I’ve been making my own shampoo bars for about a year, and I love them. There’s really very little difference between a shampoo bar and a bar of plain ‘ol cold processed soap. Shampoo bars tend to be a bit more gentle and more lathery. That’s achieved by using more castor oil (USA / Canada) than usual (20% instead of 5%).
These days, I really prefer non-soap shampoo bars as they have a far more hair-friendly pH. Click here for a great starter formulation!
I can’t decide what my favourite shampoo bar recipe is; it’s a toss up between a unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada) citrus bar and a gingerbread bar. Today I’m going to share my gingerbread bar. It’s great for brunettes, and it smells wonderful. I have no idea if the molasses is good for your hair or not, but I think it makes my hair a bit shinier. Or something.
Molasses Shampoo Bar
20% olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada)
20% castor oil (USA / Canada)
25% refined coconut oil (USA / Canada)
25% beef tallow
10% walnut oil7% superfat (or lye discount)
Per 500g (1.1lbs) oils:
- 3 tbsp blackstrap molasses
- 10g cinnamon bark essential oil
- 5g clove bud essential oil
- 5g vanilla essential oil
- 5g ginger essential oil
2020 update: Given the irritation potential for this essential oil blend, I’d recommend using a vanilla spice fragrance oil rather than the essential oil blend. Please refer to supplier documentation for maximum usage rates for the particular fragrance oil you’re using when used in soap.
Follow the basic soap making process. Be sure to let the oils and water cool to room temperature before mixing. Add the molasses after you reach a light trace, slowly drizzling it over over the mixture and stirring it in. Make sure it’s roughly the same temperature as the soap mixture or it will cause the mixture to curdle. If that happens the mixture will sort of look like runny ricotta cheese. You can still pour the mixture into the mold, but the bars will be a bit crumbly.
Calculate your final amounts of lye and water in the recipe using a lye calculator.
I Love your site. I have been checking it out everyday I just tried making blush and will be making eye shadow as well thank you for the inspiration.
I’m a vegetarian… is there anything I can use in place of: beef tallow?
Thank you!
Amy—I’m a vegetarian as well, and here’s why I use beef tallow or lard instead of the commonly used substitute palm oil:
Palm oil comes from the African Palm oil tree’s fruit, and these trees are being clear-cut to harvest the oil at an alarming rate. Not only is this destroying orangutan habitat (as well as the habitat of everything else that lives in these beautiful rain forests), the harvesting practices are also unkind for the people doing the labour.
Beef tallow, on the other hand, is a waste product of an industry that isn’t really after the tallow. They want steak and ground beef, more or less. Butchers throw out huge amounts of tallow everyday because there is very little demand for it.
So, the way I see it is palm oil comes from an industry that destroys rain forest for nothing but palm oil, whereas using beef tallow means using just a little bit more of an animal that was going to be slaughtered anyways, helping make its life a little more meaningful, and helping reduce landfill waste.
That said, if you’re 100% against tallow for the principle of it, palm oil will do the trick. I’d really recommend using something else though, like shea butter, though it isn’t as hard, and you’ll need to age your soaps for at least a year to get them to be as hard as a bar of tallow-containing soap would be in a month.
Couldn’t you increase the amount of coconut oil as another option for a vegetarian soap? (I’m not a vegetarian, I was just wondering if that would be too much coconut).
I love your recipes. Thank you!
Long story short… not really. While coconut oil will help with hardening, it’s also what adds the lather. If you use too much coconut oil, the soap ends up being very drying and harsh on your skin. I love using SoapCalc to see what different changes in a soap recipe have on the bar. Just enter in your recipe, and then when you’re viewing it, look at the statistics on hardness, moisturizing, etc. on the left hand side of the page. Tweak, check back, and learn!
Thanks for stopping by & reading! I really appreciate it 🙂
Hi. I use palm oil but have been wanting to render tallow, too lazy. Thanks for the inspiration. Love the look of the molasses shampoo bar.
Coconut oil can be substituted for both hard oils as long as you balance it with olive and rice bran oil( moisturising and vitamin e), also never far from my soaping pot is macadamia oil.
Ive never had to age my bars longer than six months. Id have to say your timeframes are a little exaggerated here. I always hot process direct heat or oven, depends what oils i want in for fragrance.
I think its a 1/3? Coconut rule for bubbles that dont strip the skin.
Thanks, Trudy! The time frame I referenced was for making this recipe and using something like shea butter instead of tallow, not formulating an entire recipe using coconut oil as the hardening oil—obviously those two soaps would have very different aging times 🙂 I have tried this bar with shea instead of tallow (cold processed—I can’t be fussed with hot) and it was very soft for quite some time! Thanks for reading 🙂
shea butter is fine in place of beef tallow. the beef industry needs no encouragement. plz just include that in the recipe. vegans feel heard when they are included. T. You.
There is not to much more to say than !!! you are AWESOME !!!!!!! Made the Molasses shampoo bars and they are just divine !! I had been hunting and hunting for a good recipe, I was about to give it up !! then I found your site !!! THANK YOU,,, THANK YOU,,,, THANK YOU !!!!!!!! I love everything on your site !!! Thanks so much !!
