Liquid hand soap is expensive, and with the amount that we wash our hands in our family, we go through it quickly. This recipe makes a nice large amount, enough to fill all the soap dispensers in your home with plenty to spare, and it’s extremely inexpensive to do. It can also be customized with your favorite essential oils!
Supplies Needed
1 bar of natural soap (I recommend Dr. Bronner’s unscented castile soap)
4 cups of water
Essential oils
Optional: moisturizing oils like jojoba or avocado oil
Instructions
Grate the entire bar of soap with a cheese grater or in a food processor (by far, the easiest way).
Boil four cups of waer on the stove. When the water has reached a rolling boil, remove from heat and add the grated soap flakes, stirring until combined.
Allow the soap mixture to cool for 15 minutes, and then stir again.
Let the mixture cool overnight. As it sits it will thicken further. The next day add your essential oils and use and store the extra soap as needed. For an extra moisturizing soap, add 4 tbs. jojoba or avocado oil after the recipe has cooled.
How much essential oil to use
If the soap will be used by children it is best to err on the side of less essential oils. A 1% dilution, which is a safe recommended amount for children, would be 160 drops per 32 oz of soap, or about 1 ½ teaspoons of essential oils. If you would like to do a variety of different fragrances, you can add 40 drops of oil to 1 cup of liquid soap. For adult use you can use more oils if preferred, but a 1% dilution is safe for the whole family.
Essential oil blends are wonderful for use in this recipe (I really like NOW Solution’s Smiles for Miles or Cheer Up Buttercup). Other oils that are nice in soap are combinations of grapefruit and lime, bergamot and lemon, orange and clove, or lavender and spearmint.