As you know, I am on a journey of making my home more chemical free. I am always on the lookout for products that I can make myself, and one that I have been meaning to try my hand at is Homemade Dish Soap. A few months ago I found the perfect combination (in my humble opinion) and my whole family loves it. We not only use it for our dishes, but we use it to wash our fruits and veggies, and it even serves well as a hand soap!
My dish soap recipe is made with castile soap which is made from 100% plant oils. It’s not made from chemicals or animal fats, just plants! I love that! Also, my recipe is a breeze to put together and smells amazing! I have made this recipe using many different scents, but my current favorite is grapefruit basil. I love this for many reasons, but one is that these 2 essential oils are both emotionally uplifting and mentally focusing which I sometimes need in the mornings when I am doing the dishes. I need a little something bright, uplifting and motivating, especially with winter coming soon.
Recipe For Homemade Dish Soap
Scent: Grapefruit Basil
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup filtered water or boiled and cooled water
1 cup unscented pure castile soap
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp fractionated coconut oil
12 drops grapefruit therapeutic grade essential oils
8 drops basil therapeutic grade essential oils
Add water, and castile soap to a large mixing bowl.
Next add in baking soda, fractionated coconut oil and your favorite essential oils!
Once everything is added, it should look a little something like this!
Use a whisk and very gently mix solution so that baking soda is dissolved and everything is well combined.
Pour into a pint or quart glass jar and add a soap lid pump. I happened to have one from an old bath and body works container that I had saved and it worked great!
And that is all there is to it! Easiest. Recipe. Ever.
For those concerned that a homemade dish soap recipe might not make suds, or wash grease or grime away, I have personally never had that problem with this recipe. When I was testing other recipes, some didn’t work as well as others but this recipe has worked great for us and we have had no problems!
Look at all those bubbles! And the smell? The smell is clean and fresh with a zing to it that is very refreshing!
I love clean dishes, don’t you? What do I love more? Someone else doing them for me… I digress.
Water- Free
Castile Soap- $4.22
Baking soda-$.07
Fractionated Coconut oil- $.52
10 drops Grapefruit Essential oils– $.72
6 drops Basil Essential oils– $.64Total Cost: $6.17
Print Out The Recipe!
Recipe For Homemade Dish Soap Scent: Grapefruit Basil
Learn to make your own dish soap.Print Pin RateServings: 1Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup filtered water or boiled and cooled water
- 1 cup unscented pure castile soap
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp fractionated coconut oil
- 12 drops grapefruit therapeutic grade essential oils
- 8 drops basil therapeutic grade essential oils
Instructions
My recipe makes about a quart of dish soap, and about the same amount of Dawn dish soap costs around $3.50 give or take. So yes, making your own dish soap is a little more expensive, but it takes only minute or two to put together and is so fun to make! I feel a lot better knowing that the utensils and the dishes that I am eating off of are coming from a plant based soap and that I won’t be ingesting any unnecessary chemicals from soap residues left on my dishes. So with that being said, for me it is definitely worth it for both the cost and time, but what do you think? Is it worth it to make your own dish soap if it costs a little more than the store bought kind? Leave a comment and let me know!
Before you jet, don’t forget to check out some of my other homemade recipes too!
About Karrie
Food is my love language. But so is saving money. So I like to combine the two a lot and make thrifty make ahead and freeze meals to save time. Because life is busy, and freezer meals can come to the rescue for all of us. And yes, they actually CAN taste good. Read more...
Comments & Reviews
Gina says
Absolutely NO suds. Left oily film on dishes.
Tami Malone-Coates says
So far, I’m loving it. I’ve decided to make my own dish detergent and hand soap and may try laundry powder soon. I’m tired of throwing away plastic bottles, as we have no recycling services here. I had everything on hand, except the fractionated coconut oil, and so little of that was used that I’m sure it will go a long way. The extra cost is okay with me, as I like the peace of mind I get, knowing my products are clean and safe.
I’m going to try Thieves oil next, for the antibacterial properties. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Happy-Money-Saver says
Good idea! I would love to hear what you think of it with the Thieves oil.
Vera says
Hello! Would it be possible to use regular virgin coconut oil instead?
Happy-Money-Saver says
I have never tried it before so I am not sure.
lisa l mickey says
I make pure( lye) soap.. I have found that 100% coconut oil soap makes great laundry soap & great dishsoap 🙂 cheaper too.
Winter says
I’ve made my own laundry soap and it is so much more cost effective than the store bought laundry soap. I’m surprised to see this soap is so much more.expensice.than store bought soap. I hope you will be able to find a more cost effective way to make homemade soaps.
Maria says
In my opinion it might cost $6 but if you think about it the ingredients that you buy to make this product will not finnish with the first batch. So if you are not using the same ingredients for anothet DIY project in the household you wil have these products for quite a long time. For instance if you need to buy the stor bought product lets say 2 times a month and it costs 3.5 per botle you have 7 euros. If you need to make the product 2 times in a month for example you still have spent only those 6 dollars. And if the you still have them for another month or just lets say need to replace the coconut or something the 2nd month doesn’t mean you pay again 6 dillars cause basically you still have all the rest so for example in to months if you buy 4 store bought botles it will caust you 14 dollars and DIY product might cost you 8 dollars in 2 months. So i really call that cost effective. Your are pocketing 6 dollars that you would spend on something that literally goes down the drain ?
Rachel says
Do you think I could use sweet almond oil instead of fractioned coconut oil?
Thanks!
Karrie says
Yes for sure!
Andrea says
I was super excited about this, and when I made it I didn’t feel like it really cut through the grease on my dishes… everything came out with a greasy film on it… only thing I changed was the oils… I used lemon and thrives instead… kinda bummed.. is there anything I could add to help out with this?
Andrea says
I had the same problem, but I found that if I use the soap directly on the dishes rather than filling up the sink then it works better. I’m going to use the spray bottle suggestion from the other comments.
Pool service men says
Me and my colleagues have actually managed to make our own products for all the services we provide that ranges from floor cleaning to swimming pool filter cleaning.. and it really is a different feel (more organic and comfortable) when using detergents that you know inside out rather than something you have no idea what is about.