These pretty pink shampoo bars kick out oodles of fluffy bubbles, leave your hair shiny and soft, and smell fabulous. They’re an update of a formulation I first shared back in 2020; I still really like the original but I knew one big change would make this formulation far more accessible. So here we are!

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The inspiration for the original formulation was Lush’s Jason and the Argan Oil shampoo bar. Back in 2020, the ingredient list for Jason and the Argan Oil was:

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Water, Agar Agar, Argan Oil, Glycerine, Perfume, Rose Absolute, Geranium Oil, Rose Oil, Sicilian Lemon Oil, *Limonene, Coumarin, Citronellol, Geraniol, CI 17200. (source)

Today, it’s still pretty close:

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Sodium Coco Sulfate, Water, Agar, Argan Oil, Glycerine, Parfum/Fragrance, Pakistani Rose Absolute, Geranium Oil, Rose Oil, Sicilian Lemon Oil, Citric Acid, *Limonene, Coumarin, Citronellol, Geraniol, CI 17200. (source)

Lush has traded Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) for Sodium Coco Sulfate (SCS) and added some citric acid, but that’s it. It’s a pretty simple formulation. We know Sodium Coco Sulfate forms the bulk of the bar because we can literally see it in photos of the product! The little sticks you can see all over the bar are SCS, mixed with just enough water, agar, argan oil, glycerin, and fragrance to make a mixture that can be made into shampoo bars.

Those little “sticks” are SCS!

When I created the formulation I shared back in 2020, I knew I wanted it to be gentler. So, I blended Sodium Coco Sulfate (SCS) with much milder Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate (SCI). To keep the needle-y appearance, I used SCI noodles. This worked well, but the resulting mixture was quite coarse and crumbly. In order to turn it into a firm bar, it needed to be pressed really, really hard. I tried hand smashing it into a mould, but the best results were indisputably from using The Bath Bomb Press to truly smash that mixture into a super sturdy, long-lasting bar. Without a lot of power behind the pressing, the bars were crumbly, more delicate, and didn’t last anywhere near as long.

That’s where this update comes in! I wanted to keep the milder surfactant blend, but tweak the formulation so it could be shaped in a variety of ways. You can definitely press this version of the formulation if you have a fancy, powerful press, but you can also use a hand mould or simply shape it by hand like it is play-doh.

Since I was updating the formulation anyways, I made one more swap. In 2020 I used iota carrageenan instead of the agar used by Lush, but since 2020 I’ve found it a lot harder to source cosmetic grade iota carrageenan reliably. So, I swapped it out for guar gum—a far more common, easy-to-get cosmetic gum.

The key to a shape-it-how-you-like shampoo bar is one that has more of a dough consistency vs. a crumbly, piece-y consistency. So, what’s the key to getting a dough? Fine powder; powders that will create a smooth dough when wet rather than a chunky, lumpy one. And the easiest way to get some fine powder in this formulation was to use finely powdered SCI instead of the noodley form!

This isn’t just a one-for-one swap, though. If you do that, you’ll end up with a dry, uncooperative mess rather than a smooth, workable dough. This is thanks to surface area; fine powders have way more surface area than the little needles do, so they absorb much more liquid. In order to get a dough rather than a dry, crumbly mess, this means the formulation needs to be adjusted to contain less dry stuff and more wet stuff.

To keep this updated version as close as possible to the original, the additional “wet stuff” in this version is distilled water. Easy peasy!

Making these is simple; stir together the surfactants and guar gum, add the wet ingredients, and mix until you’ve got a uniform dough. Shape as desired, leave to dry, and you’re voila—Lush-y, rosy shampoo bars!

Relevant links & further reading

• Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate (SCI) in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Sodium Coco Sulfate (SCS) in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Guar Gum in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Vegetable Glycerin in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Citric Acid in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Optiphen™ Plus in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Argan Oil in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• How long will ______ last? What is its shelf life? in the Humblebee & Me FAQ
• Can I use a different preservative than the one you’ve used? in the Humblebee & Me FAQ
• How long do you have to age a shampoo bar?
• pH
  • pH meter in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
  • pH measurement in cosmetic lab: why we dilute samples? from Skin Chakra
  • How to adjust the pH of your cosmetic products from Skin Chakra
  • Why do you create a 10% dilution of a formulation before measuring the pH? in the Humblebee & Me FAQ
• More shampoo bar formulations:
  • Charcoal & Bentonite Clarifying Shampoo Bar
  • Creamy French Shampoo Bar
  • Castor & Rice Sulfate-Free Shampoo Bar
  • Simple Sulfate-Free Shampoo Bar

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Argan Oil & Rose Shampoo Bars

Dry phase
154g | 44% Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate (SCI) (USA / Canada / UK / Aus / New Zealand / Nigeria)
112g | 32% Sodium Coco Sulfate (SCS) (USA / Canada)
14g | 4% guar gum (regular) (USA / Canada / UK / Germany / NZ / Nigeria)

Wet phase
0.035g | 0.01% Red #40 water soluble dye (USA / Canada / UK)
43.89g | 12.54% distilled water
6.125g | 1.75% vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada)
2.45g | 0.7% citric acid (USA / Canada)
3.5g | 1% Optiphen™ Plus (USA / Canada)
10.5g | 3% argan oil (USA / Canada)
3.5g | 1% Stock Fragrance Eau de Rose fragrance oil

Put on your dust mask (USA / Canada) and weigh the dry phase into a bowl. Stir until uniform.