Yay! Thanks for reading and DIY-ing, Shari 😀 And I’m so thrilled the molasses shampoo bars worked for you, they’re my absolute favourite shampoo bar as well 🙂 You’ve filled me with all kinds of warm fuzzies with your enthusiasm and “thank-yous” 😀 And you’re comment #1000, so a big thanks for that, too! Thanks for reading, I really, really appreciate it! And be sure to come back, I’m planning lots of great new shampoo recipes for the future!
I happened upon your site today from a post I saw on Herbs & Oils World on Facebook. I can already see I’m going to be on here reading the rest of the morning. 🙂 My question is regarding the lye required in this shampoo bar recipe. As someone who does not use relaxers in my hair anymore because of the lye, is the shampoo bar using the same lye? Is there a substitute for the lye? I’m so new to DIY beauty products I just want to be sure I’m doing things correctly.
Hi Karen—I’m thrilled you’ve found me! Thanks for reading 🙂 You don’t have to worry about the lye in homemade soap at all, provided you are using a good lye calculator (I like this one), and measuring your ingredients carefully. The lye is entirely used up and neutralized in the reaction that turns the fat into soap, so there is NONE left over when you are all done! Gotta love chemistry 😉 And then, just to be extra sure, you always include a bit of a “superfat” in your recipes—that is, using 5–7% extra fat, so you’ve got 100% lye, but 105% fat, so you end up with 100% soap and then an extra 5% of fat on top of that, as a buffer in case you get a bit of extra lye in there (I know that’s terrible math, but hopefully you get the picture!).
Long story short—there is no substitute for lye, but all proper soaps will be made with lye, and have been since the beginning of time (though cheaper, crap “soaps” today are often made from water and surfactants like sodium lauryl sulfate, which is a known skin irritant). So, if you can use soap, you can use your homemade soap and shampoo without any worries 🙂 And you can always do a quick “zap test” on your soap just to be sure—lick your finger, touch your soap, and lick your finger again. If you get “zapped”, you made a boo-boo and you best use that soap to clean tubs 🙂 That’s never happened to me, though!
Hope that helped 🙂 Feel free to get in touch with any other questions you might have.
I just found your site today. I love it! You seem pretty amazing, if I do say so myself. I have never made my own soap as I have some fear am going to totally screw something up… and for some reason I don’t like making things on my own if I have had someone do it with me first… Do you have any advice for a beginner who really wants to bite the bullet and try my own stuff? Also, where do you purchase your ingredients?
I’m so glad you found my site! And… shucks *blush*. I just like making stuff! I totally understand wanting a friend to go at it with you first, I do this with lots of my friends and they are always surprised at how easy it is to make all these awesome things 🙂
My advice would be to start the way I did—start with easy things, like lip balm and body butter, where all you really have to do is melt things together and pour it into tubes or tins. Once you’re in love with all your homemade products and you realize how super easy that is, you’ll feel brave enough to try some lotion, which is actually stupidly easy if you use emulsifying wax.
From there, well, I predict you’ll be super excited and won’t be able to stop 🙂 Soap really isn’t scary at all, once you realize that lye isn’t going to burn through your hand in an instant and/or leave you crippled. Treat it like you’d treat bleach—don’t get it on your skin, don’t snort it, don’t feed it to your dog. You’ll be fine 🙂 Definitely wear some rubber gloves and goggles, and lay down newspapers. You’ll be totally fine and be totally addicted to DIY projects in no time at all!
I get all my ingredients (or almost all of them) from New Directions Aromatics. They have online stores in Canada, the USA, Australia, and the UK, so chances are you’ll have a local(ish) one so you won’t have to deal with duties and what not. Have fun! And thanks for reading 🙂
Where do you find all of these ingredients?
I get pretty much everything from New Directions Aromatics, but you will likely have to source your lye somewhere local-ish. I got my most recent jug at Home Hardware.
I take a teaspoon blackstrap molasses every day to help prevent gray hair. I wonder if this shampoo bar would work even better! Thanks so much for creating this blog site and inspiring us all 🙂
I’ve never heard of this—how interesting! What part of the molasses is supposed to help prevent graying? I’m curious!
hello!! i just found your website today and i must say everything looks ahhh-mazing!!! i love how easy your instructions are and i can’t wait to try to make some of this!!! 🙂
I’m so glad you found my site, Sara! Thanks for reading and enjoy all your fun new projects 🙂
your blog makes me ever so happy! i found your blog by looking up shampoo bars! i can’t stop looking! i am just delving into the diy salve/balm/soap world and it is intimidating and i love it!! you are so cool! good job you!! thanks for doing such an awesome giveaway!
I’m so glad you found my blog, Andrea 🙂 Enjoy making your own shampoo bars, they’re super fun and I just love lathering up with something I’ve made!
I have just joins and let me tell you are a blessing this site is great. I have never tried a shampoo bar be for , right now I use barking soda do the bars do good on fine hair? I would love to make these . Blank you so much and God Bless.
I’m so glad you found my site, Patricia! Thanks for reading 🙂 You should definitely try a shampoo bar, they’re just fantastic. I have quite fine hair (though a ton of it!) and the shampoo bars are great for my hair.
