Jump into this article to learn how to make your own eco-friendly hand soap at home with four simple ingredients and five easy steps!
Commercial handsoaps not only suck up a good portion of our weekly grocery budget but also impact the environment negatively and result in potential long-term health issues. So why not replace them with an eco-friendly, inexpensive, and super-effective option: homemade hand soaps with simple ingredients?
Why Should You Make Your Own Eco-Friendly Hand Soap?
Store-bought, conventional soaps are full of nasty ingredients. Parabens, fragrances, Tricolsan, sodium lauryl sulfate, and whatnot.
These chemicals absorb into the skin and cause problems like hormonal imbalances, skin irritation, allergic reactions, and even more serious issues like cancer and endocrine disruption.
They’re also extremely harmful to the environment, as they take quite a long time to break down fully.
And that’s exactly why we’re switching to homemade, eco-friendly hand soaps. Save yourself and save the environment!
Ingredients for Homemade Eco-Friendly Hand Soap
These are pretty easy to find locally for most people, but we are including links to purchase them online at various outlets if you cannot find them locally.
Castile Soap
It will require $10 to $20 upfront but will last tons of batches of hand soap. In the long run, it will cost much less than conventional soap. We use Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap.
Tip:
- You can choose between scented and unscented. If you spend a little extra and go for the scented variety. We love Dr. Bronner’s lavender castile soap. If you do go that route, you will not need the next ingredient: essential oil.
Essential Oil
You’ve got two choices here. Either go for your favorite scents, like peppermint, lavender, and tea tree oils—and switch them up according to seasons.
Or, simply choose an oil from the following guide. Either way, you will get non-toxic hand soap every time.
Here are a few tips:
- Blood orange is anti-septic, reduces inflammation, and gently detoxes the skin.
- Lemon oil provides a great, gentle cleanse with a fresh citrus scent.
- Peppermint oil has a cooling effect on the skin (great for summers), repels mosquitos, and reduces itchiness.
Plant-based Oil
You can add any plant-based oil to the mixture, but we personally love Jojoba oil or sunflower oil. They turn your basic soap into a luxe moisturizing formula.
Water
Use sterilized, cold water to not harm the potency and quality of essential oils. We have terrible beach water, so we boil ours first. If you are not buying distilled water, then be sure you boil it.
How to Make Eco-friendly Hand Soap
- Boil 2 cups of water. Allow it to cool.
- To prevent bubbles, add the water to a recycled soap dispenser (or a mason jar) before the other ingredients.
- Add 2 tablespoons of Castile soap.
- Add 1-2 tablespoons of your chosen oil (depending on the texture you prefer).
- Add 10-15 drops of essential oil (if using).
- Screw the pump and vigorously shake the bottle.
Though the consistency will be thinner than conventional soap, pumping out a squirt or two and rubbing your hands together will form a good lather—that requires 16% less water to rinse off!
Eco-Friendly Hand Soap Pro-Tips
- If your pump becomes stiff after a while, add a dash of oil to the mix to alleviate the problem. You can also sterilize the dispenser in hot water and leave it to air dry. Also, don’t forget to label each jar to determine its age.
- We use a glass foaming hand soap dispenser. It doesn’t really foam the DIY liquid hand soap, but it comes out really well.
- Our hand soap refill is a sterilized wine bottle with a sealed glass cork. It is not only stylish but reusing the wine bottle is important for us.
- To learn more about what to look for in brands, including the leaping bunny certified logo, check out Sustainable and Ethical Brands: Questions to Ask.
Making the Switch
Remember, while switching your handwashing method may seem like a small step in protecting the environment and improving your health, it’s always the little things that contribute to big results!
Similarly, when we made the switch to a safety razor, it was a bit of a learning curve. No kidding!
Zero-waste or low-waste cleaning and skin care are different from traditional brands. When the ingredients are in your control, you can know that you are using organic, cruelty-free products. You can also use plastic-free vessels and packaging.
To read more about our zero waste tips (and low waste), stick around. We are on a journey to be as sustainable as possible.
FAQs | Frequently Asked Questions
DIY eco-friendly hand soap is less expensive. Once you invest in the ingredients, we have found that the end result per dispenser is less than store-bought brands. Eco-friendly brands (not handmade) are more expensive than standard brands that are not eco-friendly, but they are healthier.
USDA Organic, Leaping Bunny (cruelty-free), and EcoCert can help ensure the product meets certain environmental and ethical standards. This should also be the case when shopping for ingredients to make your own eco-friendly hand soap.
It is better because it is healthier for you and your skin. Remember, bubbles don’t always mean clean.
