Small batch Homeade Shampoo bars

I used to be afraid to make soap....used to. Now that I have done it and see how easy and cost effective it is, I love making soap. I recently tried my hand at making shampoo bars. My goal was to make something akin to the shampoo bars that a popular store called lush makes called "new". It is one of my favorite shampoos because of how different it is, it smells of cinnamon and is perfect for helping with thinning hair that is a common problem for everyone the older we get. The herbs in it are said to stimulate follicle growth, but is the price worth the punch? Yes it is but I can think of so many other things to spend 10$ on than one bar of shampoo....and why have one when I can have eight?  My recipe is not a copycat of the infamous bar shampoos but a mimic, I think it smells somewhat like Christmas....or what it should smell like.

Before you dive into making your own shampoo bars though, you need to take the time to learn the process and be certain of the safety  precautions that come with using lye. I mix my lye outside in my glass measuring cup. You can watch a video on lye safety here.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adCWVeCnMb0

I make my bar in a crockpot. It is one of the small crockpots that they usually have at Christmas time for around ten dollars.  This makes for easy cleanup and If you like you could probably let you soap set up in the crock and slice it into triangles. Me, I like cheap and simple so I let mine mold in an old clean pringles can....yeah pringles.  the can is round and long and the perfect size for a small batch of soap.  After the soap has cooled for twenty four hours you simple cut the can and start peeling the wrapper back until you unwrap the lovely log of cinnamon scented goodness.

Here is a great video on the hot process soap making in a crockpot.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f87XTLlV_dY   Although you can use just olive oil or just coconut oil, I choose to make mine with beef tallow. It creates a harder bar and lowers the initial investment cost of making soaps since you are already going to be getting fat when you order most larger beef cuts (Most of ours comes from the brisket).  Here is a video on how to render the beef fat into the usable white substance called tallow.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlHagpaONbk

The process are super easy and just takes a little patience. Now you don't need fancy equipment like the blending stick used in most of these videos. I use a simple wooden spoon with soap written on the handle in sharpie...we don't want that one stirring our macaroni and cheese.


The recipe is as follows

2 oz olive oil (I had rosemary sprigs soaking in my oil to make it smell better)
6 oz coconut oil
8 oz tallow
2.144 oz lye
6 oz water (I use rainwater to keep my bars as nice as possible)

now you could use just this part of the recipe to make a plain soap with no scent but I like mine to smell, you could also change the amounts of scented oils to change how it smells to suit your own liking.

scent mixture
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (also used as a natural colorant)
.125 fl oz spearmint oil
3 drops eucalyptus oil
.25 fl oz cinnamon oil

this recipe will yield about 8 bars if you follow in my footsteps and make it in a pringles can. You want to slice the soap within a day of making the soap so that it is easy to slice and let the cure (harden) on a shelf where they can get air all around the bars. The longer you let them cure the more suds the bars will make when you go to use them. Granted they will never make as much suds as a store bought shampoo full of chemical latherers. Remember the more HOMEmade it is the better it is for you and for your wallet.