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Homemade Liquid Hand Soap
  • Natural Home

Liquid Hand Soap Recipe

Katie WellsFeb 25, 2015Updated: Oct 7, 2019
Reading Time: 2 min

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Wellness Mama » Blog » Natural Home » Liquid Hand Soap Recipe

We go through a lot of hand soap. A lot. From the diaper changes to the “mom come wipe me”s, there is much hand washing in our house.

Ever the DIYer, I’ve been making foaming hand soap for years, and we still use it daily. The only downside of foaming hand soap is that you need a special foaming pump and these eventually wear out (though this one has been going strong for over a year at our house).

Liquid Hand Soap…

I got enough questions about if this would work as a liquid hand soap that I decided to create a recipe specifically for liquid hand soap. This uses the same idea as my homemade laundry detergent of grating a natural bar soap and melting in water to form a natural gel.

This is not only cost effective (a $3 to $4 bar of premium natural soap will make up to a gallon of soap), but simple and more natural than regular soap.

Is it Antibacterial?

As I mentioned before, I avoid antibacterial handsoaps and other products because of their potential to create resistant bacteria and microbiome changes. Plain soap and water have proven as effective as antibacterial soaps without the risk (source) and this natural version is a simple and cost effective natural soap.

What You’ll Need

  • A natural bar soap of choice. Homemade bar soaps usually work well and my other favorites are Dr. Bronners, african black soap, and Kombucha soap (available here).
  • Distilled or filtered water
  • A dispenser: Reuse an old soap dispenser, use a glass one or metal one, or make one out of a mason jar by drilling a hole in the top and hot gluing on the top of a soap pump dispenser.

What You Need:

  • 1 ounce of finely grated bar soap (about 1/4 of a bar of soap) I used this one
  • 1 quart of water
  • Optional: Essential Oils of your preference

What to Do:

  1. Place the bar soap and water into a small saucepan.
  2. Turn on medium heat and stir constantly until soap has dissolved into the water.
  3. Let cool completely and add the essential oils if using. Pour into the container you plan to use.
  4. It will take about 24 hours to completely “gel” but it will not be quite as thick as regular hand soap. You can add more grated bar soap to create a thicker soap but it will be more difficult to pump and will not get hands any more clean, so I stick with this.
  5. After 24 hours, shake well to make sure it has gelled completely and use as normal.

What type of hand soap do you use? Ever made your own?

Category: Natural Home

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About Katie Wells

Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Founder of Wellness Mama and Wellnesse, has a background in research, journalism, and nutrition. As a wife and mom of six, she turned to research and took health into her own hands to find answers to her health problems. WellnessMama.com is the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and all posts are medically reviewed and verified by the Wellness Mama research team. Katie is also the author of the bestselling books The Wellness Mama Cookbook and The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox.

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Reader Interactions

Discussion (110 Comments)

  1. Kristy

    May 20, 2015 at 11:24 AM

    Josie, have you got a response. I haven’t started to make the liquid hand soap but just bought a dr bonners lavendar soap bar…im scared its not going to come out well based on wbat has happened to you.

    Reply
  2. Dora

    May 14, 2015 at 10:00 AM

    I love every thing i saw here. I will try it

    Reply
  3. Josie Terrell

    May 13, 2015 at 8:06 AM

    Help me!!! This is the second time I’ve tried to make this water + bar soap liquid soap recipe. My soap isn’t gelling at all. It’s just a liquid. So frustrating. Please tell me what I’m doing wrong.

    Reply
    • cathy bell

      October 8, 2017 at 6:32 PM

      did you ever solve this problem? my soap turned out the same.

      Reply
  4. Susan

    April 16, 2015 at 5:45 AM

    I have collected many bars of soaps. I love soaps. Can I grate these and make liquid hand and body soap using the distiller water recipe. Will these give me the same effect as the original recipe.

    Reply
  5. Dragana

    April 9, 2015 at 10:46 PM

    My liquid soap turned out to be very slimy – we can hardly wash our hands as it runs away from the hand very quickly – especially with children. After you press the pump and take the soap into your palm, it stretches a lot and makes a lot of mess around the dispenser. What am I doing wrong?

