[Illidan]

Oh wow, lots of replies. Really sorry for abandoning the post as I didn’t expect a lot of conversations from this.

In the past 10 days since I made this post I was learning and experimenting but it’s still not optimal as I’d want it to be. But reading replies I see that I shouldn’t be disheartened as it takes months before a good combination is found. I was lowkey hoping to get a formula I’d be satisfied with rather fast as the attempts are going out of my pocket and some materials aren’t cheap. ????

I changed my recipe a bit after reading on more things and I abandoned the idea of having a “pourable” recipe and I am getting a custom 3D printed soap/bar press.

The formulation I posted earlier was the best one so far as it was shedding 1-2 grams for two hair washes, but SCI is kinda expensive where I’m from so I experimented a bit but I realized that I have to have over 50% of SCI for the bar to be solid. The best formulation I came up so far is:

<google-sheets-html-origin></google-sheets-html-origin><google-sheets-html-origin></google-sheets-html-origin>SCI powder | 45 grams | 56.25%
Coconut oil | 8 grams | 10%
Jojoba oil | 4 grams | 5%
Carnauba wax | 5 grams | 6.25%
Coco betaine | 9 grams | 11.25%
Cetearyl Alcohol | 8 grams | 10%
Benzylalcohol DHA | 0.6 grams | 0.75%
Lavender ess. oil | 0.4 grams | 0.50%

The mixture during preparation is like soft mash potatoes and once it cools a bit it’s like hardish mash potatoes and I will have to be content with that I guess. I washed my hair with it twice and that spent 2.3 grams of it which is good but I am not shampooing like crazy like some might. So there is definitely still work to be done.

I was thinking of ditching carnauba wax as some other formulations came out sticky or soft and I am suspecting it’s because of it. ????

Even though I ditched Tapioca Starch which was really expensive, I am climbing back to the original price point because of SCI and other ingredients now. ????

@luttie I really appreciate your insight and suggestions! I’m thinking of reducing oils further now and increasing coco betaine and cetearyl alcohol instead. What do you think of my recipe in this post? I ditched Tapioca Starch and thought that carnauba wax would hold it, but that might have been a mistake. Would you recommend any other substitutes for tapioca starch?

[Illidan]

I made a new batch and I used:

SCI 50grams 66.67%
Coconut oil 10 grams 13.33%
Jojoba oil 5 grams 6.67%
Tapioca starch 5 grams 6.67%
Distilled water 5 grams 6.67%
Lavender oil 5 drops

I realize now that in my previous attempts I most likely didn’t use enough SCI, and used too much oils as the result of this batch was solid 3-5 minutes after mixing everything in. Now “all” that’s left is to wait for it to harden and remove it from the mold to see how it holds up.

Now what I’d want is to add to the recipe is coco betaine for more bubbles and make the yield more liquidy as to fill the mold properly. But that’s a test for another day, and if anyone has further suggestions on changes that I can make to the recipe I’d highly appreciate it! 🙂

[Illidan]

Thanks for your reply!

I’m from Serbia so buying things from here and I have to go for chemistry level tapioca starch as there is no food grade ones sold here.

And it is carnauba wax. It’s about $3.2 per 100 grams so that is inexpensive when compared to the amount I need. While tapioca starch is $11 per 100 grams. ????

I like the example recipe you sent and I will try it right after posting this. Got my 3D printed mold/press as well so excited to try that too. 🙂 Though originally I was planning on removing the wax completely. Though I can leave that for the knockout tests (thanks for the link!).

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0.5% of lavender essential oil ain’t really enough. It’s there, but really faint. I guess I’m just putting that much as a placeholder for now. There is a slight fragrance to it, but it’s not enough. I also ordered some fragrance oils to test in some future recipes.

[Illidan]

Hi Gordof! Thanks for your reply. Those sources look great! I will have to read further into them tomorrow.

And you’re right, 4 attempts is not a lot but I’m just impatient I guess. 🙂

Though I am happy to announce that the last batch I made and posted here looks great. It hardened enough to be removed from the silicone mold in 3 hours and it looks and feels great! Can’t wait to try it out when it dries completely.

It’s a great starting point if I can say so for myself, and I can’t wait to build and expand on top of it!