Equipment You Will Need
You do not need any super-expensive equipment to do this. There’s not an item on this list of equipment that should cost more than $20.
- You will need a kitchen scale.
- Everything gets weighed out, even the water.
- Some sort of a double boiler that’s either glass or stainless steel.
- Personally, my “double boiler” is janky. I have a stainless mixing bowl that will sit on one of my saucepans.
- Some sort of a thermometer that can read temps, with reasonable accuracy, of 0C/32F to 100C/220F.
- Infrared is OK but the $3 cooking thermometers do just as well. Just get one wth the correct range.
- A stick blender.
- You can make do with a hand mixer or even a whisk but you may be there for a bit.
- Trust me when I say that its even more critical for this than it is for making soap.
- Clean container to store your concoction in – preferably in the fridge just to be double safe.
- In this context, “clean” means santized like you would do with a baby bottle
Optional Equipment
An electric kettle (water cooker) is a nice option to have handy for warming up the water to dissolve any of the water-based ingredients
General Process
You can look at my recipes and you’ll see the 3 phases marked. Oil, Water, and Fragrance. The “Fragrance” phase contains everything that has to be handled with care. Not all ingredients like to be cooked. You can make your preservative stop working or even cook out all of your fragrance oils. Measure these out and set them aside. Next, fill your electric kettle and turn it on. While that’s heating, you can start measuring out everything in the ‘oil’ phase column. The “oils” as a rule will include the solid pellets, butters, waxes, actual liquid oils, etc. As you measure each of the oil phase ingredients, you’ll need to put these in a double boiler (or my janky mixing bowl balanced on a saucepan) and let them start to heat up. As you add each ingredient, take a moment to check your kettle. You want to stop it when it’s about halfway to boiling. Mix your water phase ingredients and make sure that everything is thoroughly dissolved. Don’t worry about trying to cool it off. Having the water phase a bit warm for this step actually helps. When the solids just start to melt, toss the “water” phase in and grab your stick blender. Blend until it starts to take on the texture and consistency of heavy whipping cream. Get your thermometer and whip until the temp is at or below 120F or 45C. At that point, you can add everything that says “Fragrance” in the phase column. Keep blending for at least 2 more minutes to make sure you distribute the preservative thoroughly.
BEWWWMMMM… You just made a batch of conditioner. Fill up your container and pop it into the fridge.