Mix the dye, water, glycerin, and citric acid to dissolve. You can add the Optiphen™ Plus, argan oil, and fragrance oil to that mixture, or directly to the dry ingredients in the next phase.

Add the wet phase to the dry phase. Put on a pair of nitrile gloves and blend thoroughly with your hands. Once the mixture is uniform, you’ll be left with a stiff, easily-mouldable paste.

If your dough is too sticky, you’ll need to add more SCI powder. This is likely to happen if you used a larger grain Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate (SCI) than I did, as it has less surface area to absorb moisture.

If your dough is too dry, you’ll need to add more water. This is likely to happen if you used a finer grain Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate (SCI) than I did, as it has more surface area and will absorb more moisture.

Now it’s time to shape the bar! I used a small hand press from YellowBee, lining the top and bottom with rounds of parchment paper. Please watch the video to see this in action.

You can also use a powered press like The Bath Bomb Press, a hard-sided cavity mould (a measuring cup works nicely!), or simply hand-shape the bars.

Carefully un-mold the bars, tidy them up if needed, and leave them to dry and harden for at least 3–5 days before using.

To use, massage the bar into wet hair (or a wet loofah, for body washing) to work up a rich lather. From there on out it’s just like using any other shampoo or body wash. Enjoy!

When made as written, the pH of these shampoo bars comes out to around 5.3, which is great.

Shelf Life & Storage

Because these shampoo bars will regularly come into contact with water, I recommend including a broad-spectrum preservative to ward off microbial growth. These bars should easily last 6 months in the shower; I’ve never had a shampoo bar spoil on me, and I’ve had several live in my shower for over a year.

Substitutions

As always, be aware that making substitutions will change the final product. While these swaps won’t break the formulation, you will get a different final product than I did.

• As I’ve provided this formulation in percentages as well as grams you can easily calculate it to any size using a simple spreadsheet as I’ve explained in this post. As written in grams, this formulation will make 350g (5 × 70g bars).
• To learn more about the ingredients used in this formulation, including why they’re included and what you can substitute them with, please visit the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia. It doesn’t have everything in it yet, but there’s lots of good information there! If I have not given a specific substitution suggestion in this list please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
• If you’d like to learn more about the surfactants used and compare them to ones you might already have so you can make substitutions, check out this page and read this FAQ.
• If you change anything in the dry phase (ingredient or format), you will have to adjust the wet/dry ratio of the formulation, and likely the pH as well.
• For the dye:
  • We need so little that you won’t be able to weigh it out accurately unless you’re making a really big batch. That’s ok! Just use enough dye to make the water pink; a little goes a long way. For my 50g (1.76oz) test batches I was just dipping a clean glass stirring rod into the dye and then stirring that rod in the water. When in doubt, use less dye than you think you need—if your scale is refusing to register 0.03g (or whatever weight you’re going for) but it seems like you’ve already weighed out a lot of dye, stop! That’ll be more than enough to make pink bars.
  • You can use a different water soluble dye. Lush used Red #33, and if you want to change the theme away from rose, a non-pink colour could make a lot of sense!
  • You can leave it out for a white bar; replace the dye with more distilled water.
  • You can use mica instead. Replace the dye with more distilled water and trade 0.5% of the SCI powder for a mica of choice.
• You could use Propanediol 1,3 instead of glycerin.
• You could use lactic acid instead of citric acid, but you will have to do some re-development work to figure out how much to use.
• You can substitute another liquid oil your hair loves instead of argan oil.
• If you’re like to use a different preservative:
  • Another phenoxyethanol-based preservative, like Optiphen™ (INCI: Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol) or Euxyl® PE 9010 (INCI: Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexylglycerin) would be good options.
  • You could definitely use Liquid Germall™ Plus (INCI: Propylene Glycol, Diazolidinyl Urea, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate).
  • As always, adjust usage rates for the preservative you are using.
  • Please review this FAQ and this chart.
• You can use a different fragrance oil, just make sure whatever you use is approved for use at 1% in IFRA category 7A products.
• If you’d like to use an essential oil instead, please read this.