Did you know you can turn a bar of soap into about a gallons worth of body wash? It's true and it's amazingly easy. For this do it yourself project, I decided to make both a women's and a men's body wash using Caress and Irish Spring.
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Supplies: 8 ounces of bar soap 1 gallon of water 2 Tbsp Glycerin a large pot a cheese grater or microwave an electric mixer
The glycerin is probably the only thing you don't already have in your home. I went to my local Albertson's where I found some on the soap aisle along with the natural oils. When I got home, I realized I actually already had some glycerin in with my cake decorating supplies.
The first step in making body wash from a bar of soap is to process the soap so it melts easily in hot water. This is where you can choose to either grate the soap with a cheese grater, or microwave the soap. I choose to microwave, since it is less time consuming and really easy. Put the soap on a microwave safe plate and heat on high for about a minute. Your soap should look like this:
Just be careful to not over heat the soap in the microwave because it will melt and can easily cause burns. (I found out the hard way) Once the soap has expanded allow it to cool completely and it should be able to crumble in your hands.
Put the gallon of water into the pot and bring to a low boil. Next, add your soap and the 2 Tbsp of glycerin. It will take about half an hour for all of your soap to melt. Make sure to give it a stir every once in a while so none of the soap settles on the bottom of the pot.
Now that the soap has finished cooking, it needs to cool off and thicken up. This takes about 12 hours, so I left mine overnight. Your body wash will range from slightly runny to really thick depending on the type of soap you used. Either way, you should use your electric mixer to blend the soap so you can easily transfer it to a container. Make sure not to over beat the body wash (like I did the first time I made body wash) or it will not stay liquidy enough.
I used the original bottle my water had come in to store the body wash. Using a funnel, I poured the body wash from the pot into the bottle. I also used an old mustard bottle for the body wash I was going to use right away.
The results: I'm pretty happy with the Caress body wash even though it was too runny for me. However, that was my own fault because I accidently only used 4 ounces of soap. The Irish Spring body wash turned out really nice. It was a consistency that I liked and it smelled good. Plus, imagine how much money you can save. Stay tuned for a post on how to make your own bar soap (also super easy.)
Hi, I’m Jordan – a work at home mom with 3 super fun little boys. I love entertaining guests and want to help you make entertaining easy!
7 comments on “DIY Body Wash”
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What a fantastic idea Jordon. I can see myself using all of my favourite scented oils and fragrances with this. Thanks so much for linking up to Thriving on Thursdays. I'm featuring this at tomorrow's party.
Anne xx
Looks easy! Thanks for sharing 🙂
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Wow! I'm glad I tried it! Right now I try to eliminate all soaps that contain sulfate or any mineral oil derivates, so I bought some lovely 100% plant based soap bars and tried your recipe. As I am not very good with sticking to a recipe I used 16 ounces soap (grated) and about 1,25 gallons water, added lots of essential oils (sage, citronella, rosemary, orange, lemon) for scent and sanitation. First it was REALLY runny and I was afraid it would stay like that. So I put the whole pot outside, were it was almost freezing and 4 h later stuff with the consistency of cream cheese. I whipped it all up with my mixer added a bit water and it turned out fine to transfer into bottles and soap dispenser. While cleaning up I used the leftovers of the soap to clean a greasy BBQ tray and who would thought: IT WORKED BETTER THAN ANYTHING I TRIED BEFORE! This BBQ looks new. So I use it as a detergent for greasy stuff, too. That was so worth trying! Thank you for your post!
Janine Hall
Sorry for my grammar, I m actually from Germany. 😉
My soap turned very gluggy after i let it sit for 12 hours and then use a hand blender…how can i fix it?…pour more water and blend or blend less?…also..it doesnt lather much…:(..how to fix it?
Does it leave a smell in the microwave