Cold Process Shampoo Bars: The pH Trap
Every few months, someone sends me a photo of a stunning cold process shampoo bar-swirled with indigo, scented with bergamot, wrapped in recycled paper-and...
All essays, page 25 of 106
Shampoo bar manufacturing, page 25
Process notes, formulation choices, quality checks, and packaging thinking for solid hair-care products.
How to make shampoo bars with surfactants like SCI?
Making a shampoo bar with a surfactant like sodium cocoyl isethionate (SCI) is a very different process from making cold-process soap. SCI lets you create a...
Rosemary Shampoo Bars, Without the Folklore: A Formulator’s Guide to What Actually Works
Rosemary has been tied to hair care for centuries, which is exactly why it is so often misunderstood in modern shampoo bars. In workshops, supplier catalogs,...
Shea Butter's Real Job in Shampoo Bars
If you ask a room full of formulators why they put shea butter in a solid shampoo bar, most of them will say something about moisture. That answer sounds...
The Shea Butter Paradox in Shampoo Bars
Every shampoo bar tutorial, product description, and Pinterest board says the same thing about shea butter: it's a moisturizing powerhouse, so more must be...
What a Butterfly Shampoo Bar Mold Teaches You About Formulation
A butterfly shampoo bar mold can look like a simple design choice, but in production it tells you far more than whether a bar is attractive on a shelf. It...
What is the difference between syndet and soap-based shampoo bars?
The core difference is chemistry. A soap-based shampoo bar is true soap, made by saponifying oils with an alkali. A syndet shampoo bar is made from...
Your Shampoo and Conditioner Bars Might Be Fighting Each Other
Here's a scenario that plays out in bathrooms everywhere: someone buys a matching shampoo and conditioner bar set, excited to finally ditch the plastic...
Coconut Oil in Shampoo Bars: Why the Percentage Matters Less Than the Formula Around It
One of the most common questions I hear from shampoo bar makers is simple on the surface: How much coconut oil should go into a shampoo bar? It sounds like a...
How to make shampoo bars with exfoliating properties?
Exfoliating shampoo bars combine a gentle surfactant base with physical scrub particles to remove product buildup, flakes, and dead skin cells from the...