used some homemade type bar soap from the community whole foods store and liked how much it lathered but if I recall, I think it made my hair smell a bit greasy.

From what I've gathered, Coconut oil for cleansing and Castor oil for sudsing but you don't need much castor oil, maximum 15 - 20% for a shaving bar.

This site has a lot of good info on what the different oils do in a soap and what percentages to use for different qualities. http://www.soap-making-essentials.com/

 

[Marianne]

Steve, I'm impressed. The first soap I made was a huge batch of milk soap. It probably was okay, but I thought it had failed because it smelled so bad. I ended up pitching it after a couple of weeks because I was too afraid to use it.

Fast forward YEARS...the neighbor and I made plain ol' Crisco soap. It worked! Now I'm just trying different recipes to find a simple one that I like. And here you dive right on in to make/create your first batch of soap with multiple ingredients and the lye calc!!! Good for you!

 

[Steveca]

Thanks.

I almost made a big mistake. My bag of lye arrived yesterday so I was all excited and gung ho to make a batch of soap last night with what I had, olive, canola and sunflower oils but I plugged them into the lye calculator and noticed that there is zero cleansing and too much conditioning so it likely would have just made anybody that used it really oily and dirtier than they were before they showered...

I started using the calculator because I also want to make soap like Grandma used to make for stain removal and doing laundry. I knew well enough that one bar couldn't be Granny's soap and a shower bar at the same time and I had no idea what the differences in ingredients were so I have found the calculator to be a terrific resource.

 

[me&thegals]

Steveca--just a word of warning that it might be a good idea to get significant experience under your belt in making soap before gifting bars of soap to your family. Lye-heavy soap or soap with pockets of lye can burn skin badly (including eyes) and it can take quite a few batches to learn how to make soap well. Just my thoughts on this. Good luck!

 

[Steveca]

Steveca--just a word of warning that it might be a good idea to get significant experience under your belt in making soap before gifting bars of soap to your family. Lye-heavy soap or soap with pockets of lye can burn skin badly (including eyes) and it can take quite a few batches to learn how to make soap well. Just my thoughts on this. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice. I have some stainless #270 mesh that I will be straining the lye water with before adding to the oil and will be superfatting by 5% for the shower bars but probably not for the laundry bars.

 

[dirtyfeetmaggoo]

I make my own shampoo bars with a tallow, olive oil and coconut oil recipe and it seems to work really well. I have the recipe on my blog alittlebitofhomestead.blogspot.com they smell like cinnamon mostly but I was trying to copycat a company I like called lush I used to buy their shampoo bars all the time until I learned how to make soap and started experimenting with the recipes. I think its funny some people on here looking for wood boxes for their soap and I'm just sitting here like...I made mine in a pringles can

 

[ChickenMomma91]

Pringles? Really? Ill have to remember that

 

[moolie]

I have a friend who makes basic coconut oil/lye soap, we use it for everything including our hair. We have really hard water here, so nothing really lathers, but I find that her soap works just fine and produces acceptable lather

 

[hqueen13]

I use one of the liggets varieties right now, and I'm not really happy with it. Anybody accomplish this to the point where they would be willing to sell some of what they make? Soap is over my head in skills right now!

 

[Hinotori]

I bought the shampoo bar at the health food store that I've been trying. No idea on who made it, though. Didn't keep the wrapper. It's not been to bad for me. No reactions. I have reactions to many chemicals