Cheap DIY Foaming Hand Soap

Cheap DIY Foaming Hand Soap

Y’all.

My kids whine and complain about washing their hands about 70% of the time, and yet when they get in the bathroom, they use ALL the water and soap.

It’s nuts.

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But with the COVID-19 pandemic, THEY HAVE TO WASH THEIR HANDS.

This hand soap is completely effective at keeping your family safe from COVID-19. 

“You don’t need antibacterial or antiseptic soap to remove COVID-19 from your skin,” Dr. Andrew Pavia, Chief, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Utah, explains. “Regular soap is great. In my house, we use plain old Palmolive and Dove bar soaps to wash our hands.” 

To read more check out this great article.

And yes, I could go with all four of them to the bathroom and be the soap police, but truthfully those 90 seconds are usually a much-needed break.  I usually use that time to wash my own hands in the kitchen and say a quick prayer asking God to help me to have a good attitude and enjoy my kids.

So instead of spending my life monitoring soap usage, I’ve decided to just make my own cheap DIY foaming hand soap.

It’s easy.

It’s cheap.

It’s good for us.

And if there’s a single thing that fits all those parameters, you better believe I’m trying to make it work in my life.

 

1. It’s easy

We make our hand soap using two ingredients: liquid castile soap and water.

That’s it.

Sometimes, my oldest daughter helps me, and she gets fancy and puts a little bit of liquid coconut oil in to help moisturize our hands

I usually don’t have time for all that.

They also make scented liquid castile soap, so you can enjoy the scent of your choosing.  My family loves the orange-scented soap, but honestly, they all smell pretty great.

Here are the very flexible directions to make cheap DIY foaming hand soap:

1. Fill the soap bottle about 1/5 of the way with liquid castile soap.

2. Fill the bottle the rest of the way with water. 

3. Add a few drops of liquid coconut oil if you have time/energy/a nine-year-old assistant.

 

For liquid castile soap, I prefer Dr. Bronner’s brand. 

His company does a lot to support orphan care and other charities, although the bottle’s label can be a bit disconcerting at first.  Dr. Bronner survived the Holocaust and his thoughts are printed on the outside of the bottles.  English was his second language, so it’s a bit clunky to read. 

But I like that his family decided to honor him by keeping his beliefs prominent on their product.  I’ve found his philosophy to be a mix of Christianity and Judaism with a heavy bend towards desiring world peace. That seems to be totally expected given his background. 

If you’re interested in learning more about him, check out his history on their website.

 

2. It’s Cheap

Based on my calculations, each bottle of soap costs about $.90.

That doesn’t include the cost of the soap dispenser because you can easily reuse any foaming hand soap bottle.  Four years ago, I asked a co-worker to save her Bath & Body Works bottles for me, and I’m still using them.  

Although I did recently buy some new dispensers from Amazon with these waterproof labels just because I think they look really cute.

Or you could buy just the pump and repurpose a mason jar if your life is such that you can have nice things in it. 

Since I’m not a very good homemaker, I try to avoid breakable objects (glass jars) in unsupervised areas (bathrooms).  But all the strangers in Walmart keep telling me my kids are going to grow up super quickly, so maybe these cute soap dispensers are in my future.

Or you can just buy really pretty glass jars to hold your soap.  Again, we don’t do that because my kids will probably definitely break them, so it’s plastic soap bottles for us!

3. It’s Good for Us

 I originally started making my own cheap DIY foaming hand soap after reading about how triclosan, one of the main ingredients in antibacterial soap, is an endocrine disrupter.

I did a lot of research and decided that avoiding this substance was what was best for my family. 

I recommend that you do the same and research it to determine the best course of action for your family. 

I already lean towards being a crunchy mom, so this was a pretty easy decision for me.

We also use this soap in the shower because it’s been really good for my rashy kids. 

My family has skin that runs the gamut from psoriasis to eczema to dry to sensitive to normal, and this cheap DIY foaming hand soap works well for all of us.

It doesn’t dry our skin out, leave any residue, contain any harmful ingredients, or cost a lot of money.  That’s pretty great for a $.90 bottle of soap! 

Dr. Bronner’s even makes a soap for acne-prone skin!

To use it as a body soap, I make it exactly the same as a hand soap.  

What do you think about making your own cheap DIY foaming hand soap?  Is it worth the time and energy or not? Tell us about it in the comments!

Want to remember this later? Pin Cheap DIY Foaming Hand Soap to your favorite Pinterest board! 

 

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