Homemade foaming hand soap

I was inspired by Pinterest a few weeks back to make our own liquid hand soap. By the way, the Pinterest app is a-w-e-s-o-m-e for moms during feeds, but then again we don't have the same amount of energy we used to to actually re-create everything we want.

Anyway..I was inspired.

I followed this pin to this post and got to work. For the directions, head to The Farmer's Nest post because I don't want to reexplain it all, but I will share some tips and mishaps. :)


I got a gallon of water, a grater, liquid glycerin (yup, it definitely is with the band-aids for those of you like me who have no idea), and an 8 oz. bar of soap.

Actually I had 2-4.25 oz. bars of soap because that's the way they came.

I guess this would be a good time to suggest choosing a soap that has a light light light scent. Why? I chose a nice refreshing cucumber and somethin' or another but after grating it and having it sit for 12+ hours I could care less if I smelled it again...

And now I have a gallon of it. Joy.

Once I had all of the ingredients I grated the bars of soap which really didn't take that long, but 40 minutes of grating just about put me in the looney bin and made me want to amputate my arm. Those kinds of tasks drive me bonkers. In the end I think it was worth it..until you ask me to do it again. Ha.

I heated it all up and let it sit for 12 hours..then like 10 more. It didn't harden.

Warning: I used Dove Cool Moisture, and the blog post is right, Dove has moisturizer in it so it doesn't harden.

No fear though, I had been inspired by a second pin..on how to make homemade foaming soap. Score.

So before I went to the trouble of storing all of the soap I went ahead and made a bottle worth to make sure it would turn out okay. It worked like a charm.

Once I filled the empty Bath & Body Works bottles I had I got to work storing the extra. What a mess. The pictures don't do it justice; I just wanted credit for taking them.

I used a ladle to scoop the soap and pour it through a funnel back into the gallon jug. It didn't take long before I was tired of it and got sloppy, which meant soap started splashing on the table. And being the brainiac that I am, I was doing this over the leaf crack in the table which caused the soap to drip onto the floor. I'm brilliant I tell you.

Once the jug was close to full I noticed sudsy bubbles coming up out of the top running down. The problem was that I still had soap to store. To cause a bigger mess or not? Yup, you betcha, I scooped every last bit that I could out of that pot.

I'm pretty sure our table has never been cleaner. :) I kid, I kid.

The morals (yes, there is more than one) of the story:
1) Choose a scent you will be willing to smell foreva.
2) Put in a jammin' CD or classic movie to keep you from losing your sanity.
3) Be prepared to want to amputate your arm.
4) If you use a moisturizing soap (I don't like dry hands) be prepared to make foaming soap or research a different recipe.
5) Be willing to make a mess.
6) Celebrate never having to buy soap again. Why? Because if you make foaming soap you only need ONE INCH per bottle.

Enjoy!