Homemade Liquid Hand Soap

bottle from The Container Store ($5.99)

I saw this 'recipe' for soap a while back. I still had some left from the huge gallon jug of soap from BJ's so I waited to make this.

I thought this was genius because how how much waste and fluff was in store bought stuff. There's a little of soap, and a whole lot of water!

Sure, you can probably buy the jugs to refill the bottles, cheap but even then, it still costs about $10 for a gallon. With a $1 bar of soap (on sale), pennies worth of glycerin, and FREE water, I was able to make a half gallon of this stuff.

The original directions called for 1 cup of grated soap flakes. Some people in the comments mentioned that they used the whole bar of soap. I'll probably do that next time so I don't have that little bit remaining.

Homemade Liquid Hand Soap
adapted from Savvy Housekeeping
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ingredients:

• 1 4-oz bar of soap, grated ($.75)
• 1 TBSP vegetable glycerin (used $.45 worth of a $3.69 4-oz bottle)
• 10 cups of warm water (FREE!)

equipment:

• grater (although I'm probably going to use my food processor next time!)
• large pot, at least 4 quarts
• measuring cup and spoons
• spatula or spoon for stirring
• soap container with a hand pump
• a gallon container for remaining soap (I used the bottle of an old refill container
• Funnel

directions:

• Grate the soap in with a hand grater or food processor using the grater attachment. You may need to use the chopping blade to pulse it into fine particles.
• In a large pot, combine soap flakes with water and glycerin. On medium-low heat, stir the water until the soap dissolves completely.
• Let the soap cool completely. Pour into the gallon container with the funnel to store, and funnel into smaller bottles when you're ready to use!

Total cost: $1.20 ($.019/oz) for a half gallon of hand soap. This price is determined by how much your initial bar of soap and glycerin costs.

To compare:

• assuming you buy the gallon refill (like I did), at about $13.49 ($.11/oz). Half would be $6.75. You save at least $5.55!
• or, if you buy the little bottles for $2 each at 7.5oz/bottle, this would cost $17 ($.27/oz!!) for the 8.5 bottle yield from this recipe. That's a $15+ savings!

Notes:

• The mixture seemed to liquidy when it first cooled. I stored it into the bottle and the next day, it was completely congealed and molded to the shape of the bottle. A little shake did the trick to loosen it up.
• Occasionally, there may be a snot consistency with the soap in the pump bottle as well. A little shake will mix it together.
• If your hands are really wet, the soap won't lather too much, but soap is soap, and it will clean your hands regardless. I've used it after dusting and cleaning, and I didn't see lather, but the dirt came off.
• Again, soap is soap, and you don't really need aniti-bacterial anything, as long as you scrub sufficiently. If absolutely need anti-bacterial anything, add a few drops of tea tree oil.

Posted in: p-soap, personal care