I made shampoo bars (a different recipe) but I found them kinda harsh. I would love to give these a whirl. Can you recommend a supplier for oils in the Calgary area? Fantastic blog..keep up the great work.
What kind of “harsh” were they? I’m curious about the ingredients and the superfat percentage, mostly. Anyhow, in Calgary you can visit Soap and More, down on 42nd Ave, just north of Chinook Centre, but they are grossly overpriced. I would seriously recommend ordering online. I get pretty much everything from http://newdirectionsaromatics.ca/.
Hey! I’m just beginning to dabble in homemade/diy projects, and recently made homemade shampoo. It wasn’t with lye, but I would love to learn more about lye and how to handle it safely (from what I know, it sounds intimidating!). Any advice as to where to start?
Thanks!!
Awesome, welcome to the DIY community 🙂 How did you make a shampoo bar without lye? Was it melt and pour? I’m just curious because you can’t make soap or shampoo without lye being involved at some point in the process.
It’s funny that you’re asking about safe lye handling as I have an entry that is partially about that coming out soon. Anyhow, the gist of it is:
Seriously, that’s it. If you’ve worked with bleach before and survived, you can work with lye. It’s not nearly as big of a deal as people make it out to be. Respect it, obviously, but you don’t have to be terrified of it like I was when I started. I’ve gotten raw soap splattered on me before, it just sort of itches, and then you wash it off. No big deal.
I had used castile soap and it was a liquid shampoo- it smells wonderfully as I also added loose tea into the mix- chamomile and lavender. I made homemade shampoo bars for the first time last night with lye! I think they turned out well, but I’m eagerly awaiting tonight to cut them. Another question- is there any way to make soap making more affordable? I’m a college kid, and would love to explore soap making, but it’s (so far) not the friendliest to my bank account! Thanks!
Yay for your first batch of homemade shampoo? How did it look once you’d cut it? As for keeping soaping cheap—the big #1 is starting with common ingredients that can be acquired at places like Costco. Olive oil and lard are easily available there, or watch for sales at your local grocery store. Otherwise, go online! Prices don’t get any lower than they do online. I get pretty much everything from New Directions Aromatics, where your can get RBD (refined, bleached, deodorized) coconut oil for ~$25/5L (it’s WAY more in the stores because they only sell food grade, and generally virgin as well). Staying away from le fancy pants ingredients will go a long way to keeping things nice and affordable 🙂
I think it turned out well when I cut it. My only concern is that because I didn’t have tallow or lard, I used more coconut butter with a bit of shea butter and crisco- it still seems really soft and greasy. I started to save fat leftovers from my family’s meats, but I’m still not sure how I feel about rubbing animal fat all over me!
Did you re-calculate the recipe when you changed which fats you were using? This is absolutely, totally necessary. If not there is a chance your bar could be caustic.
Otherwise, new soaps are always pretty soft and greasy when they are first cut. That’s why we age them 🙂 And you don’t have to save fat scraps from your dinners—in fact, I wouldn’t recommend it as they will have other flavorings (BBQ sauces and what not) and may be aromatic enough to carry through. Instead, source raw tallow from your butcher and render it yourself, or just buy pastry lard.
I love your site. I’m new to all of this kind of stuff, but i would love to try it. My hair over the years has got curly, was straight, now has a friz to it, and it want grow and no shine. I think it needs vitamins and lots of help. I’m a 42 year old do you have anything to offer me that will help my hair, tryed everything? Thanks!
Hi Rhonda—thanks for reading! My first suggestion would be to take a look at your diet, as what we eat has a big effect on our hair 🙂 After that, ditch the store bought hair stuff that’s loaded with silicone byproducts, artificial fragrances, and cancer-causing preservatives. Try some hair mist, hair balm, and hair serum for serious moisture infusions. Ditch heat treating, and switch to a wooden comb (no plastic seams to snag and break hair) and a boar bristle brush. Use natural shampoo bars and do an ACV rinse afterwards. Sleep on a satin pillowcase so your hair can slide instead of catching on a rougher pillowcase. For a big dose of moisture you can do a hot oil treatment as well (though I wouldn’t do them too often simply because it is a major pain to get all the oil out of your hair!). On a day when you are just planning on lazing about the house, massage a tablespoon or so of your favourite carrier oil into your hair (olive oil is fine). Let it sit in your hair I (you can wrap with a warm towel if you like) for a few hours before washing out—you will likely find that helps a great deal 🙂
Hope that helps! Let me know how it goes 🙂 If you’re interested in natural hair care you should read my blogs on my adventures in natural hair care: part 1, part 2, and part 3.
I’ve been following your site for a while, have tried almost everything, and love all your recipes.
The only ones I haven’t tried yet are for your handmade soap. I’m just a little wary about using lye, but I see so many awesome-looking recipes I’ve gotta take the plunge.
Sooo, where does one buy lye? Is it a common item at the grocery store? Or at the neightbourhood hardware store? On-Line?
Thanks for all!!
I buy my lye from either Home Hardwear (the only national chain I know of that sells it), Saffire Blue, Canwax, or Soap & More (only because I live in Calgary and it’s local). If you have a local soap making store you can usually get it there as well.
