DIY MHRB Lotion And Conditioner Bars

Since the beauty industry is gradually moving from liquid to bars, lots of people are wanting to try their own hand at the task. Why not skip using a plastic container if we don’t absolutely need to use one. The giant patches of plastic in our oceans and the tragic pictures of the affected wildlife — we should all be making an effort to reduce the damage. That starts with each one of us making small choices that when you do the arithmetic, the numbers are significant. Swapping out liquid soap and shampoo for a bar is an easy adjustment. People haven’t stopped there, though. You can find just about anything you need in the beauty department in a dry form. LIkewise, recipes for how to make your own.

However, with all the beauty blogs and experts we now have on the block, the internet space has been filled with numerous tips and how-tos on everything beauty which has eliminated the problem of monopoly and created another. How are we supposed to know which recipes are right? Do we just go ahead and try all that we see?
Of course not. Except you have some money you wouldn’t mind spending unnecessarily or you possibly want to do a review of the different methods of creating these products, you shouldn’t be trying out every tutorial you see on the internet. Besides money wasting, some products are not entirely healthy for hair growth or your skin so it is important you critique every manual before following the procedures.

Why MHRB Lotion and Conditioner Bars?

We could have chosen any other topic to talk about but we decided on these homemade bars because of the not-so-luxurious lifestyle they offer us. We would delve into the recipe for these items but before we do that, let’s quickly do a b-roll on the importance of these homemade bars.

Making lotion and conditioner bars yourself saves you money. It is less expensive than the conventional conditioners you purchase at the store and the ingredients are very common. You probably have a couple of them sitting on your counter already.
Bars are more economical than liquid. When using liquid, we just pour and pour until out instinct tells us its okay and by the time we’re done with one wash, about 0.5 liters of the conditioner is gone already. With bars, you just keep rubbing until you are certain that it has spread evenly.
You have control over all that goes into your skin and hair care products. Not every ingredient is effective and worse still, you may be allergic to some.
For those who travel a lot, bars are the go-to guys. We can’t always trust bottles to stay shut especially in a box that would be turned and pulled so instead of taking the risk, why not use the bars?

Natural Lotion bars : Lye-Free, Skin-Healing Formulation

The lotion bars are quite easy to make and the only major difference between the lotion bars and soap is the absence of lye and water. You’re going to have to steep your mimosa hostilis root bark powder in oil for best results. The longer you steep the stronger your oil will be. The more the merrier with the mhrb powder during steeping. You can press and strain all the oil out of your mimosa hostilis and then discard the MHRB after a couple of uses. Every other ingredient is pretty much the same but we would be outlining them nonetheless.

Coconut oil. Its vitamin E content soothes the skin and coats it from harsh weather conditions so it is a necessity for a good lotion bar.
Shea butter. Some people are allergic to this though so mango or cocoa butter can be used as an alternative.
Beeswax. This one is a bit tricky because you would have to melt it before you use and that process takes quite a lot of time plus it leaves trails of wax on your skin after use. Soy wax can be used but that would require a fridge to always keep it solid.
Any essential oil of your choice would do just fine.
Two saucepans which would serve as a double boiler. One should be bigger than the other.
A burner to supply heat.

Crafting Mimosa Hostilis Lotion Bars: A Step-by-Step Guide

Get the saucepan and place the MHRB oil, shea butter, coconut oil, and beeswax into it. There is no particular order for doing this so just turn everything in at liberty.
Pour water into the bigger saucepan and place the smaller one with its contents into the bigger pan to make a double boiler. The idea here is to heat/melt the oils with indirect heat. If it gets too hot too fast it will burn and smoke up like crazy. You don’t need that in your life.
Place the saucepan on the burner and allow it to boil. Place your other pan on top and wait until all the ingredients have melted together. You can stir to help it along. The time for this would depend on the number of ingredients and the degree of heat. Obviously your beeswax or the like will be last to melt.
When the content is properly melted, bring it down from the burner and add the essential oil before it starts to cool. Stir the mixture properly and carefully so you don’t spill it. If you haven’t invested in a stick mixer I strongly encourage you to do so.
As soon as you’re done with that, grab your mold and pour the liquid into it. If you’re not fast enough, the content would begin to solidify in the pan. It goes faster than you expect so be prepared to screw up the first time. So don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Do a test run. You’ve been warned.
Place the mold in a cool place for about 24 hours.Your homemade lotion bar is ready!

Stable MHRB Conditioner Bar Recipe.

Conditioners require a tad more ingredients and efforts. Some recipes even go the extra mile to add industrial ingredients because of the need to get the right texture and thickness for the conditioner. The most used ingredients to achieve the required tensile strength are Behentrimonium chloride and cetyl alcohol which, unfortunately, pose a problem to our health.

The closest substitute to these ingredients would be beeswax but again, beeswax is so loud. When you use it in your hair, it leaves traces that announce to everyone who cares to listen that “she used a homemade bar!” We are yet to find a better alternative to the beeswax so, in the meantime, we would have to use it sparingly. Sparingly!!

Without further ado, let’s jump right into the recipe.

Materials:

75 grams of cocoa butter
30 grams beeswax or BTMS
75 grams of coconut oil
75 grams of mango or shea butter
15 grams of avocado oil
10 grams MHRB – steeped in any of these oils.
10 grams of any essential oil of your choice.
Two saucepans
A rod for stirring or hopefully you have a stick mixer.

Procedure: DIY MHRB Infused Lotion Bars

Place the wax, butter, MHRB oil, avocado oil, and coconut oil together in the smaller pan.
Add some water in the bigger pan and place on the burner then gently put the smaller pan into it and have some latte while it melts.
When you can’t find any solid residues in the pan, bring it down from the burner and quickly add the essential oil.
Pour the hot mixture into molds and allow it to cool until it solidifies.

Finally, it is important we clearly state that there are no rules to these things so, express your creativity if you have to. Who knows? You may be the one to provide us with better alternatives to Behentrimonium and its likes. You could also tweak the calibrations to suit your hair or skin needs. There’s nothing to worry about because, in the end, they’re all natural. Unless you have an allergy to something, but you know to avoid that ingredient already.

Thank you for reading! If you’d like to learn more about the Benefits of Mimosa Hostilis, just follow that link. We have an Easy MHRB soap recipe as well. If you’re using soap based shampoos, we have an excellent article on Hair Care for Soap Based Shampoos. Plenty more articles as well. We try to help out as much as we can at Mayan Magic Soaps.