Liquid hand soap recipe

I started experimenting making liquid hand soap after years of using shop bought. Personally I found the shop bought quite harsh and drying for my hands. As a soap maker since 2018, I thought I could make my own. I tried many recipes and eventually I formualted an easy recipe that works for my skin. I've not bought any liquid hand soap since pre-pandemic. My hands are clean, soft and I have no more dry flaky skin.

Here's my recipe. You are welcome to try and adapt to suit your needs.I use up the soap shavings and end peices of the soap loaf as it is great for reducing waste. I would advise using a soap that is gentle and does not dry out your hands.

Ingredients

300g soap shaving or grated soap.

1500ml filter water or distilled water

10g xanthan gum.

Optional ingredients

5g vegetable glycerin - helps is skin hydration

1g citric acid - I add this as I live in a hard water area.

10ml fragrance or essential oil blend

0.5g coloured mica of your choosing - add a bit of colour.

Preservative

I find that as this recipe is for my own personal use and not for selling, I do not find I need to add a preservative. If you wish to add a preservative, you can add it at 1%. Please do check the documentation of usage provided by the supplier fo their reconmended usage rate.

Method

1. Boil 1,000ml of the water.

2. Add the soap shaving or grated soap to a heat proof bowl.

3. Add 500ml of cool water to a jug, add in the glycerin, citric acid, preservative if using. Set aside for later.

4. Pour the boiled water over the soap shavings and stir with a mental soap. Sprinkle in the xanthan gum. Leave the soap to melt and gum to dissolve. I tend to leave for a hour or so stiring occassionally. If there are chunks of soap still then you need to leave it for longer. The soap will dissolve eventually.

5. Once the soap is liquid pour in the 500ml jug of water solution and stir.

6. Add the mica if using and fragrance.

7. With an immersion stick blender blend the mixture for a minute or so to reach a creamy thick consitency. Try to avoid getting air bubbles in the mixture.

8. Pour in the storage containers and label the bottle with what it is, scent, and date it was made.

Colour and scent

I tend to colour my liquid hand soap with mica and depending the on the main colour I pick a colour to improve the look. If most of the batter is a blueish colour I use a blue mica. Once I made the liquid hand soap I give it a sniff to see what scent is present. I then decide how to improve on this scent. I like using esentail oils and only use france where a scent is not available as an essential oil.

My usual main go to scents are:

• Lavender and rosemary

• Lemon and vanilla fragrance oil.

• Eucalyptus and seaspray fragrance oil

• Geranium and rose fragrance oil.

Storage

I do make a large batch and use two one-litree plastic bottles to store my liquid hand soap.

Then I just refill my hand pump container as needed.

How to use

Just pump one or two amount of soap from the soap dispenser, rub into your palms, add a little water and rub your hands together to make the later. More rubbing makes more lather. If the lather is not forming add a bit more water. Once you have a good lather then wash your hands as you would normally do. Rinse with water and dry with a clean towel..

My current range of body soap bars

You can view my current range of body soap bars on the handmadebysteven shop.