Be sure to check out my most recent blog on using lye. It should help with any nerves 😉
Thanks for reading and DIYing with me 🙂
I stumbled on your blog looking for diy shampoo bar recipes. Love it–thanks for all the helpful information!
Thanks for reading! Which bar are you going to try first?
I LOVE THIS! I definitely want to try this. I’ve just been using store bought shampoos, and recently they’ve been making my hair look horrific. I’m also trying to grow out my hair so the store shampoos aren’t really helping with that either! Anyway, I was wondering where I could get the lye and the beef tallow? Where I live we don’t have many places to by more natural type things. I was also wondering if the blackstrap molasses could be bought at a normal grocery store?
Thanks for reading, Gabby 🙂 I usually buy my lye online (Canwax and Saffire Blue stock it in Canada) as it can be hard to buy in stores as it’s apparently an ingredient in meth or something (thanks for that, drug industry). I have found it at Home Hardwear and my local soap supply shop, but that’s about it. For tallow, you’ll just need to go to your butcher and get some beef fat trimmings, and then render your own. You can also just use lard, which is often easier to get as it’s sold in bricks for making pastry.
Hi! Where did you get the soap mold I see you using on Instagram? Thanks!
My dad made it for me, Alyssa (he’s the best)! The inner measurements of my mold are 15″ long, 3.5″ across, and 3.5″ deep. I have a series of dividers that support the lid; they are 2.75″ high, giving the mold an effective depth of 2.75″ (the lid is 0.75″ thick). Each inch of the mold holds 100g/oils of soap; so the entire mold holds a 1500g of oils batch of soap. It’s also exactly as long as sheets of parchment are long, meaning it’s super easy to line as well. Basically, it’s the perfect size!
Thanks!!
🙂
What can I use to make shampoo/ conditioner? I wanna use ceaterly alchool it is emiollent and emulifier both.
i am using it in my hair oil with water but should i use pervesation while ceaterly is there?
I’m sorry, Adrienne, I’m not really sure what you’re asking. My shampoo bars are gentle and moisturizing enough that you do not need a conditioner—you just follow it up with an ACV rinse. Also, though cetearyl alcohol may be both emollient and an emulsifier, that is about all it does—I’d really encourage you to look at some other, whole oils and fats that have their vitamins and minerals in tact 🙂
Hello!
I really liked your tip, shampoo bars, but I did not have the right to give me more details.
I thank you.
Sorry, what? I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying here.
I just found your site in searching for shampoo bar recipes. Your molasses bars look wonderful. Thanks for posting the recipe. I was wondering if you could recommend a shampoo bar recipe for using goat’s milk, castor oil, jojoba oil, tallow, coconut oil, and with or with out olive oil. These are ingredients that I have on hand. In your opinion would they work well for a shampoo bar and approximately what percentages of each fat/oil would be best for normal hair? Also, are all shampoo bars alkaline? Or can a bar be made that is a bit acidic and therefore not need the ACV rinse? Thanks.
Hi Teresa! Thanks for reading 🙂 From your list of ingredients I would recommend that you make the majority of your recipe coconut oil, castor oil, tallow, and olive oil. Take a look at my all-in-one soap recipe for some proportions. You can use the jojoba instead of the shea butter 🙂 If you aren’t familiar with soap making I would leave the goats milk out until you’ve got some experience, as milks are tricky to work with as you don’t want them to curdle (ew).
I use my all-in-one soap recipe for soaping, shampooing, and shaving, and I consider my hair to be fairly normal, so I think you’ll be super happy if you follow that recipe 🙂
And yes, all soaps and shampoos are alkaline—their very fatty acid composition ensures it. It’s pretty hard for them to not be alkaline when you’re mixing your oils with lye, which has a pH of 12–14 (depending on dilution level)! A bar of soap or shampoo should have a final pH of 7–10.
Have fun and thanks for reading! 🙂
Hello Marie,
I found your blog late last week and I think it’s absolutely wonderful. This and your Lavender Patchouli soaps inspired my weekend doing. I’d love for you to see my soap and I’d like to send you a couple of bars one they’ve cured.
Hi Andrea! I’m so thrilled you found my little corner of the internet 🙂 I’d be thrilled to see & try your bars—how exciting & generous of you! What other DIY-ing have you got up to in the last few days? I’m currently working on an Edwardian-inspired skirt for a wedding, and I need to get going on some more Christmas themed soaps (eek! Already?!).
Hi Marie!
I was so excited to try my hand at making soap and shampoo bars after successfully making lip balm, body wash, lip balm, and various creams. I tried this recipe and it looked like it turned out nicely at first after everything was melted and mixed together. But the mixture has been sitting in a couple of old bread loaf pans for a week now and they’re not solidified. They’re straight up liquid. Any ideas why it hasn’t solidified yet? Maybe I screwed up somehow?
Hey Sarah—bummer! Can you walk me through exactly what you did? Hopefully that will help me figure out what might have gone wrong :/
Yeah definitely!
I melted my oils together on the stovetop, mixed together the lye and water, waited for them to come to around the same temperature (within 2 degrees), poured the lye into the oils, mixed them together with an immersion blender, then poured them into the old loaf tins. The only thing is that I didn’t have quite enough essential oils, I was short by about 20 grams total. Maybe that had something to do with it.
