Thursday 13 November 2008

Making Liquid Soap


I'm on a roll! Yes, a couple of nights ago I used a £0.20p bar of soap, to create 2.5 litres of handwash - and it worked!

- One grated bar of soap (I used Castille, from the £0.99 store - 5 bars for £0.99)
- 2.5 litres of boiling water (maybe more, add if needed)
- Aromatherapy oils
- Jojoba oil or olive oil (if desired)

Pour grated soap into water, melt. Check next day and if still not liquid enough, remelt and add more water if needed. I used a potato masher to mash the liquid get it quite smooth!

At the point when it's cooled down add jojoba (or oilive oil, which you may already have), as well as some drops of your favourite essential oil. Do not do this whilst still hot as the oils will evaporate.

I used lime which I love for a handwash smell. I have also purchased soearmint, grapefruit, tea tree, jasmin and honeysuckle oils on ebay for my future projects involving soap and washing up liquid etc.

Next use a funnel and pour into handwash pumps or squeezy bottles (if you intend to use more as a shower gel)...

Might be a little messy, but for the same of some time, you can make enough for yourself and friends and family too. I found a nice bottle in a charity shop for £0.99p which I will fill and then seal with a cork and nice ribbon and a tag. The handwash will have to be quite liquid for this to work. Alternatively you could buy or re-use a squeezy bottle and put a homemade plastic label on. Might be a nice gift for someone, and saves them £2-£3. Plus less plastic, and less chemicals too - everyone wins!



So for £0.99p you could make 12.5 litres of handwash - makes you realise how much money and plastic is wasted by buying storebought all the time!

I also use this as shower/body wash - you could add jojoba oil or olive oil for extra luxury moisturising qualities.

My next project will be to make some washing up liquid - anyone have any deas? Do drop in and comment x

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd like to try this - been looking for a good handwash recipe.

Just found your blog and have enjoyed what I've read so far!

Sophie Gist said...

Hi Kirsty, thanks for visiting!
Well the experiment re soap went well - I may reduce it down further with more water but we will see how it goes.
Today I bought a nice handwash pump from BHS as they had an amazing 20% sale. So in future all our handwash will be homemade. If you already have a decent handwash pump, of course use that, but ours was very flimsy plastic and on sale my new handwash pump was £2.50, so well worth it as I will now be buying less plastic.

My next attempt will be making washing up liquid - for this soap flakes and glycerin are needed, but most of the other ingredients we have at home. I will post a blog message once it works!

Maisie said...

You've been tagged.

see my blog for details

Jo said...

I am going to try making this over my holiday off work. It sounds very economical. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I've just made this and wow it makes a lot! Thank you so much, I can see that this will really save quite a bit of money in the long run.
Charlotte

Dan said...

I have been looking for a recipe for making liquid soap so thanks for that. It would be interesting to make it from home made soap as well - more savings still.
Love your blog.
Dan