Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Home Creations: Liquid Soap Saves the Day

Has this ever happened to you?  You go to your sink needing to wash your hands only to find you're completely out of soap?  If you have a child with you then you're probably in a hurry, you crank off the top, slosh water in the dispenser, and pour the now "gas station quality" soap all over?  That was my morning.  Except for it wasn't one sink, it was four of them.  And did I mention we have no liquid hand soap in the house?

I decided to make my own soap with what I had on hand, BUT not before I filled up the soap dispensers with a lovely combination of dish soap and water.  Don't judge, you know you've done it too :)



There are lots of recipes for liquid soap making online (hello Pinterest my friend).  Most of the websites advocate homemade hand soap because of the low cost.  The soap I made today cost about $2.  Not bad.


 The basic ingredients consist of  bars of soap, water (distilled is best), and glycerin.  Having two of the three on hand, I went for my own concoction.




Homemade Liquid Ivory Soap

3 Bars of Ivory Soap
1 Gallon Distilled Water
1 Large Stockpot
Grater
Blender - immersion stick blender is the best
Containers for soap (use the gallon jug from the water)




1.)  Pour water into stock pot and heat until just steaming.

2.)  While water is heating, grate the soap.  It goes really fast.

3.)  Remove water from the stove.  Add soap shavings.





4.)  Blend until the soap shavings have completely dissolved.  If you are using a stick blender, it will take about 5 minutes.


My Helper eating peas while I blend.


          5.)  Now walk away for 10 hours.  I mean it.  Don't even look at it until the end.  If you look                        beforehand it is going to look like you have water in a pot.  You might fret over it.  Seriously walk away.  It's only after 11 hours that you get...


Liquid Soap!!!!

It was a little thick, so I added some extra water.  You could probably use less bar soap and do just as well.  It made more than a gallon of soap too. I could see where the glycerin would make it a bit smoother, but it works fine without it.  Tomorrow I am going to make enough to put a large container under each bathroom sink.

This would make a great gift.  I'm thinking of getting some of that amazing Yardley's pomegranate bar soap and going to town with it.  Would you like some homemade liquid soap?




2 comments:

  1. Awesome - - I am getting the stuff to make my own laundry soap - - we will see how that goes :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. It has been three years and I am still using this. Saves us a lot of money each year!

    ReplyDelete