Ok… all of that sounds good. Are you 100% sure you achieved trace? Are you sure you used NaOH (and not KOH)? The lack of essential oils won’t effect it at all. Did you insulate your mold?
It definitely wasn’t super thick, but it was enough that it stuck to the back of a spatula. Yup, I used NAoH, I bought it here in Calgary at Soap and More. I covered them with a tea towel. Do you think that would be insulation enough? Or should I try a bigger towel?
Ok… hmmm. What type of mould are you using (basically, how insulating might the mould be?), and how warm/cool was the part of your house where you let it saponify? Did you check on the soap during the first four or six hours? Was it warm (the outside of the mould would have been noticeably warm)? Also, do you have anything to test the pH of your final soap liquid with?
Hi Marie,
Made my first batch of soap, thanks to your wonderful blog! I wasn’t nervous about the lye, it was getting the temperature of both the oils and the lye the same that was worrying me! Then I read your blog on how you let them both come to room temperature! Brilliant!
Today I’m going to make soap using green tea instead of water, and add some spirulina at trace. So exciting!
My daughter has excema on her leg so I hope that the homemade soap will help her.
The colours of your soap are so beautiful! I made a batch and added turmeric, but obviously not enough, as it turned brownish not the vibrant orange I was going for.
Thanks for sharing all your ideas,
Isabelle from Westbank BC
Fantastic! I’m thrilled to hear it 🙂 Your green tea & spirulina soap sounds wonderful—let me know how that one turns out. Be prepared for the tea to go all funny and gross looking when the lye is added—don’t worry, though, it’ll come out beautifully in the end. Have you read my article on natural ways to colour soap? Also, your daughter might like to give my eczema salve a try—it really helped my dad.
Well, the green tea did turn out a yucky brown, and the spirulina didn’t green up the way I had hoped. Oh well.
Today I made soap with coffee instead of water and it looked wonderful and creamy when I poured it into the mold. I sprinkled a bit of coffee on top.
So exciting!!!
I have noticed a white film on the soap that I’ve cut. Do you know what that is?
Thanks Marie.
Isabelle
For green you should definitely try out French Green Clay as well—it’s awesome! I have had good success with spirulina turning soap green—a very dark green, though.
Your coffee soap sounds fantastic! I love the dark colours of coffee and chocolate soaps 🙂
It sounds like your white film is probably just a bit of ash. No big deal.
Thanks for reading & have fun with all your awesome new soap!
Hi there! I’m very new to your blog but I am very excited to try some things out! I have heard that shampoo bars and hard water are not a good mix. Do you have any experience or advice on this? I have hard water and I am hesitant to try the shampoo bars because I am worried that it will leave a “film” on my hair.
Hi Larissa 🙂 Thanks for reading! I can say that I use nothing but shampoo bars on my hair, and that I have very hard water. I haven’t noticed much of a problem. My hair is very fine and I don’t notice that it is weighed down or adversely effected (nothing but benefits and happy hair after 2+ years). My comb can end up with a bit of gummy residue on it, but I generally chalk that up to hair oils and pillow lint. Hope that helps 🙂
Thank you so much for the quick reply! I’ll be trying out a shampoo bar recipe in the near future.
I can’t wait to hear how it goes for you 🙂
Hi Marie, I’m up to 4 batches of soap and am ready to try this one, was wondering, since the molasses has to be the same temperature as the soap do you thing it would work to add it to the lye mixture so I don’t have to get three things to the same temperature?
For this bar, you’ll want to let the water and the lye water come to room temperature before mixing everything. Then, when you have a light trace, it’s time to add the molasses. Warm it in the microwave until it’s thin enough that you can slowly drizzle it. Just that warm, though. If it sloshes or bubbles, it is too warm! You should be able to easily put your finger in it. It’ll be a bit warmer than the raw soap mixture, but not much. As you slowly drizzle it in it cools a bit as well. I’ve found this to be the best method. No hot molasses! I spoiled a big batch of this that way 🙁
Thank you for the advice! This is happening! 🙂
🙂
Is there no way to get around using lye? I would LOVE to make this for my friends and family, but I know many people who are allergic to lye. I’m quite sensitive to it as well. Is there nothing that can be used in place of lye?
So… no. There is no such thing as making soap without lye. I wrote a blog on it 🙂
Also… saying you are allergic to lye is like saying you are allergic to bleach or arsenic because you get sick/dye whenever you eat them. Of course you do. They are poisonous. Everybody would. It is highly unlikely you are actually allergic to lye (especially because there is no lye in finished bars of soap). I mean, how would you ever know? Unless you’ve been making soap or bathing in Draino, you’ve likely never been exposed to lye. Chances are it’s something like SLS in your soap that causes a reaction.
Anyhow, read the blog entry I linked to, and go through the comments as well—there’s some good stuff down there, too.
I was wondering if there is a basic “melt and pour” soap company you could recommend that would be comparable to your soap recipe. I would love to make soap and shampoo bars, without the worry of mixing lye.
