The Argan Rose goodness continues today with this silky & nourishing Argan Rose Conditioning Hair Balm. It’s like the lovechild of an oil-based hair serum and a solid conditioner bar. This balm has the richness of the oil-based serum, the conditioning wonderfulness/solidity of the conditioner bar, and the nourishing goodness both. Starring luxurious argan oil, fragrant rose wax, and ultralight Neossance® Hemisqualane, this conditioning hair balm is a truly decadent hair treat.
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When it comes to anhydrous hair things, I find I much prefer solid hair balms/serums to liquid ones as it’s much easier to control application. My hair is not very tolerant of oils and I find it very easy to accidentally over-apply liquid oils, but the firmness of this balm makes it much easier to limit and steer application—I can just glide my fingers over the surface of the balm and work tiny amounts of it through dry ends for added shine & conditioning goodness.
The conditioning kick comes from BTMS-50, which contains 50% Behentrimonium Methosulfate—the positively charged conditioning active. The inclusion of BTMS-50 in this hair balm gives it the most divine skin and hair feel, and it’s what makes this balm a solid leave-in hair conditioner.
For liquid oils, I’ve blended vitamin-rich argan oil with ultralight Neossance® Hemisqualane. My hair really isn’t very tolerant of oils, so I kept this blend on the lighter side of things—if your hair loves oils you could consider swapping the Neossance® Hemisqualane for something heavier that your hair loves (broccoli seed oil comes to mind, as does Brassica Campestris Aleurites Fordi Oil Copolymer). I’ve also included some refined coconut oil as it is one of relatively few oils that actually penetrates the hair.
I’ve selected a blend of three different hardeners to create a firm balm that balances creaminess and glassiness: silky cetyl alcohol, creamy stearic acid, and glassy candelilla wax. These ingredients come together to create a really lovely end texture that’s a key part of applying the balm. It’s quite firm, making it difficult to over-apply the balm as you just can’t pick up that much on your fingers all in one go. If your hair loves oil you may wish to adjust the concentration of thickeners to make it a bit softer so you can apply more—I’d start by dialling back the cetyl alcohol and candelilla wax (click those links to learn more about how they thicken our products).
Our gorgeous floral/citrus scent blend comes from two ingredients. The rose note comes from the inclusion of some fragrant rose wax, which is easily my favourite way to get some natural rose scent into anhydrous products. Not only is it far cheaper than rose essential oil, it also doesn’t have the same low usage rates. If you don’t have rose wax please make sure you’re reading the list of substitution suggestions at the end of the formulation. The lemon note comes from a wee bit of lemon slices fragrance oil, but you could also use lemon essential oil. It’s up to you!
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Argan Rose Conditioning Hair Balm
Heated phase
2.5g | 10% BTMS-50 (USA / Canada)
0.25g | 1% rose wax
5.5g | 22% refined coconut oil (USA / Canada)
7.5g | 30% argan oil (USA / Canada)
3.75g | 15% Neossance® Hemisqualane (USA / Canada)
1.81g | 7.25% cetyl alcohol (USA / Canada)
2.5g | 10% stearic acid (USA / Canada / UK)
1g | 4% candelilla waxCool down phase
0.13g | 0.5% Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)
0.063g | 0.25% lemon slices fragrance oilPrepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer over low to medium-low heat in a small saucepan.
Weigh the heated phase ingredients into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Place the measuring cup in your prepared water bath to melt everything through.
After about 20–30 minutes everything should be completely melted through. Remove the water bath from the heat, remove the measuring cup from the water bath, and dry it off with a dishtowel. Stir with a flexible silicone spatula to incorporate. Quickly weigh in the cool down phase, stir to combine, and transfer to a 30mL (1fl oz) tin. Carefully transfer to the fridge to set up.
Once the balm has solidified, that’s it! To use, glide a few fingertips over the surface of the balm, and work your fingers through the ends of your hair. I like to follow up by brushing my hair with a boar bristle brush. Enjoy!
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this balm is 100% oil-based, it does not require a broad-spectrum preservative (broad spectrum preservatives ward off microbial growth, and microbes require water to live—no water, no microbes!). Kept reasonably cool and dry, it should last at least a year before any of the oils go rancid. If you notice it starts to smell like old nuts or crayons, that’s a sign that the oils have begun to oxidize; chuck it out and make a fresh batch if that happens.
Substitutions
As always, be aware that making substitutions will change the final product. While these swaps won’t break the recipe, you will get a different final product than I did.
- As I’ve provided this recipe in percentages as well as grams you can easily calculate it to any size using a simple spreadsheet as I’ve explained in this post. As written in grams this recipe will make 25g, which fills a 30mL (1fl oz) tin or jar perfectly. 25g is a lot of this product—I really don’t recommend scaling it up!
- To learn more about the ingredients used in this recipe, including why they’re included and what you can substitute them with, please visit the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia. It doesn’t have everything in it yet, but there’s lots of good information there! If I have not given a specific substitution suggestion in this list please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
- You could try using BTMS-25 instead of BTMS-50, but it does contain half the active ingredient and it’s also a more potent thickener. You could try doubling the amount to 20% and dropping the stearic acid, but you will need to do your own experiments to get a desirable end consistency.
- You have two options for substituting the rose wax:
- If you want to use rose otto essential oil, use it at 0.02% (that is the maximum usage level) and add 0.98% coconut oil. This is going to result in a much weaker rose note.
