Shampoo Bar Recipe

Cleansing Coconut Shampoo Bar

• 33 oz Coconut Oil

• 12.54 oz Distilled Water

• 5.44 oz Lye

Moisturizing Calendula Shampoo Bar

• 23 oz Coconut Oil

• 10 oz Calendula Infused Jojoba Oil

• 4.31 oz Lye

• 9.63 oz Distilled Water

Equipment Needed

• Croc pot

• Safety googles or face shield

• N95 Mask or other Respirator

• Protective Gloves

• Non reactive metal spoon

• Glass Pyrex bowl 

• Pyrex measuring cup (to pour measured lye into water)

• Cooking scale accurate to .01 

• Immersion blender

• Lemon juice

• Soap mold or glass loaf pan

• Knife to cut soap

Process

1. Add oils to the croc pot on low and let the coconut oil start to melt. 

2. Measure out water and lye separately. Water into the glass Pyrex bowl, and lye into the glass measuring cup. DO NOT COMBINE YET.

3. Put on safety goggles, mask, and gloves and go outside with your still separated lye and water. Bring your meatal spoon. You MUST be in a well-ventilated area with proper PPE for this. You don’t want to breathe in the vapors or get the lye on any part of you. 

4. Make sure you pour lye into water DO NOT pour water into lye as that risks splashing and spilling.

5. Stir until the lye is fully dissolved in the water and it turns clear (5-10 mins). 

6. Once the lye/water combo is clear and no longer fizzing with visible vapors coming off of it, it’s safe to bring it inside.

7. Carefully pour it into the croc pot with the oil. You still don’t want to get it on your skin at this point it will burn. 

8. Give everything a stir and let it cook covered for 45 mins to an hour, stirring every 15 mins or so. The soap will wave up on the walls of the croc pot. Mix it down and back in as needed. 

9. During that first 15-minute wait, wash all your tools. Splash some lemon juice on them to ensure you thoroughly neutralize the lye before you put them back to work in your kitchen.

10. You know when the soap is done cooking (lye and fat have converted to soap) because it passes the tongue zap test. This sounds scary at first. Take a little bit of soap out of the croc pot with a metal spoon and let it cool. Touch it with your finger. It should just feel like soap and not burn. If it passes that test touch it to your tongue. It should just taste like icky soap and not make a zap feeling (you can have a little lemon juice on hand to cool it out if you want to). *See Note

11. Pour fully cooked soap into your mold or a loaf pan and wait for it to set (an hour for coconut 24-26 hours for calendula). Don’t wait on the coconut, or it will become so hard that it will be impossible to cut. 

12. Remove soap loaf from the mold and slice into 1 inch thick pieces. 

13. Put on a cookie sheet and let cure. Coconut is ready in a day or two, Calendula takes about 3 weeks. You can cheat and use it early it’s just not quite as hard like a bar of soap. 

*Note

If the tongue zap method freaks you out, I’m SURE there is a way to use a Ph strip and some Googling will tell you what the correct PH should be. I was taught this down home way and it’s worked well for me for many years. If you figure out a more scientific PH method let me know! I’d gladly add that info here.

I use these bars for hair and body! It took my hair about two weeks to detox from commercial shampoo and adjust to a more natural state.