Homemade Foaming Hand Soap

Last year I decided to start making my own non-toxic health and beauty products. I made my own face cream,  lip balm,  lotion bars and sunscreen. Of course I still make my own laundry soap too.

I intended to write this post for nearly a year now but I have also been making my own hand soap this year. I started off making my own liquid hand soap, but I didn't like it so much. Mostly because I used scraps of soap I had laying around and it smelled funky. Plus I just didn't care for the consistency of it. It was like the goo from a snot flower. I don't know the real name, but growing up in Florida we had these purple flowers in our yard and when picked there was a clear goo in the middle.. like snot... but clear. Ok. so.. right then. Here is what it looked like (the soap that is).

 The Farmers Nest blog has a great tutorial on how to make liquid soap from a bar. I didn't bother Googling how to make mine so it wasn't very fabulous. I really wanted to use it in a foaming pump dispenser stretching it even further. It just didn't always dispense all that well from the foam pumps and needed to be shaken a lot. So I decided to try another method.

First off you will need some foaming soap pumps. I had done some Googling on foaming pumps and most everyone said the ones from Bath and Body Works were the best to be had. Well I didn't want to spend a lot of money for their soap just for the containers so I searched for cheap foaming pumps. Turns out it was  just cheaper for me to get the B&B soap.  I had been receiving daily (grrr B&B) email from them and in one they announced a clearance sale online with free shipping on a $20 (or $25 maybe) order. So I got right on there and ordered 10 bottles because I needed 3-4 and what if one or two broke? I now have spares.

I had thought to just use the soap in it then gradually refill it with my homemade stuff, but that Twisted Peppermint stanks! (sorry to those who love it) I can't deal well with artificial fragrances as I get headaches/migraines and allergies flare up.  It also contains Triclosan, as well as other stuff I don't need to get clean,  and I want to avoid that in my products.
So I just emptied it out, saved it for a while because it seemed wrong to pour it down my drain, or throw it away. Eventually decided to pour it out and.. where was I? Oh. So I poured it out peeled off the labels and cleaned up the sticky residue with Goo Gone (love) and then soap and water.

Next, choose a liquid Castile soap that you love, or make your own if you want. This is way easier.
You all probably know of Dr. Bronner's but there is another cheaper one (like $6 less a bottle) that I found out about just after like within minutes and I couldn't change the order I ordered the Dr. Bronners that I actually like better. It is called Dr. Woods. You can get Dr. Bronners just about anywhere. My local grocery stores sell it and so does Target. It is several dollars cheaper from Trader Joes if you have one. My TJ's only had peppermint, sadly. Those above are the 3 that I have acquired. I prefer the Dr. Wood's. It may be because of the shea butter in it, but it seems nicer to me. Both are organic, so yay!
You could even find a plain castile soap and add essential oils to make your own smell if you like.
I bought my Lavender and Dr. Wood's from Vitacost.com . I love that site as they have very good prices on vitamins and lots of other stuff.

Once you have your soap picked out fill your thoroughly clean dispenser about 1/4 to 1/3 full of castile soap. In mine it was about 1/4 cup or 2oz. of soap.

Finally,  fill the rest of the bottle with water, but not all the way up to the top. Leave about an inch for the pump. Shake it up and enjoy. Thats it. Super simple. Can't believe it took all of that writing for such an easy recipe!

 Note that this will not be as slippy and slimy as your normal soap. It will get your hands clean though and you will get used to the feel of it. I did add a dash (didn't measure) of vegetable glycerine to the one I made for this tutorial just to try it out. It may help take away that feeling that I am having a really hard time describing. Its like.. your hands are stripped of all moisture and they drag.. does that even make sense? Only they are not dry. I use this soap because my kids and I get eczema hands and this soap makes a big difference.

I figured out that this soap costs me $0.56 a bottle. I am telling you friends, you seriously should consider making your own products. This is way cheap. I think you can get even cheaper if you use bar soap melted and heavily watered down. Even with having to purchase the bottles (about $2 for me) it is cheaper than buying it. The best part is that the ingredients are non-toxic and gentle on my skin.
One way to save is if you have a friend who uses B&B foaming soap ask them for the bottles that they most likely throw away. Then direct them to my blog so they can  make their own soap.. after you have gotten a few bottles that is. I didn't have any friends so I had to buy mine.

Guess what? You can also use this as dish washing soap (Not dishwasher!).
Also, I re-used a Kandoo foaming shampoo container and the kids use this concoction as shampoo and even body wash! Its gentle so you could wash your face with it also. I haven't actually tried that yet but it says on the bottle you can. Yay for multi-purpose items!


I hope you will give this a try.