Hair & Body Shampoo Formulations

Listed below are a number of starting formulations for various types of shampoos and personal care products. If you don't feel like blending your own, we have a series of pre-blended surfactants as base concentrates (see Shampoo Concentrates). You can add your own creative touches to these. We have listed the formulas below.

Some Formulating Tips.
The formulas listed below are starting points to many shampoo products on the market today. The key to these formulas is for you to test various formulations to reach your desired product.

Viscosity (or thickness) of the blend can be adjusted with the use of sodium chloride (salt) at low levels in some of the products.  This can range from 0.5% to 4%-5%. Viscosity can also be adjusted by the concentration of blend in the finished product. For the Free LV and Free HV Blends, the viscosity is adjusted by adjusting the PH. See formulation for details.
Although the pH of the final product is often fine without any adjustment, we like to maintain a pH of 6.5 to 7.5. Things like water quality can effect the final pH. As an added note, we like to use soft or distilled water although this is not a must. The pH can be checked with a simple litmus or pH paper. Most often when pH must be adjusted,  pH has to adjusted downward. We most commonly use Citric Acid in this case in very low levels, 0.1% ( that's one tenth of 1 percent).
When adding essential oils, use them at them at 0.1% ( that's one tenth of 1 percent). This is not a hard and fast rule and you can adjust this to your own requirements. Add the EO to the concentrate prior to adding it to the water. This helps  solubilize the oil into the water.
Preservatives are a must if you anticipate long term storage. They are required often because of the additional products that you are adding or because of possible contamination during the mixing procedure. If you are using these products within 3 to 4 weeks of making them, preservatives may not be required. As with many products the selection of preservative is often up to the individual and what they feel safe with. Germaben II or Parabans are just some of the preservatives that can be used.

If you intend to market your products, always shelf test your product, that is, allow it to sit several months in a warm area to check on its stability. All ingredients must be listed on the label.
Have Fun!