Hello there! 😀
I have an amazing recipe today 😀
This is a recipe for a muddy-looking shampoo but with an amazing feel! I have been using it for a month now and I am perfectly satisfied with it! Really, I think it is the best recipe of a shampoo I have done so far! 😀
Look how cute! 😀
Unfortunately the idea of adding Ghassoul Powder to a shampoo recipe was not mine: I found many brands with ghassoul shampoo or body wash. However, this is my personal version of “ghassoul shampoo”! 😀
Ghassoul on one way makes the shampoo milder because it doesn’t make the surfactants foam as much as they normally would… on the other hand, it gives a nice, mild massage to the scalp, adding the “purifying-feel” 😀
[ For formulating posts read here: Blog Index where you will find a list of all my recipes and also the list of the theory-posts where you can learn how to make homemade real creams, soaps, detergents and so on 😀 However don’t be discouraged by this post: at the end I will put the most simple recipe for a Ghassoul Shampoo! 😀 ]
RECIPE:
Water to 100 (explanation HERE)
Ghassoul 15
Honey 5 (works as a humectant and adds a little bit of “poetry” to our shampoo 😀 I was almost tempted of calling it “ghassoul and honey shampoo” 😀 ahahah)
Glycerin 1
Cosgard 0.6 (this is the preservative I normally use. If you use a different one you can obviously substitute it! Just remember to use it at the right, specific concentration needed for your preservative – I use this preservative because it is water soluble and because it is biodegradable)
SLES 25
Decyl glucoside 2
Coco gluc e gliceryl oleate 5
Disodium cocoamphodiacetate 2
Caprylyl capric glucoside 1
Fragrance oil 1 (I have actually used citrus essential oils for this shampoo! It smells amazingly of tangerine and orange)
Coco Caprilate 1 (this is a very light oil. You can substitute it with jojoba oil; some would substitute it with coconut oil: if you have dry hair do so 🙂 )
Cocamidopropyl Betaine 10
Polyquaternium 7
Citric acid
Don’t worry, the recipe might look complicated but it is actually NOT AT ALL 😀
Remember that if you are already making your own shampoo at home, you can simply use your favorite surfactant combination and not follow mine: after all, all that there is to it in this shampoo is the 15% ghassoul, everything else could be changed (as long as it is still a shampoo 😀 ).
So here is the MOST SIMPLE VERSION ever:
– shampoo 85% (yes, you can even use a bought shampoo 😀 just check that the ingredients are good!)
– ghassoul 15%
That’s all you need! But just be sure you make this only JUST BEFORE you use it! Do not make a bigger batch and then attempt to store it because by adding ghassoul powder you are unbalancing the shampoo recipe and the preserving system. So make this “express simple version” only just before getting into the shower and using it up completely. 🙂
Now to the HOW TO:
1) Add water, honey, preservative and glycerin in a becher
2) melt the honey by heating the becher a little
3) Add the Magic ( 😀 ) ghassoul
4) Mix and get terrified by the muddy look of the dirty water (but ABSOLUTELY DON’T PANIC!!! 😉 )
5) Add the surfactants and mix.
Add the caprylyl capric glucoside (it is a surfactant with good solubilizing properties!) and the essential oils together and, only then, mix them with all the “mud” 😀
6) Now it is time for the last surfactant (the cocamidopropyl betaine) and the poliquaternium 7. Mix.
7) Check the pH. It should be around 4.5
If it is higher than this, add some citric acid until you reach the correct pH.
TADAAA 😀
Now it’s time to ENJOY the scalp massage! 😀
Let me know if you liked the recipe or if you need any assistance with the substitutions.
I was also wondering, since maybe not many people actually try to make these recipes at home, if some of you would be interested in learning a little about the ingredients used in commercial shampoos, how to recognize a good shampoo from a not so good one and so on.
