Easy Moisturizing Foaming Hand Soap Recipe

Making your own soap can sometimes be a difficult process, but using this simple, natural hand soap recipe couldn’t be any easier!  It is a great place to start if you are interested in making your own homemade products.

You Will Need:

• Water
• Natural Liquid Castille Soap (Dr. Bronner’s is a good option; buy it here or in natural stores) – I usually use unscented, but you can use other varieties like Lavender, Peppermint, for unique mixtures
• A few drops of essential oil (where to buy) – (I’ve used lemon, lavender, peppermint, and Thieves in the past)*
• Vitamin E oil, optional (buy it here, or find in natural stores)*
• Foaming soap pump dispenser- glass is best for the oils*

Directions:

1. Fill empty soap dispenser with water, about 3/4 full.

2.  Add approximately 3  tablespoons of Castille soap, depending on your pump and preference (Probably at least 2 tbsp).

3.  Add drops of essential oil, perhaps 7-10? Again, depends on your preference and dispenser size.

4.  Add approximately 1/4 tsp. Vitamin E oil.  This is optional, but incredibly moisturizing and helps the pump work smoothly.

5.  Replace the lid, gently swish around to mix, and enjoy your new hand soap!

TIPS:

• Technically, all of these ingredients are optional; You could just use castille soap and water, BUT…
• Some essential oils have antibacterial/antiviral effects, so adding them isn’t just for the wonderful scents.  They are so much more than aromas.  Use only high-quality oils on your body.
• Use glass containers for essential oils, especially citrus EOs, because they can pull out toxic materials out of plastics!
• You can also use olive oil or sweet almond oil in place of Vitamin E oil, but I find they don’t mix/pump as well and aren’t as moisturizing.
• Vegetable glycerin is another great alternative to Vitamin E oil.
• I don’t recommend adding the soap before the water because it will get too bubbly.
• I found my pump on clearance at Target.  There are some cool pump tops for mason jars that are adorbs!
• Vitacost.com and my Amazon store is where I get many of my homemade ingredients.  Tell them I sent you?!

And now for WHY you may want to make your own hand soap…(enter soapbox here…pun intended)

For one, this is SO MUCH CHEAPER than buying bottles of foaming soap at the store!  I think the one thing that made me drag my feet so much when starting to make my own products was seeing all of these “odd” ingredients that I had to buy.  I thought, “Vitamin E oil?! And I only need a little squirt of it? Seems like a waste of money”.  Originally, it may take you aback having to buy some random ingredients, but I found that they become your very-used pantry and last a long time.  Your laboratory, really.  I use my Vitamin E oil now in other homemade products, like face wash, body wash, straight facial moisturizer, eye wrinkle cream, skin care products, etc.  So once you build your small foundation of main ingredients, you can make nearly anything you desire.  Doing the quick mental math here, my hand soap only costs me pennies, and it makes my hands softer than any store-bought soap I’ve ever used.

Know what’s in your products and avoid toxic chemicals and fragrances. It takes 26 seconds for the ingredients in what you place on your body to be absorbed through the skin and into your body’s organs!  If you check your commercial soaps, body washes, and shampoo bottles right now you will probably find Sodium Laurel Sulfate(SLS), parabens, phthalates, artificial colors, and fragrances.  What the what?!  Some of these ingredients are just harsh and can actually cause skin irritations, but others are linked to serious health conditions such as cancer.  Some of these ingredients are endocrine disruptors, which interfere with hormones, especially the thyroid.

“Phthalates…are sometimes referred to as the ‘everywhere chemical’, because they are literally everywhere.  Used to make plastic flexible, they’re found in plastic tubing, children’s toys, cosmetics, shampoos, soaps, lotions, nail polish, lubricants, paint, and pesticides.  While using a soap containing phthalates isn’t theoretically as problematic as using a lotion, since you wash the soap off, an average person can wash their hands up to eight to ten times a day, which adds up to an enormous lifetime exposure.  Couple that with all of the other products you use, and you have a veritable toxic soup of chemicals brewing in your body” (source)

Antibacterial products are a billion dollar industry, but they often have a chemical called ‘triclosan’ as an active ingredient.  Triclosan originally was only used in hospitals, but soap manufacturers chose to use it in all kinds of products to eliminate bacteria.  The problem is that antibiotics can cause antibiotic-resistant bacteria.  Triclosan is another endocrine disruptor which has worries that lead to problems with infertility, early puberty, birth defects, obesity, and cancer, according to studies on rats and frogs (source).  The FDA calls this “a concern”.  In a 2008 study, 75% of people tested had triclosan present in their urine (source:CDC fact sheet), and it builds up in our fatty tissues.  I personally think it is too early to see the full results of our chemical-ridden food/product era, but I try to limit my lab rat participation as much as I can.

Not all bacteria is bad!  A healthy amount of bacteria is necessary for proper immune functioning.  The FDA recently acknowledged that antibacterial products are no more effective than soap and water, and could even be dangerous.

I am stepping down now, and going to wash my hands in my lemon, silky, goodness.  Please let me know if you try any version of this hand soap recipe!  I would love to hear from you and see if anybody is actually reading this after all 🙂

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