Follow the following recipes to learn how to make your own homemade eco-friendly hand soap. Don’t forget to get creative when it comes to making your own soap. Try adding a few drops of your favorite smelling essential oil to the mix.
Homemade Organic Liquid Hand Soap
Ingredients:
Organic Bar Soap
Distilled Water
Directions:
Chop the soap up super small or grate. Boil the water (start with 3-4 cups) and once hot, add the soap. Mix, let it sit on a low boil, and if needed add more soap and or water, let low boil, mix. Once it appears to be the right thickness, do a massive final mix, it needs to be completely blended or little soap hardened pieces will show up, which of course will clog your pump. After the final mix, run a test. Your test is to let it sit out overnight. If you come back and it’s too thick, heat and add more water.
Getting the thickness right is the hard part. It depends on the soap. If you add 3 oz of soap or so, start with 3-4 cups H2o and go from there. It will turn out different depending your soap, so this is a project you need to watch, at least the first time you do it. You can add a few drops of organic essential oils too.
This recipe is by Jennifer. Check out this recipe in her article online.
Homemade Organic Liquid Hand Soap
Ingredients:
1 cup distilled or filtered water
3 tablespoon liquid castile soap
1 teaspoon vegetable glycerin
Drops of lemon or orange essential oils-or your choice
Tea tree oil is antibacterial and antifungal, add some drops of that too
Directions:
Combine all ingredients, I used a blender stick. Funnel into a reused pump bottle. It cost a lot less than buying organic hand soap. I tried Kiss my Face , then realized it has parabens (methyl-, propyl-, butyl-, ethyl-, isobutyl-).
This recipe is by Chari. You can view her recipe in her article online.
This sounds like a fun weekend project as the weather cools into autumn; after your successful experiment, how about making a large batch to give away for Christmas? All of my soap will smell like patchouli so my friends will remember who gave it to them!
what I do is take this a step further…I use the left over soap bits to make the liquid soap….
I never would’ve thought to use bar soap to make liquid soap! And I love atula’s suggestion even better.
atula, that is a great way to use the soap bits that often go down the drain or just collect in the shower! I am going to try this.
What a GREAT idea, Molly. I think I might try that this year (giving home-made, eco-friendly hand soap) as Christmas presents.
What a clever idea, i’d use lavendar oil in mine Molly! Atula, your sensible and simple idea is what being eco-friendly really means!
It sounded a bit too much at first but when I thought about using left over soap then it makes it worthwhile.
What I do is take it even a step further and make it all the way from scratch! starting with potassium hydroxide coconut oil, almond oil and turkey red castor oil. It is very satisfying to make your own and not really hard at all once you get over the fear of working with the chemicals.
ZammaJannan,
Thanks for that last tidbit. I’ve been looking for a basic, basic recipe that did it from scratch. And since I am already handling lye, making soap from scratch…I have no fears about handling potassium hydroxide. Would you be so gracious…and send me a basic recipe with weights in ounces or grams and directions. I would be ever so grateful!
busymammaof3@yahoo.com
http://www.myspace.com/busymammaof3
Great idea and sounds easy to do. What is the shelf life once it’s made. Also – can you leave it on the counter… I was inquiring because of the water added.
Do you need to use distilled water? What will happen if you don’t.
Do you need to use distilled water? What will happen if you don’t.
Responses to jennifer h
To be honest I am unsure Jennifer. All soap recipes I have seen that include water in the recipe calls for ”distilled” water, so I’ve never used anything else but distilled.
As I understand it, distilled water is usually suggested because tap water differs depending on where it comes from. Distilled water is distilled water, there are no variables involved. For instance, I have hard water where I live and the minerals in my water can have an effect on the finished product. Make sense?
I wonder if you can also make an ”anti-bacterial” liquid hand soap. It seems that the manufactured variety is all anti-bacterial these days.
Responses to chris1203
Actually, Chris, I’m not sure if you watch medical shows on tv or not, but they stated that it doesn’t matter if a soap is ”labeled” as anti-bacterial or not. All soap is anti-bacterial, so that means if one company labels their soap as anti-bacterial and another company doesn’t it isn’t false advertising or anything like that. Some people say its just a way to mentally get people to buy their products more (due to the ”anti-bacterial” label that is). Hope this helps.
