Sunday, April 4, 2010

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.

14 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing this recipe. It seems so good that I'm going to try it!

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  2. Heidi, I hope you like it. Let me know. I love to get feedback on the recipes from users so that I can tweak them. But I can tell you that my daughter's hair that is quite damaged from precessing is now looking very shiny. BTW, I did make a salt soap the other day using a slightly different recipe than you. I'm really looking forward to trying it out when it is ready.

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  3. Thank you for this recipe .. i love it

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  4. I appreciate your detailing of the procedure very clearly, though it has not been in your tradition.

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  5. though it has not been in your tradition.




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  6. how much did you superfat it at? please please pleeease reply :)))

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  7. Here are the details from soapcalc (which I always use).
    I'm sorry I didn't put in the oz like I usually, so I've added that info to the post.

    Water as percent of oil weight 35 %
    Super Fat/Discount 3 %
    Lye Concentration 29.179 %
    Water : Lye Ratio 2.427:1

    HOpe it helps and that you like it as much as I do. Just be aware that this is great for dry and processed hair (in my opinion), but too conditioning for oily hair. For that I like (love actually) the Rosemary and the Lemony bars.

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  8. first of all THANK YOU for answering :)
    second - only 3% superfatting? really? I though maybe 5%, but if you love it then it must be good then :)

    my hair is dyed black..I have done so much too it in the past year but it's ok..so my hair can be dry but really oily after 2-3 days...
    also the past bars I made have made my hair all greasy and stringy looking :/

    would you recomment me this bar or wich one? I appreciate it :)

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  9. or maybe I just cut out the sunflower oil? I would really love it if your could recommend me one, that will not leave my hair greasy or just weird :))

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  10. Jay, The first few times I used hair soap my hair felt very greasy very quickly. Then it started to behave. It seems that it somehow needs to adjust to the change in product. Also, I never, ever use conditioner with my shampoo bars because then my hair gets very, very greasy. My daughter had very processed hair (after repeatedly dying her long hair pink) and she really loved this shampoo bar. My hair is not dyed and tends to be more greasy so the Rosemary shampoo bar is my favorite. Also you might look for argan oil and use that (maybe along with come coconut oil) as a conditoner at the ends.

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  11. Hi. i was wondering if we can use the same recipe to make liquid soap. This way we might end up with shampoo rather than a bar , which i prefer more. What do you think?

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  12. For liquid soap you need a different soda: Potassium hydroxide and the process is different. I've experimented with diluting cold process soap, but the result is lumpy and not very attractive in the long run.

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  13. Could this recipe be used in Hot Process? If yes, when would the egg be added?

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    Replies
    1. I really don't know. I would think the egg would need to be emulsified into the soap, just as for CP and then heated. But you would have to try to see if it works as HP.

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