Make-your-own Dish Soap!
I hate washing dishes. Hate it. But I love making soap! Today, when it was time to wash the dishes, I noticed I was out of dish soap. What to do? I really don't like using anything but Shepherd's Harvest soap these days, but since Shepherd's Harvest (a.k.a. me) does not make a dishwashing liquid, mine has been store-bought. An idea occurred to me...there was a jar full of soap shavings from the last batch of lavender goat milk soap which smelled just wonderful, and goat milk soap is great for the hands. It also lathered really well, which is a great feature for dish soap. So I set to work making dish soap from the shavings, and it worked wonderfully! There was a bit of "soaper's" knowledge of glycerine and such that helped quite a bit, so I thought I would pass along my method. Here it is:
Equipment and ingredients:
Blender, food processor
Stainless Steel bowl
Wire whisk
Jar
About 2 cups of Soap shavings
Distilled water
Essential oil if desired (if soap is unscented, otherwise should be the same as soap scent)
Procedure:
Process the soap shavings in the blender or food processor a small amount at a time until you have a fine crumbly texture. Place the soap "crumbs" in the stainless bowl on stove burner. Microwave about 4 cups of distilled water to the boiling point, then pour it over the crumbled soap in the bowl. Turn the stove on a low setting. Stir until all soap is melted and the mixture is warm and a little darker and more transparent than the original soap. The temperature should be around 150 degrees or so, in order for the soap to gel properly. This will fully mix the water and soap and prevent separation later.
Remove the liquid soap from the heat, cool, and add 1/4 teaspoon of essential oil if desired. Pour into a squirt bottle using a funnel. Store remainder in a Mason Jar as a refill, or use as hand soap.
Enjoy!
Equipment and ingredients:
Blender, food processor
Stainless Steel bowl
Wire whisk
Jar
About 2 cups of Soap shavings
Distilled water
Essential oil if desired (if soap is unscented, otherwise should be the same as soap scent)
Procedure:
Process the soap shavings in the blender or food processor a small amount at a time until you have a fine crumbly texture. Place the soap "crumbs" in the stainless bowl on stove burner. Microwave about 4 cups of distilled water to the boiling point, then pour it over the crumbled soap in the bowl. Turn the stove on a low setting. Stir until all soap is melted and the mixture is warm and a little darker and more transparent than the original soap. The temperature should be around 150 degrees or so, in order for the soap to gel properly. This will fully mix the water and soap and prevent separation later.
Remove the liquid soap from the heat, cool, and add 1/4 teaspoon of essential oil if desired. Pour into a squirt bottle using a funnel. Store remainder in a Mason Jar as a refill, or use as hand soap.
Enjoy!
Oooo, Thanks! I have a bunch of orange spice soap shavings that I was thinking of making into liquid soap, but wasn't quite sure how I was going to do so!
ReplyDeleteOrange Spice will work well! If it is one of the regular CP soap fragrances you probably won't need to add any more to the liquid, either, because those hold up really well under heat. I only recommend adding a little if it is essential oil because they tend to break down.
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