DIY all natural dish soap

I always get excited about DIY projects, especially ones that are all-natural and can save us money! We’ve been talking a lot lately about our future dream of homesteading and owning our own little home on a chunk of land somewhere. To make that dream a reality it will take a lot of hard work, research and a whole lot of penny pinching (although thanks to the demise of the penny, I guess it’s nickel pitching)!

A while back I stopped making melt and pour soaps, but I still have five pounds of melt-able soap on hand. What better use for it than making my very own dish soap? Took me less than 10 minutes of “hard” work and then about 24 hours to allow the soap to set/cure. Even better news – I’ve got enough soap on hand to make my own dish soap for years to come without it costing me a single penny. Can I get a huzzah?!?!

Note: I will be adding a second (new and improved recipe) to this post. You can find it below the original dish soap recipe. The original recipe works great, but I found the new and improved helped to cut grease/oil better (might be because I have hard water). Enjoy!

Original Dish Soap Recipe:

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup grated soap (options include castile, glycerin, goat’s milk or even dove)
  • most recipes call for castile like Dr. Bronners – personally I had an organic, SLS free glycerin based soap base on hand
  • 4 cups of water
  • 1 tbsp glycerin
  • 10-20 drops of essential oil
  • I used 10 lemon and 10 lime
  • Tea tree is an option as well if you want it antibacterial

Instructions:

  • Using a double boiler (or a saucepan on low heat), combine grated soap and water
  • On low-medium heat stir until all the soap is dissolved
  • Take off the heat, add the glycerin and stir
  • Pour into desired container (mason jars works great)
  • After it cools add your essential oils and stir well
  • Allow to sit for about 24 hours, stirring occasionally
  • When it’s done your soap should have thickened and be close in consistency to commercial soaps

New and Improved (Grease Cutting) Dish Soap Recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups of water
  • 1/2 cup of grated soap (tightly packed)
  • 1/2 cup of castile liquid soap
  • 2.5 tbsp washing soda
  • 1 tbsp of vegetable glycerin (optional)
  • 40 drops of lemon essential oil
  • 40 drops of lime essential oil

Instructions:

  • Using a double boiler (or sauce pan on low heat), combine grated soap and water
  • Once dissolved add liquid castile soap, stir until dissolved
  • Add washing soda, stirring until dissolved
  • Finally add glycerin
  • Take off heat and allow to cool
  • Once cooled add your essential oils and transfer to a 1 litre mason jar
  • Allow to sit for about 24 hours, stirring occasionally

I don’t have one of those cool mason jar pump lid contraptions (it’s on my wish list), so I just poured it into an old dish soap bottle and used it that way. Worked perfectly! So for 10 minutes of work I have an entire bottle of dish soap for pennies.

Remember this is an all natural soap. You are not going to get the suds and bubbles you would with Palmolive. But that doesn’t mean it’s not working.

I’d love to hear how your dish soaps turn out! Just comment below.

Happy dish washing 🙂