Fun Fact: Making your own homemade foaming hand soap is frugal, fast, and insanely easy! And you can feel good about the fact that you’re taking an easy step to protect your family from toxic chemicals.
How many times do you wash your hands in a day? Between cleaning chicken coops, diaper changes, potty helping, preparing food, running errands, etc.. etc.. I feel like I’m washing my hands aaaaaaaall day long. Think how many times you expose yourself to those nasty chemicals! Umm… No thanks. And especially no thanks for my kids.
We love foaming hand soap around here, so I was excited to find this super easy recipe to make your own. Foaming? Check. Kills bacteria and germs gently? Check Toxic level? Zero. Homemade for the win! MAKE YOUR OWN HOMEMADE FOAMING HAND SOAP people. Trust me, you’re gonna love it.
Recipe for Homemade Foaming Hand Soap
2 T Castille Soap
2 t Coconut Oil, Fractionated
5 drops Maleluca essential oil
5-10 drops other essential oil for fragrance (optional)
water
foaming hand soap dispenser
Directions for making Homemade Foaming Hand Soap
Add castile soap, coconut oil and essential oils to a foaming hand soap dispenser. It’s important to use a foaming dispenser, since the dispenser is what creates the actual foam. They’re kind of pricy online, so just use an old empty one, or ask your neighbor for their used ones. I guess you could always go dumpster diving, but that’s probably not first choice. Gently swirl ingredients together. You can see below how far the non-water ingredients come up on the bottle I used.
Add water to the top of the bottle and twist on the lid. Gently swirl ingredients together again. I pulled the label sticker off of my empty dispenser. It came off really easily. Someday I dream of accessorizing my naked bottle for my guest bathroom and making it all cute and stuff, but today is not that day. Mommy-hood calls.
And that’s it. Push the dispenser a few times and just like magic, homemade foaming hand soap appears! Bam.
The fractionated coconut oil provides some moisturizing benefit and the melaleuca oil is great too. I chose Citrus Bliss essential blend as my fragrance because I love citrusy scents for my hand soaps.
Honestly, you could even bag the essential oils and coconut oil and go with just the castile soap and water. It would still foam just fine and come out even cheaper. You can even buy already scented castile soap. My hands get super dry and I love to shake up the scent of mine every once in a while, so that’s why I use the coconut and essential oils.
Also, sometimes I find my ingredients have separated, so a quick swish around and it’s good to go again.
So, how does our homemade foaming hand soap cost compare to what you would find in a store?
Castille Soap: $0.60
Fractionated Coconut Oil: $0.35
Melaluca Essential Oil: $0.38
Citrus Bliss Essential Oil: $0.30
Water: Free
Empty Foaming Dispenser: Free
Total Cost: $1.63
Bath and Body Works sells their foaming hand soap for about $6.50, so our version is 75% cheaper!! And the best part, our version comes toxin free.
Homemade for the win again!
If you’d like to get your hands on some pure essential oils you can order some here!
I love this soap! I made mine with peppermint Castile soap so I omitted the essential oils. I used sweet almond oil since that’s what I had on hand, but I will buy fractionated coconut oil to try for next time since I love anything coconut! I’m just so glad to have a non toxic soap since I wash my hands so much. Thanks for the post!
I started making my own foaming hand soap about two months ago. I use one tbsp. of castille soap and fill the dispenser with water. It works great.
I’m excited to try this recipe. Thanks for posting it!
I got some empty foam dispensers from a friend, but I’m having a tough time getting the scent out of the bottle. I rinsed it out several times, tried soaking it with vinegar, sprayed it with rubbing alcohol, but haven’t had any luck. My soap is still coming out scented like the original soap. I would get a different dispenser, but I have some of the pretty covers that fit over the top, and would really like to use them. I’m wondering if anyone else had this problem as well, and what worked for you? Any help would be much appreciated!
Have you tried soaking it with baking soda? I add a couple tablespoons of baking soda depending on the container size, then fill with water and shake. Let it sit for 24 hours then check it. For really bad scents I’ve had to repeat it but it’s always worked for me.
I just followed your directions and made my first batch of hand soap (I also had to wash my hands immediately to try it out). I also used an old dispenser. Since you are using essential oils, should you also use a glass dispenser or is the recipe diluted enough? I used lavender and lemon as my citrus blend is on order. Thanks for this great idea! I can’t wait to use it for my classroom too.
