With it being in the middle of winter, and everyone seeming to get sick. It’s no surprise that thoroughly washing your hands can help reduce your chances of illness. But what is a surprise is how fast a family of 5 can go through soap. Three kids can make soap disappear faster than I can buy it at the store!
What’s even worse is when I go to buy some more at the store. I get so frustrated trying to find a type that’s not filled with triclosan or some other antibacterial ingredient that we don’t need to have in this house. And that’s not including the other ingredients that seem to dry out my hands and aggrivate my eczema with frequent hand washing. There had to be some other way to keep costs low without flying through antibacterial and chemical laden hand soaps.
So I started researching how to make our own. It’s easy enough; add water and soap to a foaming soap dispenser. But I wanted something more natural than just adding some generic soap from the store with water. I can’t see how watering down chemicals that irritate my skin is any better for my skin.
Over the last two years, I have been using castile soap to clean our kitchen sink. So I grabbed that, along with some vitamin E oil {not pictured}, vegetable glycerine, and essential oils*. I don’t know why it didn’t dawn on me to do this before, but as they say, better late than never!
To the bottom of a foaming soap dispenser {I’ve used these bottles* for the last few months}, add 2oz castile soap. I use unscented so I can scent it any way I want with essential oils.
To the bottle, add 1/2 teaspoon of vitamin E oil* {optional} and vegetable glycerine. Both provide moisturizing properties, and the glycerine also helps with foaming. Add 10-15 drops of essential oils of your choice. For this batch, I used lemon and lime for a nice, bright citrus scented soap. It’s very much needed at this point in our gloomy winter. I top off the bottle with some water that I boiled in our tea kettle and then allowed to cool.
Making my own foaming hand soap reduces the chemicals we’re exposing ourselves to in the house, but how does it compare cost wise? I’m not against spending some more money if it means we’re improving our overall health.
$1.00 for 2 oz castile soap* at $0.50/oz.
$0.11 for 1/2 teaspoon vitamin e oil* at $1.29/oz. {There are 6 teaspoons in an ounce.}
$0.05 for 1/2 teaspoon vegetable glycerine* at $0.56/oz
$0.00 for 6 oz water, from my tap.
**Please Note: Prices and availablility change often. Some prices are lower than what I purchased them at, while others are higher. I’m not counting the cost of the bottles since their cost will keep decreasing the more I use them. Also, essential oils* are optional for this recipe, and the cost will vary depending on the oils or blends that were used. When I buy the almond castile soap, I don’t use any essential oils.
It costs $1.16 for an 8.5oz bottle of foaming hand soap. That’s very cheap, especially because they do not have any chemicals or antibiotics in them!
Have you tried making your own foaming hand soap? What are some other ways you’re trying to cut costs and chemicals from your house?
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