Homemade Liquid Hand Soap

After mastering my own laundry detergent, I decided to take a whirl at making my own liquid hand soap as well. I was truly overwhelmed by the vast amount of information and recipes there is online for this! So many different variations and a lot of conflicting advice as well.

 Here’s what I did:

Ingredients:

1 grated bar soap (I used Ivory)

2 TBS of glycerin (I found at Meijer next to the band aids for $3, regular or vegetable is fine)

1 gallon of water (I used distilled water **see note at bottom)

Things needed:

Large pot

Cheese grater, blender, or food processor

Handheld mixer

First, put the water in the pot and heat it on medium/high. Don’t bring it to a full boil, just make it warm enough that you see steam coming off of it. While the water is heating up, take this time to grate the soap. When the water begins to steam, take it off the heat and add the glycerin and grated soap. Mix until the soap is completely dissolved and

by the end it will just look like soapy water. If you let this sit for 12 hours or so, it will take a more solid, gel-like shape. Then, use your hand mixer and mix it until it is the desired texture.

I had my husband help me funnel the soap from the pan to the containers and the whole time all he talked about what how the texture was like slime! This was a complaint some people had online but it doesn't bother us at all.

For a whole gallon of soap, we paid an estimate of $1.50. Not too shabby! I do not know the shelf-life of this soap because I've only made it once but I will be sure to update when I figure it out!

**I recommend using distilled water (less than $1 for a gallon) because it is pure and will save a step. If you choose to use tap water, you need to boil the water and wait for it to cool down a bit before adding the soap and glycerin. Also, I used the distilled water jug to store the soap. Cleaner than a milk jug!