Actually chris, if you want an antibacterial version, simply use essential oils with antibacterial properties, such as tea tree or lavender. There are many others as well, and you can research them on the web and choose the one you like best. (Just be aware that if you choose something else, you must be careful to make sure it’s well mixed, and that you don’t get undiluted oil on your skin. Tea Tree and Lavender ate safe to use directly on the skin, most others will burn you if you don’t dilute them in a carrier.)
great idea am gonna try dis.
This is a great idea and something I never would have thought of in a million years. Great discussion and awesome tips.
Actually the ”anti-bacterial” soap usually contains triclosan, which is persistent in the environment (it’s been found recently in dolphins!) and is believed to contribute to the formation of resistant bacteria. Plus it’s unnecessary, because all soap kills bacteria. So please don’t use it.
Actually the ”anti-bacterial” soap usually contains triclosan, which is persistent in the environment (it’s been found recently in dolphins!) and is believed to contribute to the formation of resistant bacteria. Plus it’s unnecessary, because all soap kills bacteria. So please don’t use it.
That really great idea given by u to use these eco-friendly daily products.
And that to u can make at home also, procedure given by u
SAVE OUR PLANET ”MOTHER EARTH”
How can I make a eco freindly anti-freeze solution for my kitchen, bathroom for my cabin in the woods???
i tried to make this but my hands started to burn and my skin started to melt, i now only have two layers of skin left on my hands. Great Job =)
Responses to Jemma Latemore
sounds like you used too much essential oil, or got the pure oil on your skin. It only takes a few drops of oil, and it has to be well mixed. There are very few essential oils that are safe to use directly on the skin without diluting them in a carrier of some sort.
Which of the ingredients in your personal mix do you think caused this problem? None of them really should do this unless you are very sensitive to something that you used. Some people are sensitive to certain essential oils but, used correctly (which means very sparingly and with a knowledge of your chosen oil) this should not happen. If you DID use essential oils I suggest that you check out the contra-indications of the oil that you used and also ensure that you use no more than is recommended. They are very potent products and very, very good, used correctly. Treat them with the same respect that you would treat prescription drugs. The only other thing I can think of is that, perhaps, you used perfume oils rather than pure essential oils. If so, these are only suitable for a burner, they are not intended to put on your skin or to perfume your bath etc. Perfume oils are chemically made oils not the natural extracts of plants and can be very unsafe where the skin is concerned.
Soap does not necessarily kill germs and bacteria unless it contains a germicide. Soap detaches such organisms allowing them to be rinsed away. You can look this topic up on the internet to learn more.
Is it easy to distille water? Would I be able to do it at home without so much hassle?
Thanks
I see, but you didn’t anser my questions…any of them. If I can’t make it, then would I be able to buy distilled water? And what kind of shops sells these. Also is it really that much of a problem to just use normal tap water/filtered water from fridge water dispenser? Could I use these, or boil then cool it?
Write.
You can buy distilled water in gallon jugs at any grocery store. To make it at home, you would have to buy or build a still for processing it (distilling it yourself is a lot of trouble, and not worth it unless you’re going to make lots and lots of it.)
There are several reasons the recipes for eco-friendly products always call for distilled water: tap water contains chlorine, and other chemicals that could interact with the ingredients in the recipe; it also contains various bacteria that can contaminate your product. Simple boiling won’t remove the chemicals, and will actually concentrate them because of the reduction in volume. Filtering is better, but still not guaranteed to remove everything.
Distillation kills the bacteria with high heat. Since the distilled water is actually the steam caused by the heating; which has been captured by the distiller, then cooled and allowed to reform into liquid water; the chlorine and other chemicals are left behind in the heating chamber.
pls where can i get d fragrant oil or can get it in a schl lab.
Fragrant oil is NOT what you need for anything which is being applied to the skin. You need essential oils. These can be bought in chemists (drug stores) and many other places. As you are on the internet why not do a search for their availability in your own area (or buy via the internet) and, whilst doing so, compare prices because these can vary a lot.
Anyone have any good recipes for making liquid hand lotion…have found a great bottle that I can refill…one part soap and one part lotion…all the recipes I have seen so far are for hard hand creams not liquid (pump) lotions?