-
HELP FORMULA_SHAMPOO BAR MUSHY TEXTURE/DOESN'T GET HARD
Good morning. I’ve been trying to make a shampoo bar for a while now; however, I haven’t perfected the formulation yet. Each batch always ends up with a mushy texture and doesn’t harden properly.
Here’s my basic formula for the first batch. I sometimes change the emollient, add extracts or just play with the formula in general. When I add a powdered ingredient or something to make the bar hard, I subtract that from my powdered surfactant and adjust the liquid surfactant accordingly to keep the ratio balanced.
- 3% BTMS-50
- 5% coconut oil
- 5% shea butter
- 30% sodium cocoyl isethionate (SCI)
- 20% cocamidopropyl betaine (CAPB)
- 35% SLSa
- 1% fragrance or essential oil
- 0.5% Liquid Germall Plus
Is there something wrong with my ratios or my process? I usually divide it into four different phases:
- SCI Phase: CAPB, SCI (double boiler)
- Heat Phase: BTMS, coconut oil, shea (double boiler)
- Other Ingredients Phase: SLSa, sodium lactate
- Cool Down Phase: fragrance oil, Liquid Germall Plus
I’ve been trying to do this for almost a month now, and I can’t seem to see any progress. I also followed this basic formula from a book, so I don’t know exactly what I did wrong. Also, I would like to add, that I put my shampoo bar in the freezer (1-2 hrs) to get it hard, then unmold it after. However, it always ends up in that mushy texture. I also tried not doing this, and just letting it air dry, still same results.
Anyway, I live in a humid environment, and I don’t if this affects my formula.Thank you so much for your help in advance.
-
This discussion was modified 3 weeks, 4 days ago by
Ezra ORTIZ. Reason: add additional info
-
10 Replies
-
I’ve successfully produced shampoo bars in the past that were exported globally. But to me, a shampoo bar is simply a formulation saponifying a suitable combination of plant oils. And this worked for us, and the customers liked these bars.
-
too much the level of CAPB i guess reducing it will give harder texture.
-
I agree with @Fehker, reduce CAPB a bit. Also, your BTMS could impact your foaming, so perhaps you could make a sample replacing BTMS with SCI, just to compare.
-
Try decreasing your CAPB as others have suggested and replace with SCI.
I would also caution using that much SLSa as some people are sensitive to it especially at high levels. If it is for personal use then adjust to your preference. Replace with more SCI.
If you are using this in combination with a conditioner bar you could also reduce the oils.
-
Oh! thank you so much for that. I hve no idea re the Slsa in high levels, I’ll research about it more.
-
-
Hi, I’m seeing surfactant powders, butters and LOT OF CAPB (which is 65% water), i imagine this mix as magic sand dough (kinetic sand) at first but, did you age it? for how much time?
why don’t you incorporate some fatty alcohol to give more body to the bar? beware of the “gooey” feel when left in shower
-
Hello! This is the recent formulation that I’ve tried. Still, it has a mushy and moist consistency that why I tried to save it by adding stearic acid (3%) it hardens a bit, but the surface is still moist.
SCI -30%
CAPB- 17%
BTMS- 3%
cetyl alcohol-2%
argan oil-5%
slsa-34%
gugo bark-2.5%
sodium lactate-2%
salicylic acid-2%
panthenol-1%
fragrance-1%
liquid germall- 0.5 %
+ the 3% stearic acid that I tried adding to save this batch.
-
Electrolytes and salts can cause shampoo bars to become soft and mushy. Try your bar without any extracts or salicylic acid.
-
-
-
what about aging? most bar cleansers need to air dry to harden properly. I am not a DIYer but I’ve seen people making this and they always let it “age”, it’s like when you make biscuits dough if you leave it outside it just loses its water and harden. It might take one week. (you still got approx. 2% water that needs to evaporate)
-
Yes, agree 100%. And this was always a stage in the production of the shampoo bars I produced and exported globally since 2006 in the two factories I co-founded which ran until 2023. I had set up a cure room that was temperature and humidity controlled.
-
Log in to reply.