I’m afraid I can’t be of much use here, Tina—it’s a little like asking a pastry chef for a cake mix recipe, I suppose (though I’d hardly call myself a pastry-chef level soaper!). You should definitely read my article on making soap with lye, and why it’s really not scary at all, though. I remember telling myself I would never make soap because lye was so risky and the whole process was so ridiculously involved, but now I can’t imagine ever buying a bar of soap again. You should definitely give it a go, I promise you’ll love it 🙂
I feel like I keep bothering you. But I have to ask. Is there a reason for using walnut oil? Or can you substitute it or any carrier oil?
No worries 🙂 In this recipe I likely used walnut oil because I had it on hand, haha. At 10% it is my “fancy” oil for the recipe, so avocado oil, shea butter, or cocoa butter would all be good replacements.
I treated my hair with coconut oil yesterday. It was quite an effort to wash it out with L’Occitane shampoo. I’d like to move from L’Occitane as they’re very expensive and I feel I’m ready to try your recipe. However, would your shampoo wash out coconut oil?
Hi Danka! I’ve had an experience quite close to yours 🙂 When I first switched to all natural shampoos I did an oil treatment (no small feat with all my hair), and holy WOW did that take a LONG time to wash out. Loads of my shampoo bar and a good 20 minutes scrubbing away at my head. This isn’t the fault of the shampoo, though—it’s just about what we’re used to. If you’ve been using standard storebought shampoo for most of your life, you’re used to crazy strong shampoo. Shampoo that’s way too strong for your hair, really—it’s really just detergent that strips your hair totally bare. That would take out the coconut oil, but it’s also what necessitates the coconut oil in the first place.
When you move to more gentle shampoos, like this one, you don’t need to do oil treatments (except for perhaps your ends, but they’ll actually absorb a small amount of oil so you don’t have to worry about washing it out). This shampoo helps your hair hold on to its natural oils & moisture so you don’t have to replenish them (closer to the scalp, at least).
But yes, in the end, this shampoo bar will wash out all oils, but you may need two or three full sudsing if you have very thick hair and have applied a lot of oil to it.
Hi. I love your blog. In fact, it is your blog that inspired me to make soap for my organic chemistry project and my entire class loved the presentation (and the wonderful handmade soap). Since then I’ve been really wanting to try shampoo bars (since I also read your posts on natural hair care).
In this post, you mentioned that this particular bar is good for brunettes. Is it due to the molasses? I have black, Asian hair so I am confused as to whether or not I should add the molasses or if it even matters.
Thanks 🙂
Hi Sarah! I’m so glad I inspired you soap it up for organic chem 🙂 The molasses is basically good for dark hair, which is mostly because it’s so dark—it might stain very light hair. With your dark hair you should be totally ok to use it 🙂
Hello Marie! I am looking for a great shampoo bar, and I think I just found it! Can this be done hot process? I’m assuming I can just add the molasses at trace then cook away, correct? Also, Vanilla EO can be a bit pricey- do you think vanilla extract could sub? (at same amount of 5g?) I’m not really concerned about the alcohol content, as I suspect it will mostly “cook” off.
Hi Sabrina! I don’t hot process, so I can’t say for sure. My only hesitation would be from the molasses. I find I have to soap at room temperature with this recipe, slowly drizzling in the molasses, and keeping everything quite cool to keep the batch from curdling. I have curdled warmer batches, so I’d be worried that would happen with a proper hot batch.
Please, please don’t use vanilla extract in your body stuffs—you’ll just waste it 🙁 It’s formulated for taste, not scent (and especially not standing up to saponification), and every reader who has tried it has reported wretched results—bubbles of alcohol in the soap and no scent. I’d recommend using benzoin essential oil instead—it’s vanilla like, but quite a bit cheaper.
I know I’m a bit late but I’ll say this in case anyone wants the info. Almost any cold process recipe can be hot processed, but you will not be able to do complex swirls and the soap will come out rustic looking. The additives (molasses, specialty oil superfat, eos or other stuff) would be added to the soap after the cook, this way the additive won’t have to survive saponification for the most part thus preserving their integrity.
Thanks, Lily!
You know a recipe is good when there are this many :)’s throughout the comments. Cant say Ive ever made my own bar though.
Marie can you get back to me about maybe shipping me a sample of a bar when you make a batch?
Hi Kate! Sorry, but I don’t send or sell anything anywhere—I flat out don’t have the time. I’d rather encourage people to make it themselves than fuss with the post office 😛
Hi Marie… You’ve inspired me to finally try making soap and I’ve made two of your recipes with great results, I made the basic soap and the All in one bar… They are curing now and I’m anxiously waiting to try them out. I also tried this recipe and it didn’t work out… when I checked it after 24 hours it was still a little soft and when I touched it a tiny bit of oil surfaced. I had let the oils and the lye reach room temperature and then mixed them and once it reached trace I added the molasses mixture. Any idea why it didn’t harden?
Hmm. My first thought would be the potential of a false trace—are you 100% certain you achieved true trace? Did you insulate your mould? Does the soap pass the zap test?
I’m pretty certain it reached trace, I did insulate the soap really well and it did pass the zap test but it has an oily feel… maybe it’s a simple as me measuring wrong? I’m going to try it again today.
