I have a lot of liquid hand soap in my house because it's so easy for my boys to use. But I've been concerned about the harsh chemicals in these soaps, such as phlalates and parabens. I'd like to buy all-natural liquid hand soap, such as Burt Bee's, but $7 a bottle adds up when you want one in every bathroom.
So that's why I decided to try making my own liquid hand soap from a recipe I found in The Complete Soapmaker. All natural bar soaps are cheaper than liquid soaps. For example, a bar of Burt Bee's shower soap is $5. Plus the process seemed easy enough--gently heat all-natural grated bar soap with water until the soap dissolves in the water.
To make about 8 oz. of liquid hand soap, you will need 1 ounce of grated all-natural soap; 4 ounces of water, and additives if desired. I added about 3 ounces of aloe vera gel to mine.
Heat all the ingredients until you have a smooth consistency. It helps to break up the soap with wisk. Once all the ingredients are blended, check the consistency of the soap by taking a small cupful, such as a shot glass's worth, and cooling it in a ice bath. If the soap is too runny, add more soap; if it's too thick, add more water.
I found this part to be the trickiest because you don't know the liquid soap's true consistency until it is completely cool. When I first cooled the liquid, it seemed runny, so I added more soap. But after sitting around for a few hours, the soap thickened up more than I expected. Thankfully, it still pumps out of the bottle fine.
So my Thrifty Green Thursday tip is make save money and the environment by making your own liquid hand soap from all-natural bar soap. Click here for more tips.
10 comments:
I'm definitely going to try this! I think the antibacterials are too harsh, and agree that there are so many chemicals in our products. And I love Burts Bees!
I'm so glad you just took on this soap experiment! My mom always made liquid hand soap growing up and I've been working up the nerve to try it myself but the whole process has always seemed rather mysterious for some unknown reason. Now that I've read your steps and seen the pictures, I feel empowered to try it myself! Thanks for joining us this week for Thrifty Green Thursday!
We use foam dispensers with Dr.Brommers soap, and only put in about 1/10 soap to water. I use it in the shower regular & if I forget to use lotion, my skin is still okay. It's really gentle.
That's cook that you made your own soap! I should try that!
I have a receipe to make my own laundry detergent. I am going to give it a try this weekend.
Thank you so much for sharing that. I too use natural soaps but they are expensive! I'm going to try making some, and maybe give some as gifts for Christmas.
What a great idea! I'm going to have to try this. I have been using castille soap watered down in one of those foam pumps.
I use Trader Joe's liquid soap, which is pretty natural and cheap. However, I was just thinking that I go through a lot of plastic bottles that way (a few a year, at least). If I made my own liquid soap from bar soap, I could reuse a nice soap dispenser again and again. Thanks for the inspiration!
I like using liquid soap because it doesn't create a film on the shower and bathtub like bar soaps do. I looked into making hot process liquid soap but found it too labor, time, and ingredient intensive for my taste. Your method may be the answer I'm looking for.
I did this too with heaps and heaps of freebie hotel soaps and other soap scraps. I've linked to it here. Also, my great aunt gave me a little wire cage thingie with a handle with a bunch of soap scraps in it. It's for making sudsy dishwater. You just put it under the water and wave around like a madwoman until suds form ;)
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