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Homemade Liquid Soap from Scratch
I have made a lot soap in my lifetime, and while it takes the longest, Homemade liquid soap is my favorite to use. I just love the convenience of a liquid soap over the traditional bar soap. You can use it as hand soap, body wash, or even shampoo. Do not get me wrong, I love a good bar of soap, but to me, nothing beats a good homemade liquid soap.
To start off, I used 16oz of oil and I ended up with around 2 gallons of soap. So in total I spent less than $10 and I have a good supply of homemade liquid soap to last the family a while.
I like to store my liquid soap in mason jars with a soap pump lid, but if you have empty body wash containers, just rinse them out and reuse them.
Also, note that I prefer to use glycerin instead of distilled water for my liquid soap recipes, but you can use distilled water.
You will need the following tools:
- Slow Cooker
- Stick Blender
- Potassium Hydroxide
- Fragrance or essential oil of choice
Oils and Fats:
- Coconut Oil – 4oz
- Olive Oil – 12oz
Liquids and Lye:
- Glycerine or Distilled Water – 10.40 oz
- Potassium Hydroxide – 3.48oz
If using glycerine, you will need to heat it up to at least 200 degrees Fahrenheit so that the potassium hydroxide will dissolve. It is also important to remember to ALWAYS pour your lye into your water, never the other way around. Now, the liquids will start to boil and bubble, so be sure to add it slowly, stirring the whole time.
During this process, you will want to place your oils in your slow cooker and set it to low so any solids can melt down.
Once everything is ready, add your lye water mixture to your oils and start mixing. You are looking for the soap to come to a taffy phase, where it is very thick.
Once this happens, you will want to cook the soap on low for around 1-1.5 hours. You can then test it by adding a small portion to warm water and letting it dissolve. It the water is clear, you are good to go, if it is cloudy, cook it for another 30 minutes.
Once your soap is completely cooked, you can turn your slow cooker to warm and add your distilled water. I use a 2:1 ratio for a thicker soap. To determine how much water you will need, you can weight your gelled soap and times it by 2, or 3, depending on how thick you like your soap.
After you add your water, place the lid on and let the soap dissolve, I usually let mine set on warm over night.
You can check out the entire process in the video below!