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I’ve read many methods for making liquid soap. Most people agree making liquid soap from scratch, that is, from oils and potassium hydroxide, is tricky at best. Reports of solidifying and separating are pretty universal. I tried my hand at it a long time ago, and experienced it myself.
I do like the convenience of liquid soap, and don’t want to pay for it at the store, especially considering I don’t really like the product you’ll get there. After going homemade, it’s almost impossible to go back.
Besides, I’ve found an embarrassingly simple way to make my own liquid castile soap, which doubles as shampoo. I use it in hand soap pumps by the bathroom and kitchen sink, and put it in an old plastic dishwashing liquid bottle in the shower for shampoo/body wash. It’s easy to customize with essential oils.
Here’s all I do:
- Grate a bar of homemade or other castile soap with an ordinary cheese-type grater.
- Place in a mixing bowl and add water just to cover.
- Let sit overnight. No need to heat, no need to do anything. Maybe drape something over it to keep stuff from falling in it.
- The next day, the soap will have magically dissolved. Give it a stir. If it’s too thick, add a bit of water, a little at a time, until it is the consistency you like.
You can stop there and use it as is in your preferred containers, or add in essential oils for fragrance and awesomeness. I can’t get enough of peppermint essential oil shampoo. I tell you, it’s unbelievable. The kids like it, too. Also lavender is good for bedtime, and rosemary and tea tree are invigorating and great for skin issues.
Grate it up. Soak overnight. Good to go.
Easy as can be.
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What is the best EO to dissolve the grease from the dishes ?
Thanks
martine–Wow. I’ve never even thought of that. You’ve completely stumped me.
The soap should do a decent job of the grease by itself. I’d just go with either an antibacterial like tea tree or with something that made me happy like lemon or peppermint.
I have been adding the leftover slivers of bath soap to my bottle of liquid hand soap for years and I now have over a gallon of liquid hand soap that I use in my kitchen or bath for when I come in from doing farm work. We are slowly working our way to natural products. I don’t want to throw away the old products as I grew up with depression parents (they didn’t throw anything away). When my mother died, my father had a full sized truck load of paper and plastic bags he took to the Salvation Army. (She did not throw anything away, including twist ties and rubber bands, quite an experience !!!!!!!!!!) I am looking forward to making my own liquid castile soap as so many recipies call for it and I like the idea of being able to cheaply purchase the bar soap to convert. Stockpiling the bars now
I would like to add an oil like grapeseed as a skin softener. Have you tried this? Do you have any problems with it separating? If so, what can you put in to keep it from separating?
I tried this today with my own home made castile bar soap. It worked really well!! Thank you so much!!
How much EO should i add to this?
How much?–Start with a few drops and see if it is strong enough, then add more if it needs it.
So…I’ve tried my hand at making my own dry laundry detergent and am pleased with it. I was going to use your recipe but your site was down while I had my ingredients so I found another with WS and Borax because I wanted to follow a recipe precisely. So now I’m kinda interested in making my own shampoo, but even more I’m interested in making shampoo for my dogs. It can’t be that much more complicated, except that dogs need a lower pH shampoo than that for humans. I’ve read it would be in the high 6′s to 7 ideally. What do you suggest for keeping it simple (I don’t want oats and aloe and 100 different other things)? However, I would like to know how to add appropriate amounts of things like tea tree oil for itchiness at times. What do you suggest?
AdinaP–I made a “pet soap” which was a basic olive oil soap and added an essential oil mix from Essential Wholesale called Pet Safe. It has tea tree oil in it, as well as citronella, lemongrass, lavender, etc. I’ve also used neem oil as one of my oils. Here is that recipe: http://littlehouseinthesuburbs.com/2009/10/neem-oil-soap.html
Good luck!
To dissolve grease from dishes add 1 tbsp of Washing soda per quart of dish soap. You can find washing soda in the laundry aisle at most grocery stores.
Does anyone know how to keep the carrier oil and liquid soap base from separating? Thanks!
wow!this the most easier step that i ever found. i hope i can try to do it. what kind of bar soap you use. can i use almost olive oil bar soap?how much the quantity of water?
Amazing! I’ve been looking around for a shampoo recipe for a while. Since I don’t have what I need to make soap at the moment, would Ivory work? Also would soap made from animal fats work as well? I’m guessing it would, though. How about the bacon soap you make? That’s my next big project.
This is awesome!! I don’t know about making bar soap from lye, but this is easy!
very thanks from your help
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