Frugal Home Series Part 4: Homemade Liquid Hand/Body Soap

Frugal Home Series Part 4: Homemade Liquid Soap

Today's tutorial isn't for anything that includes borax, vinegar, or soda of any kind. No, it's liquid soap. Did you know you can make a gallon of liquid soap from just 8 oz of bar soap?  Yep, it works.

My Grandma gave my sister and I a Philosophy gift set with body wash, hand cream, a bar of body soap, perfume, and lotion.  I really wanted the perfume and lotion and Chris wanted the body wash and hand cream, so we split it down the middle and I got the bar, too. I  hate using bar soap.

Have you ever used Philosophy products?  They smell so good.  I can't describe it.  It's not floral or sweet- just clean and beautiful.  But, you know how much that body wash costs?
$17 for 8 OUNCES.

Love it, but I love the food in our fridge and the roof over our head a little more. So, I figured- let's take the bar I won't ever use and turn it into body wash!  Here is how:

You need:

• 8 oz of bar soap (Any bar.  Read the label to make sure your are using 8 oz.  For some soaps, that's one bar, for others it is 2 or 3!)
• 2 Tablespoons of Glycerin (found by the bandaids.  You will not find it by the soap.  Trust me on this!  Invest in the $3 bottle and you will have enough for gallons of soap!)

• 1 gallon (or 16 cups) of water
• Stock Pot
• Container for soap (trusty milk jug for me!)

First, Grate your soap like it's cheese.  You can use the same technique I used when I made laundry soap.  My soap was rich and would not grate (okay, I don't own a cheese grater.  I have a micro plane and it wouldn't work).  I chunked it and it worked fine.
Put it in a stock pot with the water and glycerin.  Heat on medium heat until all of the soap is dissolved.  This will go by faster if you grated the soap.

When all is dissolved, you will have what looks like soapy water.  Don't worry- you are on the right track!

Take off the heat and let cool/coagulate for 10-12 hours.

It should be like thick snot now.  Beat with a hand-held mixer, adding as much water as you want in order to get your desired consistency.  At this point, I added extra perfume to smell extra pretty =)

Funnel into container and you are in bid-naz!

I found Dial Men's care bars- $2 for 3 bars for my husband.  Smells super manly and you will only use 2 bars, which means a gallon of men's body wash costs a whopping $1.34.  He loves it.  Hoo-rah.

*Edit 3.26.12
Yes, the soap is going to be a little "snotty", no matter how much water you add.  It also doesn't foam well, but suds does not equal clean.  In fact, some company add foam boosters to soaps and laundry detergents because we, as consumers, have been brainwashed into thinking suds does equal clean!