Egg shampoo

What could be more appropriate for Easter than egg shampoo soap?

This has become my favorite shampoo bar.  It came about when I was baking meringues with my daughter as a preparation for her wedding this summer.  All these egg yolks and what to do with them?

First I had decided to make coffee ice cream.   I love coffee ice cream and it can't be bought in stores here so I have occasionally made it for Christmas.

Just for me, the family hates it, thankfully!
But this time, for some reason, I got the idea that maybe I could use them in soap.  When I was a little girl I remember this egg shampoo, on the bottle it had said it contained egg yolks.  All those household remedies for split and dry and lackluster hair using egg yolks directly or even mayonnaise.  I mean that really is just egg yolks and oils.  So why not try it?  Of course I did what I alway do to check out my ideas, I Googled it and lo and behold!  Someone had thought of it already and it seemed to work!

So I started to make up a recipe.  I use Soapcalc's lye calculator for all my recipes.  Their website is really good for all sorts of instructions about soap making.  I had been using coconut milk in a facial soap and I thought that could go well with the eggs.  And Beer.  Beer is used as a hair rinse by people who can be bothered.  And honey,  I had used that in one shampoo recipe already and that looked promising.

So now I had the recipe in my head and started to put it into the calculator.  I try out the different oil combination and see what they do in the composition of the soap on Soapcalc.

The recipe that I used turned out to be:
Olive oil         45% / 315 g. / 11.1 oz.
Coconut oil    30% / 210 g. / 7.4 oz
Castor oil       15% / 105 g. / 3.7 oz
Sunflower      10% / 70 g. / 2.5 oz

Liquid            245 g. / 8.64 oz
Lye                100 g.  / 3.5 oz  *Do please check all recipes with a lye calculator, just to be sure!
Egg yolks          2
Honey               1 tsp.

This makes out to be 3% superfatted.

I started out by adding the Sunflower oil to the egg yolks by slowly pouring it in while whisking it with a fork.  Then added lye to the liquid.

I did 50/50 Coconut milk and beer first as I had planned.  Do NOT do that.  It curdled and looked truly awful so I threw it out and used only beer.  Then I added the honey and stirred until it dissolved.  This turned a bright orange-y red which made me really excited, but it didn't last, alas.   Lastly I measured the oils and melted them.  I usually only melt the Coconut oil with the major oils like Olive or Sunflower or Soya.  This time I added the Castor oil after the others had cooled a bit.  After mixing the lye and oils I stirred in the egg yolk mixture and the soap turned a beautiful bright yellow, but again it didn't last.  I used a lined wooden log mold and poured the soap.

The result is a very good shampoo bar.  It is very conditioning and made my daughter's brittle dry hair feel exceptionally smooth.  I like it because it makes my hair light and full of volume.  My husband also used it and liked it.  So much so that I think he has stopped using his rather expensive favorite shampoo!  The soap turned out to take on a brown hue that looks a lot like beer.  It smells slightly of honey, which I really like.  I have given it to my sister (the grumpy older one) and my mother and am waiting for feedback from them.

The photo: Honey, egg yolks and beer in a shampoo bar.  I think it's one of the best conditioning shampoo bars. My bowl is marked U.S.Q.M.C W-431-QM-4808 (Q.I 6059) April 26,1941 - it probably originates from the Air force base in Keflavik. It's one of my G.S. finds for 200kr.  There is just a glimpse of my Slovakian wooden comb, which I love and don't know why I didn't buy two or more.