I used a plastic bottle and it worked out great!
I made this today and already love it! I experimented a bit with the oils and used Thrives, Purification and Lemon. 🙂 It could not have been easier. I reused some old plastic Dial containers and rinsed then as well as possible in hot water. I can’t smell the old scent at all; the Theives oil really covers up any other scents. 🙂 The addition of coconut oil is awesome! My hands feel soft and I am so happy to have a safe hand soap for my family. Thanks!!
Great! I am so glad you like it!
While I understand why you went this route, I think you’re over-complicating it… A Tablespoon or two in a foaming bottle filled with water will do the same thing.
I would love to try this but I must admit I am not familiar with thd castille soap, coconut oil & the essential oil. Is this something I can readily find in my grocery store or does it come from a speciality store?
I have been able to find castile soap and coconut oil in my local stores like Winco or even Wal-Mart sometimes. I have also seen it at Target, Walgreens and Whole Foods, too.
You can also order them online at Amazon! The links are below. I also included the links if you would like to buy Doterra oils.
Castille Soap
Fractionated Coconut Oil
Melaleuca Essential Oil
Citrus Bliss Essential Oil
Hope that helps!
Have you ever tries this with OnGuard? We buy the soap from doterra but i am sure it would be much cheaper to make it ourselves.
No, I haven’t tried adding OnGuard before. If try it out let me know what you think of it!
My husband really didn’t care for the on guard soap from doterra…he said it was stinky! Lol, but my kids and I love it. I actually made him his own special soap with Doterra wild orange and citrus bliss (also snuck a few drops of on guard in) he loves the citrus smell, and it’s very refreshing.
Thank you for the recipe. I love your blog. Do you have to use a foaming dispenser? I have a bunch of regular soap dispensers from bath and body works but no foaming ones.
Hi,
Does it have to be fractionated coconut oil, can i use the regular cooking oil or another oil like argan, olive, etc
I haven’t tried it with any other kind. I find the fractionated coconut oil is much better for beauty products. 🙂
Tried it, love it!
We used grapefruit essential oil and it worked beautifully! Fresh, light, clean!
Love this concept, but use caution with the coconut oil. If you have nut allergies in your household you already know this…but it would be easy for such a common household item to be forgotten about when you have company.
I’m just wondering, is fractionated coconut oil bad for plumbing like regular coconut oil? Should I be worried about too much of it building up over time in the pipes?
My soap & water keeps separating. The soap always settles to the bottom and the water remains on top. I’ve tried everything from shaking vigorously after filling to using super hot water, and it still separates. Any advice? Is this happening to anyone else? I end up shaking the bottle before we use it each time, but I feel like there must be a better solution. (<—oh ha, a pun!)
I found some clear foaming containers for .89 cents each & if you sign up to receive emails you get a discount!
http://www.bulkapothecary.com/packaging/plastic-bottles/8oz-clear-foamer-bottles-and-foamers-89-set.html
I just made this and my pump worked fine before i added everything and now it doesn’t want to come back up and its not foaming..what did I do?
Try shaking it so all the ingredients are thoroughly combined. That could be the problem. Mine have never done this. Any one else had this happen–any advice?
Has anyone had difficulty with the fragrance fading quickly? I’ve been doing this for nearly a year now, and each time less than halfway through the bottle, I can only smell the “unscented” castille soap. And trust me, I’ve tried adding more oil – and I’m using quality oils, as well. :/
Great Recipe, How do you make just plain liquid castile soap? Is it a 1 to 1 ratio? I purchased my coconut oil from Bulk Apothecary in bulk since I use it to cook with as well for a great price at 20% off the regular prices below.
15 oz – $6.23
7.5 lbs ($4.47 / lb) – $33.50
30 lb case ($4.12 / lb) – $123.60
420 lb drum ($2.90 / lb after discount) – $1218.67
8 drums or more (Call for Quote)
– See more at: http://www.bulkapothecary.com/product/raw-ingredients/bulk-natural-oils/fractionated-coconut-oil-mct-medium-chain-triglycerides/#sthash.eO5tBK4j.dpuf
This post is great! I was made and currently using a chamomile foaming soap but am excited to try this one, after finish my last soap. Thanks so much 🙂