I figured out what happened… well, kinda. I reentered everything in the lye calculator and the lye amount was different. I’m not sure how because I had the 7% super fat and all the oils were the same in both but the lye amount was too low on the first recipe. I’m sure it’ll work this time. Only real loss was all the expensive grocery store essential oils I wasted the first time because I was too impatient to wait for my order to be delivered. Boo!
Thanks!
Ahh, that would do it 🙁 Darn! You could try re-batching your first go if you know how much extra lye you’d need to add, or you can let it age up and have a very gentle shampoo 😉 Just be sure to use it relatively quickly, as soaps with a very high superfat can go rancid.
Hmm. Well, as long as it passes the zap test, I’d let it age up anyways and see what you think 🙂
I am so excited to try my hand at shampoo bars! Or even more excited to switch my hair to natural shampoo! This recipe sounds great but i am a blonde and so i’m wondering if i can go ahead and leave out the molassas or if you know of anything i can substitue? Do clays work well in shampoo bars?
Hi Alli! Yes, you can definitely leave out the molasses, or even try one of my other shampoo recipes 🙂 A bit of honey (not an equal amount as it has much more sugar) would be a good alternative to the molasses in this recipe, but if you’re new to soap making I don’t recommend it as honey can be quite tricky to work with and can ruin a batch of soap in an instant. Thanks for reading!
Hi Marie, I was wondering how your molasses shampoo bar came out so dark. I love that rich, deep brown color! And yes, molasses is excellent for hair! They say if you eat a big ole spoonful everyday, it helps keep your dark hair from turning grey! Thanks for sharing your great ideas.
Hi Beth! It’s the molasses that makes it so dark—I use blackstrap 🙂
Hi Mary,
Just have a little question for you. I made a couple of your soaps and these are my favorites:) Thé question: why do I have to let everything come to room temperature? Is it because of the molasse? Can’t want to try these shampoo bars:)
thanks!
Kim
Hi Kim! I prefer to soap at room temperature as it’s so much easier than juggling temperatures to try and get them to match, but for this recipe you really do need to because of the molasses 🙂
Thanks for your answer! I’ll give a shot at this soap recipe tomorrow:)
🙂
hi Marie, would it be ok to use fancy molasses instead of blackstrap? thanks.
Hi Mai! I wouldn’t recommend it as fancy contains much more sugar than blackstrap, which will heat up your soap batter quite a lot and can cause it to curdle.
Hello I hope you can help. I thought I ordered some coconut oil but instead it says coconut butter. I can’t find much information about coconut butter. What I nave found is that it’s the same and that it’s not the same thing. Please help can I use this stuff to make cold process soap? If so is it calculated the same? Thanks!
Hi Jennifer! Where did you order it from? Do you have a product page you can link me to?
Did you use cinnamon leaf or bark EO?
Bark 🙂
May I also inquire whether you used clove leaf eo or clove bud eo? The place where I buy my supplies has both and I’m not exactly sure which one you use.
Clove bud 🙂
Thanks a lot. I’m thinking of changing the eos to vanilla and bitter almond (without the Prussic acid of course), only concern is that it will likely smell good enough to eat.
I’ve found the flavour usually kills my desire to eat my soaps haha ;P You only try once! Maybe twice…
Hi Marie! Over a year ago I stumbled over you “dead sea mud soap” on Pinterest. And ever since I am sold to making soap! By now I teach others how to making soap bars.
But I have a questions for the shampoo soap bar: When using some in the past my hair would not have any shine to it and after the second use it would feel very greasy . Did I super fat it too high? Or do I just have to get used to a less harsh shampoo? (Btw.. I don’t remember exactly which recipe I tried, so it is unrelated to the Molasses Soap Bar ) Not sure how to get a smooth transition here…I now realise you always use a rinse afterwards, so I have to experiment with that a bit but I don’t think this is the entire solution here.
Secondly I am attempting to make liquid soap. In Europe we don’t have any foam making bottles, so the soap has to be thick if you don’t want to end up with soap on your clothe. One solution seems to be the 50/50 lye mix to make whipped soap, right?
Just using less water would not be enough. Is there any additive that would help with the consistency? Thank you !
Ps: I and my friends love the Houdini Anti Acne Cream! What an amazing surprise! Thanks for sharing your recipes freely.
Hey Bianca! Thanks so much for reading & DIYing with me 🙂
Have you read my assorted articles about transitioning to natural hair care? There’s quite a few of them and they might offer some general insight. This FAQ article might also be helpful.
I don’t use foaming bottles and haven’t found my liquid soap to be too thin to pump out (how do you end up with it on your clothes? Perhaps I am missing the point.). Do you need something with the consistency of stiff mashed potatoes pre-soak? That’s what you’ll get if you use the 50/50 NaOH/KOH recipe. I honestly don’t think you’d be able to pump it up at all unless you added a TON of water, and then what’s the point of faffing with two types of lye? Just use straight KOH.
I’m glad you’re loving the Houdini cream 🙂
Hi Marie!
This is the first soap I made by you (I’ve made many by now) and I just wanted to let you know how much you have inspired me 🙂 thank you!
