Natural Body Care: Hand & Body Soap

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I have had so much fun this month as I experimented with some different ways to simplify my cleaning products. So far I have been very pleased with what I have tried and today’s recipe is no exception. I have included two different options for hand and body soap. Recipe #1 is what I have been using. While I love it and it does a good job, it is rather expensive to make. Recipe #2 is the new recipe I tried and I love it! It is so much cheaper to make and it works great too. So, take your pick…you will be happy with either one! Have fun!

Hand & Body Soap #1

2 T. *Miracle II Soap (found on Amazon here) or Dr. Bronner’s Liquid Castile Soap

1 cup water

Mix soap and water in a foam pump container and use for hand soap at the sinks, or as body soap in the shower!

* While I really like the Miracle II and Dr. Bronner’s products, I do not agree with everything that is put on their packaging or on their websites.

Hand & Body Soap #2

1 4-oz. bar soap (*See note below on the kind of soap to use!)

1 Tablespoon vegetable glycerin

11 cups water

essential oils (optional)

Finely grate the bar of soap.

Boil 4 cups of the water in a pot, remove from heat and add the grated soap. Stir constantly until soap is fully dissolved.

Add the rest of the water (7 cups) and the vegetable glycerin and stir. Stir in any essential oils that you wish to use.

Allow to sit overnight to gel.

The mixture will gel up and sometimes be stringy. That is ok and it will still work just fine.

Use a hand mixer to break up the mixture. You can use a blender, blending up a few cups at a time, but I found that it made the soap foam up too much.

Once the mixture is pouring consistency, use a funnel to fill up your pump hand soap containers. You can buy these online or just use old containers that you have rinsed out good. Once you have filled up the containers you want to use, store the remaining mixture in a tupperware with a lid. I store mine under the kitchen sink so I can easily pull it out and refill containers as needed.

Use this hand soap at each sink in your home to wash hands with, and put one in the shower to use as a body soap.

This method is by far the most economical and the one I will be making from now on. I love it!

* The kind of soap does make a difference. It is recommended to use a good quality soap such as Kirk’s Castile Soap or Tom’s of Maine. (I read that Dove soap does NOT work well for this!) I have made a batch with a bar of Yardley soap and it turned out pretty good. I also did a batch using the Kirk’s Castile Soap and it turned out great too. One of the things that I am trying to avoid is all the fragrances and chemicals in the soaps, so I would prefer using a fragrance-free bar if possible and adding in some essential oil for fragrance.