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!

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Homemade Laundry Detergent

I've been making my own laundry detergent for a couple of months now; it’s so easy and cheap that I can't believe I didn't start sooner! I did a lot of research to figure out what recipe I wanted to use and there are so many different recipes and variations out there that I felt really overwhelmed. All I knew was I wanted to make it as natural as possible. I’m tired of hearing of toxins and chemicals that we are putting into or onto our bodies. I liked the recipe at DIY Natural so I gave it a try.

Ingredients:

1 cup Borax

1 cup Washing Soda

1 grated bar of Ivory (or any other natural soap)

Things you need:

1 cheese grater, blender, or food processor

1 container to store detergent in
1 large bowl

All of these items can be found at a local grocery store. I found all of mine at Meijer but I've seen them at Walmart too!

I start with the bar of soap; I prefer Fels-Naptha but its so much harder to find in stores around me. If I dont have any Fels-Naptha on hand, I like Ivory because it’s free of dyes and heavy perfumes and cheap. Really cheap. To grate it, you can use a cheese grater (that’s what I do) or just stick in a blender or food processor. The smaller the grated pieces, the easier they'll dissolve in the washer (although, I haven't had a problem with the cheese grater pieces).

Next, you mix the grated soap, washing soda, and borax all together (make sure it’s mixed really well!) and put it in a tightly-sealed container. I use an old Clorox wipe plastic container and its perfect.

You only need 1 or 2 tablespoons per load, how awesome is that?! Also, because it’s powder and not liquid, the shelf-life is really long.

Many thanks to Joy at Simply Bloom for the free laundry label printable that can be found here.   

I hope you try it and let me know what you think!

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