Honey and Hemp Shampoo Bar Recipe

Honey and Hemp Shampoo Bar Recipe

by Jan Berry from The Nerdy Farm Wife

This dual purpose bar includes plenty of hemp oil for a moisturizing, silky lather and jojoba oil, which is excellent at conditioning both hair and skin.

Ingredients

Oil Portion:

• 15.5 ounces Olive Oil
• 7.5 ounces Coconut Oil
• 4.5 ounces Hemp Oil
• 2 ounces Castor Oil

Liquid & Lye Portion:

• 10 ounces distilled water
• 4.1 ounces lye

Add at trace: (she explains what trace is in the book)

• .5 ounce Jojaba Oil
• 1 tablespoon raw honey

If you’ve never made homemade soap before, thoroughly research the process first. You can find detailed steps with photos in my ebook, Cold Process Basics & Recipes.

Directions

1. While wearing proper safety gear – gloves, goggles, and long sleeves ­ weigh ten ounces of distilled water into a heat proof plastic or stainless steel container.
2. Next, weigh out 4.1 ounces of sodium hydroxide (lye) into a small container and carefully pour into the water. Stir with a heavy duty rubber or silicone spatula until dissolved. The mixture will get hot, very fast, so be careful. Turn your head away to avoid directly breathing in the fumes. I like to work in my kitchen sink, so that any spills can be safely contained.
3. Allow your lye to cool to around 90 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
4. While the lye solution is cooling, weigh out your oils in an enamel or stainless steel pot, dedicated to soap making. (Never use aluminum when making soap as it can react badly with the lye.) Set the pan over a low burner and heat them up to around 90 to 110 degrees as well.
5. At this time, make sure that your mold is prepared and ready. This batch is sized to fill around a three pound soap mold. If you don’t have one on hand, you can use a glass bread pan, but make sure you line it with parchment paper so it won’t stick.
6. Once your lye and oils are somewhere around the same range (they don’t have to be exact and can be ten to twenty degrees different), pour the lye into the oil.
7. Using an immersion (stick) blender, start combining the two mixtures. Work in short spurts of 20 to 30 seconds blending, then 20 seconds stirring with the power off. If you run the the stick blender non­-stop, you risk burning the motor up or causing multiple air pockets in your soap.
8. Once your soap thickens, or reaches trace, stir in the .5 ounce jojoba oil and 1 tablespoon honey.
9. When it’s incorporated, pour your raw soap batter into your prepared mold.
10. I leave the mold uncovered when I make this soap, since honey tends to overheat when insulated.
11. After the soap has been in the mold for 24 to 48 hours, you’re ready to unmold and slice into bars!
12. Allow your bars of soap to cure in the open air for four to six weeks. This time allows excess moisture to evaporate, creating a harder and longer lasting bar.

Are you interested in learning about how to make your own natural, herb infused, delightful soaps in your very own home?

Check out my review of Jan’s book Cold Process Basics & Recipes on Natural Living Mamma blog. It is a book I highly recommend having for anyone interested in making their own natural cold process soaps at home with herbs, essential oils, clays, and other good stuff.