Dead Sea Mud Shampoo Bars: a cold processed soap recipe for cleansing hair and balancing scalp.
Dead Sea Mud is wildly popular for skin and hair care. Rich in beneficial minerals like magnesium and potassium, this dark, salty mud can be used as a deep cleansing mask or added to a wide range of formulations for facial, body, and hair care. The following recipe for Dead Sea Mud Shampoo Bars combines the fortifying minerals of Dead Sea Mud with a moisturizing blend of conditioning fats including argan, jojoba, and shea.
Silk powder has also been added to contribute a soft and silky slip to the soap’s lather. Black castor oil helps to boost that lather a bit while doubling down on conditioning benefits. Refreshing spearmint and rosemary essential oils finish the bar off with an all-natural, spa-inspired scent.
While our Dead Sea Mud Shampoo Bar recipe was formulated with hair care in mind, it can certainly be used as a body bar as well. Try swapping the essential oils for your own custom blend to make this formula your own. Citrus or wood oils would be particularly nice choices to compliment the earthy tone of this gorgeous cold processed soap.
Have you experimented with Dead Sea Mud in your own soap formulations? We’d love to hear about your experiences working with this unique ingredient! Share your soap making story in the comments below, and be sure to include a link to your shop or web site so that we can share your work!
Dead Sea Mud Shampoo Bars
Makes about six 4-ounce bars
Ingredients
3.2 ounces (91 grams) Sodium Hydroxide/Lye
- Start by measuring all of your ingredients individually using an accurate scale. Be sure and take the proper safety precautions when measuring, handling, and working with lye. For more information on prep-work for soaping, check out our Cold Process Method post.
- In a heavy-duty plastic pitcher or stainless steel pot, slowly add your lye to your water, mixing slowly until all lye has dissolved. Set the mixture aside to cool. Use a thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature. Ideally the lye water will cool to 100 F around the same time that the oils reach the same temperature.
- Gently heat the solid oils and butters until fully melted. Add the remaining oils, vitamin E, and silk powder. Mix, and let sit until the mixture cools to 100 F degrees.
- When both the lye water and oil mixture reach about 100 F add the oil mixture to the soap pot followed the lye water. Immediately begin stirring the mixture with a large whisk or stick blender. Continue to mix until the mixture begins to trace. The texture should be similar to a custard or pudding, leaving a thick coating on the back of your spatula and a drizzle across the surface of the resting soap.
- At trace, add your Dead Sea Mud and essential oil, then stir or mix well again until the mud and essential oils have been evenly dispersed.
- Carefully transfer the soft soap to lined molds or silicone molds and insulate (we used 2.5 inch round PVC molds). Allow the soap to harden for at least 24 hours before un-molding and slicing. (These bars may take a little longer than usual to harden due to the Dead Sea Mud. If they seem very soft at 24 hours try giving them an extra day or so before slicing.)
- Place the sliced bars of soap on a drying rack and allow them to cure for at least four to six weeks before use.
Shelf Life & Stability: Please note that the formulations featured here on The Natural Beauty Workshop have not been challenge tested for stability or shelf life, and may not be suitable for commercial use as-is. For more information on shelf life, stability, and working with preservatives, check out the following article from our Information Library.
Looking for more cold processed soap inspiration? Check out our recipes for Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Soap Bars and Dead Sea Mud & Tea Tree Cold Process Soap.
I use dead sea mud often. I put the mud in a open container and let it dry out and then put it in a coffee grinder. I don’t trust buying the dried clay from a supplier just in case some of the minerals have been stripped out. I get mud that is certified pure. My soap changes color according to what ever process I use. I have a c.p. pure olive oil soap that is a nice light green. My h.p soaps turn a light to dark grey. It depends whether I add before or after it has been cooked.
Thank you for the tip, Johnny! We love the idea of drying the mud first. It’s very interesting to see how the same ingredient can look in different soaping methods and applications.
What beautiful soap! Would anyone know where I can find a simple shampoo recipe that has only coconut oil, castor oil, water & lye? I used to buy the bars at our local farmer’s market, but the woman moved away. I can’t find this super-simple recipe anwhere! Thank you for a great and informative blog!
– Liz
Rats, I forgot to tick the box that says notify me of new comments LOL … so now I have. Thanks!
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