Do let me know, cause in case you are interested I’ll think about making a post about it. 🙂
Ciao! 😀
For more recipes click HERE
To learn how to formulate cosmetics click HERE
For a list of online cosmetic ingredients suppliers click HERE
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
It's all in my hands 
wow, lovely post. i would never have thought of adding clay and surfuctants together. i’ll try the recipe, although i do not have some of the ingredients. would coco glucoside, lauryl glucoside or decyl glucoside suffice?
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Hello there!
Yes! 😀
There are many shampoos based on glucoside surfactants only, you will have to calculate again the surfactant concentration though, but it is not difficult!
Actually you give me a good idea: I could try to formulate a new shampoo with these surfactants!
Thank you for the comment!! 😀
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Right! I have learnt making shampoo using the lye and oils method, however i am now learning using the surfactants (dunno why i’m kind of sceptical about them…lol) I’ll try it out and substitute the ingredients i dont have. I’ll get back to you with whatever i come up with and share the experience.
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I did start also doing cosmetics by making soaps and also I used to be skeptical about surfactants but eventually I tried them and I had to change my mind: soap did very bad on my head giving me hair like hay 😀 and itching scalp. Later I tried making a very over fatted soap, for hair, but even this one left me with the same bad effects above and also greasy hair 😀
The pH of soap is no good for the hair at all 🙂
So my personal conclusion is that a good formulation of surfactants is the best solution! (also because soaps are, eventually, made of sodium which, once on our skin or head or scalp, doesn’t get rinsed off very easily… so a good detergent would always be best) 😀
SLES is the best surfactant for shampoo for the smooth feel it gives (but it is NOT easily biodegradable), but other surfactants won’t be wrong (except for sarcosinate, imo, cause it makes a very dry feel, getting the hair difficult to comb).
Glucosides should be fine! 😀
Let me know your experience!! 🙂
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which natural ingredient can you suggest for flyaways that can be added to conditioner and shampoo
?
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What is flyaways? Sorry 😀
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Fly-away hair is hair that is dry, frizzy, and full of static cling. It often sticks straight out from the sides of the head, and is a common occurrence in the winter when the air is especially dry.
u can see it on google images
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Thank you for this great website i learned a lot from you. I have read once on a website about shampoo ingredients that clarifying and opacifying agents are used. Are they necessary or i can skip them. I am learning formulating and wish to understand more.
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Hello Nour,
Thank you for your kind words.
Those ingredients are not necessary unless you want that kind of product: I mean, if you want “pearl looking” shampoo then there are some ingredients that will make you achieve that result. I am not a fan of these kind of shampoos so I don’t use these ingredients. The same goes for transparency: some combinations of surfactants already give a transparent shampoo but sometimes combinations of surfs give as result a mixture that isn’t either transparent neither fully opaque. For sales purposes companies tend to want one or the other… But if what you make is for personal use only, then I would say that there is no need to worry aboit that!
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Thank you, are clarifying agents designed to cleanse and clarify hair or for product appearance purposes?
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I supposed you were talking about agents that help making the surfs more transparent (they don’t do magic but they can HELP), what would clarifying hair exactly do? Make hair more shiny? Sorry I am not English mother tongue 🙂
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Neither am I, i am Arabic.
Well, according to my informations clarifying shampoo refers to a cleansing shampoo. I done some research and found this: clarifying agents are Solubilizers,
” Solubilizers, as they relate to making cosmetics, help to make otherwise insoluble liquids soluble in water. Solubilizers are similar to emulsifiers in that they have both hydrophilic and lipophilic traits, but solubilizers tend to be completely water soluble and only a little oil soluble. In practice this means they can suspend smaller amounts of oils (think essential oils in perfume or room sprays), and because they are solubilizing only small amounts of oil the entire solution can still appear clear or lightly hazy.
https://library.essentialwholesale.com/what-are-emulsifiers-and-solubilizers/
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Ok, solubilizers help in making the appearence of the shampoo more transparent. Solubilizers can be seen as very powerful surfactants, because also surfactants do the same thing.
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Thank you 🙏
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