Aww, thank you so much, Jennifer 🙂
Hey Marie,
I’m a bit concerned regarding the dilution percentage of cinnamon bark and clove bud EOs. Tisserand and Young recommend a dermal maximum of 0.07% for the bark oil and 0.5% for cinnamon, while your recipe is 2% of bark oil and 1% of cinnamon. I was wondering if you ever experienced any irritation or sensitivity after using this shampoo bar?
Soaping is a bit of an oddity when it comes to EOs; most CP soaps use a lot more EO than is recommended for other applications. Between saponification and aging, EOs added to CP soap get beaten up quite a lot, and greatly dissipate. The saponification reaction is both high heat and high pH, and during weeks and months of aging, a lot of the EOs evaporate off as they are quite volatile. So, while it’s impossible to say how much remains in the final soap, it’s definitely not the amount you start with. Additionally, soap is a rinse-off product, and rinse off products typically have higher allowances than leave-on ingredients. And no, this shampoo bar has never been irritating 🙂
Cool! And thanks for a fast reply 😀
hi marie,
i am so wanting to try shampoo bars but on a soap making forum they really put the fear of shampoo bars in me. 😉 i know someone asked you previously and you said even with hard water you haven’t had any problems with them damaging your hair. is that still true now a few years later?
i had planned my first bar of homemade soap to be a shampoo bar but i’ve been hesitating. i now have all the equipment to make soap, and the weather isn’t crazy humid, so i am hopefully going to start soaping soon. i can’t wait! thanks in advance.
Hey Linda! Yup, my hair still fairs well with shampoo bars and hard water, even after ~5.5 years. I do know that shampoo bars don’t work for everybody, but my hair is happy with them 🙂 Just make sure you are pH correcting afterwards with an acidic rinse! And always remember that you can use CP shampoo as normal soap if your hair doesn’t like it, so go ahead and make those bars!
That’s great to hear! Thanks Marie for the reminder I can always use the bars anyway. I already use an ACV rinse with my hard water & love it–it makes my hair so much softer. Appreciate all your advice & experience. Okay, I’m going to finally make soap soon. 🙂
Yay! Happy making! 😀
Hy, Marie! What is the difference between a soap bar and a shampoo bar? only the amount of castor oil? thank you
In cold processed soap, yes, that’s the main difference—though there’s really no reason you can’t wash your hair with a cold processed bar that uses less castor oil. I’ve done it for years!
Hi Marie! I’ve been reading your blog for years and am finally going to try making this soap. I wanted to double check, because I’ve read so many different posts and have now started second guessing myself , if I can leave out the cinnamon Bark EO altogether? Or would I need to replace it with something else to keep the proportions the same? I feel like it’s in here mostly for scent (but maybe it’s not) so I didn’t really think I’d need to replace it with something but I don’t know if it’ll affect the liquid amounts. I tried looking at the substitutions page but that seems to be mostly about replacing for properties not necessarily scents. Again I’m just confusing myself probably unnecessarily lol
Hey Jill! Yes, you can leave the EOs out of this soap, or any other. I would recommend, however, if this is your first soap, not making this recipe; it’s a bit tricky with the molasses as it can curdle, which is sad 🙁 I’d recommend my All in One bars for beginners 🙂
I have 2 question I hope you can help me with. I have made several different shampoo bar recipes. I’m trying to make a liquid shampoo now. 1) if I make a cp shampoo bar and let it cure, can I then grate it and mix with water to make a liquid shampoo? 2) if I make a hp shampoo bar and after it’s done (cooked), add water to crockpot and let it sit overnight to make liquid shampoo. Are either of these 2 options doable and would I have to add something else to it besides water?
Thanks
Hey Cindy! My experiences trying to dissolve NaOH soap into water have mostly resulted in slimy, boogery blobby masses. I don’t recommend it 🙁
I have been reading so many of recipes and using the soap calc that I have a few questions. 1. When making a shampoo bar what percent are you looking for, for cleansing? 2. When making a recipe for conditioning bar, what percent are you looking for in the cleansing and conditioning area? 3. What is a good hardness level when making any soap? 4. The creamy area, what does that actually mean, cause you have hardness which is how hard your bar is going to be but then you have creamy is that the lather creamy or what exactly does that mean? Thank you so much, I enjoy reading all your articles!
Hi Brandi,
Holy smokes! We’ve all come a long way since 2012 when making cp soap for the hair was all the rage! Marie was one of the lucky ones where her hair loved cp soap. Mine, I just never could make it work! In all honesty, I would suggest forgoing the cp soap for the hair and make a more syndent bar which I find work so much better for the hair for both short term and long term use. I’ve linked the formula here.
As for soap making, those numbers listed for the final product don’t tell the whole story even when making a regular bar of soap. They are guidelines. If you want a super duper hard bar of soap, adding even a teaspoon of salt to your liquid can make a huge differnce. Adding clay changes your lather, bubbles, and creamy texture. It is all trail and error- and understanding all ingredients are not created equal. Your coconut oil you buy in say Texas will not have the same values as the coconut oil you would by in China or Europe. It all comes down to trail and error, and lots and lots of experimenting to find a formula that works!
Sorry I cannot give you a better answer! Happy making!
Barb
Do you do any water discount? How much water to lye in percentage do you like to stick to?
Unless otherwise noted I use the default setting in SoapCalc (38%). Happy making!