DIY Liquid Hand Soap – Frugal & Natural Alternative for your Home
This post may contain affiliate links and I may be compensated for this post. Please read our disclosure policy here.
DIY Liquid Hand Soap
I truly love making our own cleaning products at home. I love the money we are saving and knowing exactly what I am putting into the products. My latest DIY home project has been liquid hand soap. Since I have two kids, we are always making messes and it seems I am constantly sending them to wash their hands. They love to make bubbles with the soap and use way more than necessary, but I figure that is better than using not enough soap! I wanted to share the recipe for liquid hand soap that I have been using that works great! As a family with sensitive skin, it is so nice to know exactly what ingredients we are using in our soaps.
DIY Liquid Hand Soap
Ingredients:
- 1 bar of soap (about 4 ounces)-I used Yardley, but any kind would work except Dove sensitive
- 1 Tablespoon glycerin
- 8 cups water
Directions:
Grate the bar of soap using a cheese grater.
Bring 4 cups of water to a boil and add grated soap
Mix and stir until soap has melted.
Add 1 tablespoon glycerin.
At this point, you can also add any natural scented essential oil if you like.
Let sit 10-12 hours, stirring every few hours.
The soap will gel and become thick, just keep stirring. After mixture has cooled, add about 2-4 more cups of water until soap is the consistency you like. {you may need to heat it again, on simmer/low, stirring occasionally until the water is mixed in & then let it cool.}
Pour soap (I use a mason jar funnel) into a large container for storing. Once it is in the jug (I love using the apple juice jugs from Costco), shake vigorously. Then, you’re ready to pour into soap dispensers. {See examples of the mason jar soap dispensers}
Cost of handmade liquid soap
{breakdown for approximately 66 ounces of soap}:
Bar of soap-$1.00 (I bought Yardley from the dollar tree)
Glycerin-$5.00 for 4 ounce bottle at Walgreens. One bottle will make 8 batches of soap so it is about $0.60 per batch.
Final Costs: One batch of 64- 66 ounces of homemade liquid handsoap (depending how much water you add) costs around $1.60
When shopping in the stores, you may be able to find coupons to pair with the sales on hand soap and definitely pay less, but it is still a significant savings to make your own soap in bulk. The greatest advantage to making your own soap is to know exactly what ingredients you are using in your soap, which may be great for those in your family who have sensitive skin or skin allergies.
Printable Recipe for DIY Liquid Soap:
Make sure to print off this recipe for DIY Liquid Handsoap to put in your recipe binder for DIY cleaning recipes.
PrintDIY Liquid Handsoap
Description
Make your own DIY Liquid Soap for a natural soap with ingredients you trust.
Ingredients
- 1 bar of soap (about 4 ounces)-I used Yardley, but any kind would work except Dove sensitive (which ironically is what we usually use)
- 1 Tablespoon glycerin
- 8 cups water
Instructions
- Grate the bar of soap using a cheese grater.
- Bring 4 cups of water to a boil and add grated soap
- Mix and stir until soap has melted.
- Add 1 tablespoon glycerin.
- At this point, you can also add any natural scented oil essence if you like.
- Let sit 10-12 hours, stirring every few hours.
- The soap will gel and become thick, just keep stirring. After mixture has cooled, add about 2-4 more cups of water until soap is the consistency you like.
- Pour soap (I use a funnel) into a large container for storing. Once it is in the jug, shake vigorously. Then, you’re ready to pour into soap dispensers.
What type of homemade cleaners & household products do you use in your home?
Here are more DIY posts you might be interested in:
DIY: Homemade Laundry Detergent
DIY: Homemade Dishwasher Soap & Rinsing Agent
By Contributor Sarah
Can you then use this liquid soap to make DIY foamy soap? Even more savings! :-)
I’ve been using the dishwasher detergent posted here and love it. One batch has lasted me almost five months. And this month I started using the Duggar family liquid laundry detergent and love it. Coated me about $2 for 10 gallons. I have 3 kids so I do about 1-2 loads a day.
can you put this solution as is, in a foaming bottle or does it need more water? Any ideas? Anyone tired it in a foaming bottle… the kids use much less each time with the foaming soap.
you should be able to make in into the foaming by adding more water! try it and let us know!!
I am curious if anyone has ever used this recipe in a crockpot??? One of my crockpots has a “warm” setting on it instead of worrying about it on my stove all day. TY!!!
you actually only need to heat it until the shredded soap melts. then you can turn the stove off -you just want it to cool completely and gel before adding more water and putting it in your dispensers! sorry about the confusion:)
I’m actually in the process of making this as we speak…. hope it comes out good.. I could always use a savings deal!!!!