Amla Power – DIY Spicy Shampoo

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Hello there! 🙂

Instead of applying my brain into formulating some miraculous anti-gravity cream or the final self-styling hair product…  I simply decided to formulate MY NEW SHAMPOO!

Oh Yes!

This shampoo was formulated thinking of the little increasing in hair loss which occurs during autumn time (at least for me). I didn’t add any high-tech-hair-growth-stimulating-ingredient (I am not even sure such ingredients even exist) on the contrary, I opted for a very easy “trick”: I decided to use the property of some essential oils in stimulating blood circulation once applied to the scalp! 😀
This is all!

There is still one PRINCE INGREDIENT in this Shampoo: I have added AMLA POWDER! 😀
I had bought this amla powder in India, but I believe it is also easily found online.
In India Amla is believed to have an extreme number of properties: apparently it is supposed to improve hair growth, strengthens the hair follicles, keeps the dandruff away and straightens your hair too! Oh wait! It should also prevent split ends, hair loss, graying of the hair and it should nourish the hair as well!?
PHEWWW!
I wrote it all! 😀

*sip of water*

Ok! If you know me a little bit… you might have guessed that I don’t actually blindly believe AMLA will do all the things listed above, at least not in a miraculous way, but since the history of the ingredient is good and a little promising I thought I would add it for THE POETIC EFFECT 🙂

One note though on the formulation issues for adding powders to a formulation like a shampoo: unless the viscosity of the shampoo is extremely high, the powders will deposit to the bottom of it (maybe in a day or a week or few weeks, but they will eventually!). Adding powders to a formulation is also hazardous to its stability, also it would be adviseable to use the higher percentage of the preserving system as well as adding some antioxidant.
The formulation that follows is fine for a relatively small batch (100 grams used immediately), but I truly DO NOT BELIEVE it would survive a stability test.

Enough words now, let’s get to the recipe! 😀

AMLA POWER – SPICY SHAMPOO RECIPE: 

Phase A: 
Water to 100 (explanation HERE)
Amla Powder 0.2
Glycerin 3 
Inulin 1 
Hydrolized Silk Proteins 2.5 
Water-Soluble-Preservative (I used Cosgard at 1%)

Phase B:
SLES (sodium laureth sulphate) 25
Coco Glucoside / Glyceryl Oleate 2.5
Decyl Glucoside 2.5 (I could have also used Lauryl Glucoside)

Phase C: (to be added one by one in Phase B)
Polyquaternium 7 – 2 (Polyquaternium 7, this is the name, so the quantity is 2. This is a conditioner ingredient)
EO of cinnamon 10 drops (EO = essential oil)
EO of cardamom 5 drops 
EO of sweet orange 5 drops

Phase D: 
Cocamidopropyl Betaine 10 (this is a key ingredient together with SLES)

pH check – adjust to 4.5 with Citric Acid if needed

How to:

1) I measured the Phase A

As you can see the Amla powder is not dispersed in the water properly.

2) I mixed with an immersion mixer:

3) I measured the Phase B:

As you can see there are the different surfactants and they are still separated (I had not mixed yet)

4) I mix the surfactants.

In this picture you can see the density of the surfactants once mixed together.

5) I added the Phase C one by one (I didn’t mix the ingredients of Phase C together and added them at once: I added them one ingredient at a time to Phase B). This should be the result:

Yes I am not very good and patient at mixing without making any bubble 😀

6) Now it is time to pour Phase A into Phase B, a little at a time!
I have no picture of this.
What I did: I took a much much bigger Becher and poured the Phase B inside. Then little by little I poured the Phase A inside.
The result was very liquid (and it is fine like that! Because the shampoo is not finished yet 😉 ).

7) Finally I measured the Cocamidopropyl Betaine and poured it in the big Becher 😀

Here I had just started pouring so you can see how liquid was still the Phase B + Phase A.
Once I poured the Cocamidopropyl Betaine, however, it all becomes very dense (if you had read  THIS you should know why 😀 😀 😀 )

So here it is… AMLA POWER SPICY SHAMPOO!!! 😀

I almost forgot!
I had to tell you why in the previous recipe (the Winter Delight – Lip Repair Balm) we didn’t need to add the preservative even though we added water soluble ingredients 😉
It is very simple: even though there are water soluble ingredients, there is no “free water” for the bacteria to live! 😉
Easily explained: honey has a very high percentage of sugar.
Sugar itself can be a preservative because in the presence of water it doesn’t allow the growth of bacteria (of course we are talking only of high percentages! If you have a liter of water and a little spoon of sugar in it… you can be sure that water is more tasty to bacteria than simple water).
Glycerine instead has a highly highly hygroscopic nature which, in simple words, would mean that glycerin attracts water but it also “occupies” it in some way. This “occupying” results in the leaving no “free water” for the bacteria to grow (once again: this works only if there is A LOT of glycerin and a little bit of water 😉 but in the recipe there was no extra water at all!).