- If you want to use a rose fragrance oil I’d use it at 0.3% and add 0.7% coconut oil.
- I chose refined coconut oil to allow the rose & lemon scents to shine, but you could use virgin coconut oil instead. Babassu oil will also work.
- You could use a different midweight liquid oil that your hair loves instead of argan oil; broccoli seed oil would be a good choice.
- C12-15 alkyl benzoate would be my first choice alternative for the Neossance® Hemisqualane. You could also try olive squalane or camellia seed oil.
- You could also try 45% of a light to midweight liquid oil instead of both the argan oil and the Neossance® Hemisqualane.
- You could try cetearyl alcohol instead of stearic acid and/or cetyl alcohol, but you’ll need to do your own experiments to get a desirable end consistency. Ditto for trying to use all cetyl or all stearic.
- Carnauba wax is a good alternative for candelilla wax.
- You can use lemon essential oil instead of the lemon fragrance oil; you may wish to up it to 0.5% (reduce the Neossance® Hemisqualane to make room for it) as it’s not quite as strong as the fragrance oil.
Hello Marie.
Have you seen this ingredient ?
Fision® EcoSil:
A natural alternative to silicone…..improve hair manageability and shine.
I wonder how it will work instead of dimethicone in your recipes.
https://www.formulatorsampleshop.com/EcoSil-p/fssb30060.htm
I actually have it, I just haven’t opened it yet. In my experience, none of the natural silicone alternatives have the same ultra-slip as dimethicone, but I’d think it would work well in something like this 🙂
The more natural the better for our skin. I hope the naturally delivered ingredients will make the skin most happy.
I asked for advice and they answered me… We recommend using EcoSil in the oil phase of your formulation and we found either Olivem 1000 or Ritamulse SCG is the best to use.Happy formulating!
I recommend reading this and this 🙂 Happy making!
Ohh this sounds lovely , think I’ll have a good at making this. Bought you book last week about cosmetics. Lovely book and will soon try some recipes , meryll
Thank you so much! And an extra thank you for buying my book ❤️ Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
Hi Marie , ive been fallowing you since i started , every formula ive tried comes out perfectly , recently made this hair balm and omg im loving it ive got dry thick curley hair and this product has changed it to soft defined curls thank you for sharing this and all the other formulas ive grown to love …
Thank you for all of the recipes that you have made! I’m sure you hear it a ton, but I just have to say it anyway. 🙂 I have been doing DIY recipes for a couple of years, and I usually just buy some, and work on them, tweaking them. But I’ve recently (the last 6 months) got the bug to start formulating on my own and I use you as a guide. All the information that you have gathered, everything that you have found out, it’s incredibly helpful for me in trying to learn CORRECT information on ingredients. Sorry so long winded!
Thank you so much, Aly! I’m so thrilled you like what I do and that you’re diving into formulation and having fun with it! 😀 Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
Could I make this and put it in a push-up kind of deodorant stick mould and slide it across ends of hair?
Yeah, I think that should work beautifully! Please let me know how it turns out & happy making 🙂
This might replace the expensive hair control product I’ve been using on a daily basis for the last 20 years. It smells wonderful…I had no idea how much punch a little rose wax (that I’ve had lying around for ages) had in it! My 2nd and 3rd day curly hair thanks you!
I am SO thrilled you are enjoying this hair balm! Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
Hi Marie,
Just made this quickly and I’m super excited to see how it works for me. I used olive squalane for hemisqualane and camellia + argan oils for argan. I made some room for blue tansy, lavender jasmine and geranium and used non refined coconut oil. I typically follow ayurvedic haircare and haven’t ever tested hair balm so I’m a bit different “test subject”. 😉 I wish you guys all the best!
Hey Marie! I made this and have been using it for a few days now and I can tell you it made my hair softer! I was touching my hair for a solid few minutes haha:) It doesn’t leave my hair greasy at all! Also I used some osmanthus floral wax that I got from China so it smells amazing! Thanks Marie for all you do! Much appreciated <3
How wonderful! That floral wax sounds positively divine, too 🙂 Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making!
My scalp and short bang is not digging this at all so far but it feels nice on skin. My fine hair also feels tiny bit weigh down afterwards. Hmm. Maybe I have wrong applying tecnique (?) I think it softens dry / split ends and detangles much effectively than hair oils and “natural conditioners” I’ve tried. Testing new cosmetics is allways fun and I can allways find new purpose for this. Sorry for double message. I simply wanted to explain things more detailed in the first place and didn’t have courage to share negative feedback. Thanks!
I typically only apply this to the ends of my hair (maybe the bottom inch?). I know my scalp produces more than enough oil on its own that it doesn’t need any help, ha! No worries on sharing your experience—it’s yours, and honest feedback is always appreciated!
Hi Marie! So glad to find your post, very good explanations!
I am learning about how to formulate and I would like to know about the percentage of BTMS that is good for the conditioner. Can I add up to 15% or do you have another post explaining about it?
Thank you so much!
Sorry, I forgot to explain, but my question is because in your Encyclopedia there is 10% for BTMS-25 and 15% maximum for BTMS-50. So that’s why my doubt. Why the BTMS-50 I can use more than BTMS-25 if the 50 have more effective BTMS than the 25?
Thank you a loot!