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Shampoo bars: scent retention in hair?
Hello, all. This is really kind of a hail-mary from a home maker/non-seller of cold processed soap and B&B. I started making syndet shampoo bars about a year ago and like using them, but I can’t figure out how to get scent to stick to my hair. The bars themselves smells nice with added fragrance or essential oil, but leave virtually no scent in my clean hair afterwards.
I’ve tried various types of scents, various amounts (up to 2%, I was nervous about going higher), and tried mixing it into other components of the bars (eg, rice flour) to see if that would help the fragrance stick better. No dice.
Maybe this is one of those things that amateurs really can’t address, but I came across the aroma chemicals offered at Perfumer’s World and wondered if those – either by themselves or mixed with FO/EO’s - were likely to help as fixatives. Eg, I like mostly “green/fresh” scents; is it worth experimenting with an AC which is rated as being good in shampoo like hydratropic aldehyde (as an example, I figured there would be a steep and maybe expensive learning curve) or is this too complicated and pointless for someone like me?
Sorry if this is a really irritating question, but I have spent quite a lot of time looking online, here and elsewhere, to see if I could figure it out but didn’t find anything really useful. Thanks in advance for any thoughts, even if just advice that it’s not worth working on it further.
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1 Reply
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I manufactured shampoo bars (plus a lot of other skincare products) when I co-founded Indochine Natural in 2006 which ran until 2023. These shampoo bars were particularly popular with one of our Japanese wholesale customers and did well in Japan. I also did other Private Label shampoo bars for various brands globally.
I only used essential oils for fragrance, and the key was following the basic rules of fragrance formulation, and understanding the role of base, middle and top notes. It’s something I have done for nearly 30 years, and am still doing.
I developed and tested around six(6) or more fragrance blends that were tested and accepted by my Japanese wholesaler. This process took about nine (9) months which included soap bar curing for 30 days in a temp/humidity-controlled cure room (very important) and extensive consumer testing.
I should also mention that the basic soap bar formulation plays a role in retaining the fragrance and transferring it to the hair during washing.
Also worth noting is that if you blow dry your hair, you will not get much fragrance retention.
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