Making Liquid Soap

In an earlier post I talked about making handmade gift soaps. Of course once I’d got enthusiastic about making these, someone made the comment that nobody uses solid soaps these days.  Of course this is totally untrue but it made me think about how you could make gifts of liquid soaps.

I tried a recipe for a simple liquid soap made from bar soap:

• pour 3 cups hot water over 3-4 tbsps of grated soap
• leave it overnight to set – it becomes a firm jelly (I couldn’t believe that it would but it did)
• add essential oils for fragrance if desired
• liquidise using a stick blender

It did make a nice smooth liquid soap but mine didn’t lather up very well – perhaps the soap I used was too old?.

Then I discovered a much simpler way: purchase some liquid soap base and add colour and/or fragrance as desired to create your own personalized liquid soap.  I bought some glycerine liquid soap base from Candle Creations.  It is made with mild natural soap including coconut oil, olive oil and high levels of glycerine. You can buy it in 1 litre, 2 litre and 4 litre quantities.

I buy a couple of litres at a time and make up all my own liquid soap for home as well as for gifts.  I like the ability to put my own fragrances in – whatever is my whim at the moment. I use about 50-60 drops of essential oil depending on the size of the container but you can adjust to your own tastes – experiment till you find what you like.  You can re-use pump containers or buy nice decorative ones to make a special gift.

My all time favourite fragrance blend is a mix of lemon, lime, bergamot and lemongrass – it just smells so clean and fresh.

A current favourite is vanilla and rose geranium.

Or you can try some more unusual single fragrance oils or blends if you find them – I have some Cherimoya in one of my soaps at the moment.  I have one friend who adores coconut so I knew I was onto a winner when I found some Pina Colada fragrance oil.  I made up a label, laminated it and put it on a clear pump container and put it in with a gift basket of goodies. Of course I forgot to take a photo of the finished item but I did take a picture of the label before I put it on.