Tuesday 24 April 2012

Home Made Liquid Soap

We use this soap as hand wash in both the bathroom and kitchen at our place and it is very cheap to make.  The first time I made it it ended up very goopy and stringy and it would not break off from the bottle after you pumped it so there was long strands of soap being stretched between your hand and the pump bottle.  I think it was because I added too much glycerine. I have since adjusted the recipe and I am much happier with the result.
The glycerine can usually be found in the supermarket near the medicinal things, in my local it is next to the Tea Tree Oil.  You can also sometimes find it near the cake decorating items as it is used to make royal icing pliable.  I am not sure it there is any difference but the one I use says "can be used and an emollient to soften roughened skin, chapped hands or sore lips".
I make this in 1 litre amounts because there is only the 2 of us, and even then it lasts for ages.  You will need a stick blender, food processor or some other method of breaking the mix into a liquid.

Liquid Soap

1/2 cup of Lux or grated soap flakes
1 tsp Glycerine
1 litre of water

Into a saucepan place soap flakes and glycerine.  Add your water and heat on the stove on a low - medium heat.  Stir occasionally until all the soap has dissolved.

Once it has all dissolved and you have the clear soapy mix in the pan you remove it from the heat and leave to cool.  At this stage you could add some essential oil for fragrance if you wanted.
It will cool and solidify into a thick jelly like substance that now need to be blended to form the liquid soap.
Once you have blended it into a more liquid state you can pour into your pump bottles and you are ready to go.
I store mine in plastic water bottles one under the bathroom sink and one under the kitchen sink.
I do find that with very grubby hands you may need to use more than 1 lot of soap but it is so cheap that even doing that you still come out miles ahead of the shop brought liquid soap.

2 comments:

  1. We just ran out of liquid soap, perfect timing. Must try this.thanks Fiona!

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  2. Trying this tomorrow!!
    I tried making washing up liquid last week but it set like jelly and wouldn't come out of the bottle - darn it I didn't even think of blending it afterwards!
    Do you think this liquid soap could be used as a base for washing up liquid?

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