    Reply
    • Monica

      May 30, 2015 at 2:02 PM

      This happened with the batch I made a few months ago. I also hated the tacky feeling it left on my hands (although maybe that was the glycerine?) All we had to do was add some oil to jar and wa-la, much better! I can’t give you an exact amount, just add a few “glugs” at a time until you think the consistency is right. We ended up using a mixture of olive and avocado oils because it was what we had on hand in the kitchen, but any stable veggie based oil should do. Only thing to note is that adding the oil might cause the soap to go bad a bit quicker so I wouldn’t make more than about a 4-6mo supply and store in a dark/cool area.

      Reply
  6. Corinne

    March 19, 2015 at 12:29 PM

    Do you have a good recipe for a hand/body lotion that doesn’t contain coconut oil? I have eczema on my hands only, and it seems that the coconut oil makes it flair up. Is there a chance I have an intolerance, or allery to coconut oil?

    Reply
    • Wellness Mama

      March 19, 2015 at 2:46 PM

      This recipe is great and the coconut oil is optional (as the recipe says, just use more shea butter where it calls for coconut oil): https://wellnessmama.com/23619/shea-butter-lotion-bar-stick/

      Reply
    • therese

      January 6, 2016 at 3:27 PM

      I used to have eczema on my hands too. I gave up drinking cows milk and it went away.

      Reply
  7. Maria

    March 17, 2015 at 4:23 AM

    Can you tell me how this soap is disinfecting and killing bacteria on my hands, couse I don’t see an ingredient which could do that?

    Reply
    • Darla

      March 21, 2015 at 8:35 PM

      You are not supposed to disinfect your hands, you will kill your normal flora which kills bad bacteria!

      Reply
    • jill schaible

      July 27, 2015 at 10:37 AM

      ALL soap will kill bacteria. Soap and water is still the best thing for washing hands. Antibacterial wipes and gels AND soaps will kill both good and bad bacteria. Our world is over-sanitized, which is partly why we have so much spread of disease. Our bodies don’t have enough good bacteria to fight back.

      Reply
      • Ginger

        February 21, 2016 at 5:10 PM

        I agree 100% Jill. I am a nurse, and when I was in nursing school, we never had antibacterial gels or soaps. We killed germs (bad) with regular soap and water and LOTS of friction. It’s the friction that does the trick.

        Reply
    • Jayne

      January 5, 2016 at 1:01 PM

      I remember seeing a TV program where they tested antibacterial soap and plain soap and there was NO DIFFERENCE to the level of bacteria left on your hands – surgeons have just ‘scrubbed up’ using plain soap for years before performing operations 😉

      However, the test between soap and just plain water did make a difference as it appears the bacteria are just distributed over the hands rather than being washed off…

      Reply
    • Noweigh

      August 24, 2016 at 11:47 AM

      Um..the soap?
      The soap is the ingredient that gets the germs off your hands

      Reply
  8. Ela

    March 16, 2015 at 10:14 AM

    Can I use a mixture of 3 tablespoons castor oil + 1 tablespoon olive oil + 1 tablespoon coconut oil? Is it going to be the same effect as with jojoba oil?

    Reply
  9. Darla

    March 11, 2015 at 1:14 PM

    Ok, so boil first let cool, add soap and heat again until soap dissolves? Sorry, mommy brain here 🙂

    Reply
    • Katie - Wellness Mama

      March 13, 2015 at 9:15 PM

      You can just heat with the grated soap until it dissolves

      Reply
  10. Darla

    March 9, 2015 at 12:11 PM

    I made this yesterday but just used water from tap. Should I have boiled it first? Do I need to throw out what I made? I used cucumber and calendula soap from the soap works and it is a nice consistency! Made the powdered laundry detergent too, and it is even effective on cloth diapers. Love it!!!

    Reply
    • Wellness Mama

      March 9, 2015 at 3:30 PM

      The reason to boil the water is just to kill anything in the water so that it does not spoil. It will work fine, it just may not last as long as it otherwise would.

      Reply
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