This is a highly nourishing bar of shampoo that utilizes the phenomenal power of fresh lemons!
Lemons are highly acidic, meaning you don’t want use pure lemon juice in exchange for water or your soap will be too high on the pH levels. To remedy this, you use half lemon juice and half distilled water. Since lemons are a fruit and contain sugar, they will need to be frozen so the sugars won’t burn when adding lye.
I dropped the super-fat discount to 3% because I found when I went higher, it created too much oil in the hair. This recipe is a perfect blend, not too stripping, not too greasy, and I used light oils so that hair is not weighed down.
Additional supplies:
18-inch-long by 2-inch-wide PVC tube with cap for one end
Parchment paper to line PVC tube.
Ingredients:
3.8 oz lemon juice
3.8 oz distilled water
2.97 oz lye
.20 oz avocado oil
.20 oz argan oil
.20 oz apricot kernel oil
8.80 oz coconut oil
.50 oz cocoa butter
.20 oz evening primrose oil
10 oz olive oil
Recommended Scent Blend: Lemon
This is a sweet, sharp, brightly delicious lemony scent.
• 25 drops lemongrass
• 80 drops lemon
• 10 drops frankincense
• 6 drops benzoin
Method:
SAFETY CHECK!
Then, take about 4 lemons and squeeze out the juice until you have 3.8 ounces worth of liquid. Add 3.8 ounces distilled water to the lemon juice, pour into ice cube trays, and freeze.
This recipe uses a 2-inch PVC tube with a cap on one end to create a round soap. You will want to use parchment for this, as freezer paper will literally melt to the walls of the PVC pipe, making it nearly impossible to remove your soap. Line your PVC pipe with parchment by simply pulling off a piece and rolling it up and inserting into your tube. Make sure it opens up to the same size as the tube on the inside so you have a good even lining.
Once your lemon juice is frozen, remove it from the freezer and pop into a heatproof mixing bowl, weigh your lye, and add this to your lemon ice cubes, mixing until thoroughly blended. Set this mix aside in a safe spot where no one will touch it. While this blend is cooling, weigh your oils and set over low heat until just melted. Remove your oil mixture from heat, add essential oils scent blend if using any, then add your lye/lemon juice mixture. Mix with a hand blender until you achieve trace.
Pour soap blend into the tube and set in a safe spot, propped up so the soap will not spill while it solidifies. Let sit about 12 hours. After this time, pull on your parchment paper to release soap from PVC tube, unwrap, cut, and set your bars in a safe spot for about 4 weeks while they cure.
Enjoy!