The Leaping Bunny Blind Spot in Shampoo Bars
Look at the bottom corner of almost any shampoo bar wrapper in the clean beauty aisle and you'll probably spot it: a small leaping rabbit. It's become one...
All essays, page 14 of 106
Shampoo bar manufacturing, page 14
Process notes, formulation choices, quality checks, and packaging thinking for solid hair-care products.
What are the best essential oils for shampoo bar scent retention?
When you are formulating a shampoo bar and want the scent to survive curing, rinsing, and storage, the essential oil blend matters more than the total...
Your Shampoo Bar Base Isn't Done Changing When You Think It Is
Spend an afternoon reading about shampoo bar formulation and you'll run into the same argument over and over: soap-based versus syndet. Which lathers...
Your Shampoo Bar Probably Isn’t Soap
After years on the production floor, I’ve learned that most shampoo bar makers are worried about the wrong things. They’re testing for hardness, tweaking...
How to make transparent shampoo bars?
Transparent shampoo bars are not made like regular cold-process soap. Traditional lye-based soap tends to be opaque and has a high pH that can damage hair....
SCI Is Not One Ingredient
Ask ten formulators what makes a shampoo bar work, and nine of them will point to sodium cocoyl isethionate. They'll describe it as a single, well-behaved...
The Cocoa Butter Crystal Trap
Let me tell you about a batch of syndet shampoo bars I once reviewed for a client. They poured beautifully, cooled smooth, and passed every initial QC...
The Cocoa Butter Problem Nobody's Talking About
Walk through any soap fair or scroll through a handful of Etsy shops selling shampoo bars, and you'll run into the same line over and over: "enriched with...
What natural preservatives work in shampoo bars?
Not every shampoo bar requires a preservative. A true soap-based shampoo bar made with lye and oils has a high pH and very low water activity, so it is...
Why Your Curly Hair Shampoo Bar Isn't Working (And What Would Actually Fix It)
You finally decided to try a shampoo bar. Maybe it was the plastic-free packaging, maybe a friend swore by one, maybe you just got tired of bottles piling...