1/16/14

Make Your Own Liquid Soap from a Bar of Ivory



Every once in a while I get it into my head that I want to try to make a product from scratch...or almost from scratch. The idea for this week was to make my own liquid soap! So the other day I did a little net surfing...you know how I love to do that...to find a few tried and some true recipes for making your own liquid soap using bar soap. The recipe I found is from the blog The Farmer's Nest.  According to The Farmer's Nest, the best soaps to use in this incredibly easy process, are ones which contain little or better yet no extra moisturizers, like Dove soap. This makes the soap hard to set. Since I happened to have Ivory soap in the bathroom closet, that is what I used. 

After all it is over 99% pure!!!



What you will need to make your liquid soap...
(I decided that I wanted my soap to have a lemon fragrance so I added lemon extract. You can also add other extracts like peppermint, vanilla and almond, or the essential oils of fragrances like lavender, to give your soap a scent.)

a grater
3.5 oz bar of Ivory soap
3 1/2 cups water
2 tsp glycerin (comes in a bottle from your local pharmacy)
2 tsp or more of lemon extract, optional
yellow food coloring, optional

Step one is to grate the entire bar of soap. Pour water into a pot and add the shavings. Bring the water to medium heat and stir until the soap melts. Don't be surprise if the soap foams up it will eventually settle down. 

Next add the glycerin and let the mixture cool for about 10 hours. If it is cold enough outside you can set the pot outdoors for a couple hours like I did. The mixture will eventually begin to solidify. 

Once it is cooled and somewhat solid you can adjust the texture by beating the soap with a hand mixer and adding a little more water of it is too thick. At this point if you are adding color and fragrance, you can also beat in the food dye and lemon extract.




I poured the soap in a plastic liquid dispenser using a funnel and then went ahead and made a little label and tied it onto my dispenser. This one I bought for a couple dollars, but you can reuse any liquid dispenser that may be slated to be tossed into recycling.




If you noticed the soap into water ratio in this recipe is 1 to 1, that's 1 cup of water to every 1 ounce of soap. So you can easily make as much soap as you'd like. Making your own liquid soap can be very cost effective. The bar soap yielded 16 times it's amount as a liquid soap, and that is where you save your pennies. If you purchase a more expensive soap like The Farmer's Nest did, you can then really stretch your dollar using this process.

What I learned after making my soap...

One 3 1/2 ounce bar of Ivory yielded roughly 2 quarts of liquid soap.
The texture of this soap is like that of raw egg whites.
It does feel very creamy when applying.
There is not a whole lot of lather but it still works to cleanse your bands.
The kid's thought it was really cool to use something homemade.

If you give this process a try I'd love to hear your thoughts. Also if you tweaked it in any way to make it better I'd love to know what you did.
In the meantime it is back to more work on my bedroom redecorating. Also I am headed for the Philadelphia Home Show with my sister Kim this Saturday so I will be sharing that with you sometime next week!!

Wishing you all a great weekend!

XO 

Sharing this post at link parties hosted by these fabulous blogs...

25 comments:

  1. Must smell divine. Hope I can get around to giving it a try.

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  2. this is great-just pinned it!

    i usually have Ivory soap
    so we'll have to give this a whirl

    would love for you to share
    at Fridays Unfolded this week!

    Alison
    Nancherrow

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  3. I love this idea--have Ivory bars in the cupboard!

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  4. I can almost smell the lemon...I may have to try this, it doesn't sound too complicated.

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  5. I love this, Barbara. I still love the smell of Ivory and use it on my face every day. Do you know that you can't buy glycerine here except through a behind-the-counter pharmacy that you sign for (some idiots use it for explosives). Anyway, last year another blogger told me that putting pure glycerine on your feet at night with socks over them will take the rough, dry calloued skin off almost overnight. You just use a pumice stone the next morning. I went from cracked feet to baby skin in just 2 or 3 nights. I would never have thought to add it to liquid soap though. Love this post-xo Diana

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  6. I love to hear about someone making something homemade like this. Sounds great and cost effective. Thanks for linking to TTF!

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  7. Barbara! This is soo awesome! Would love for you to consider linking to Friday Favorites at http://imnotatrophywife.com Great tutorial and photos! Love!! laura

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  8. Oh wait! I think I already submitted my comment! this is what happens when I am checking my phone while on my tablet!!! Love this tutorial Barbara! Would love for you to link up to Friday Fav's at http://imnotatrophywife.com! happy Friday!!!

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  9. Very nice! I'm pinning this one! I use Ivory to make my laundry soap, that works great too!

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  10. Hi Barbara- this is a feature at Friday Favorites at http://imnotatrophywife.com
    Would love for you to link up again this Thursday evening! I can't believe how fast the week flies!!! laura

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  11. What a great tutorial. I plan to try this with some of our herbs. thank you for sharing with us last week at TTF. I am going to feature this over at TTG FB so others can try it! https://www.facebook.com/thethriftygroove

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  12. Love your pretty label. Thanks for the tutorial. I'm gonna give it try!
    Blessings,
    Patti

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  13. Barbara thanks for the great idea and tutorial! Your label idea is adorable! I was wondering if you roughly knew how much it is to make, for the quantity? I am always looking for ideas to help stretch a dollar. We have 8 children, and every little bit helps, right!? Thanks--♥Angie www.feelthejoyinthejourney.blogspot.com

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  14. Thank you for sharing this. I am definitely going to try this. I have to get the glycerin first though. I am looking forward to doing this.
    Blessings, Catherine xo

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  15. I'll have to try this Barbara. I have always used ivory soap. Grew up with it and still use it. Once in a while I buy Dove during the Winter. Kind of helps cut down on the itching. Love the Ivory ad. Pinning. Thanks for sharing with SYC. BTW, I have a good recipe for homemade lotion that my sis gave me.
    hugs,
    Jann

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  16. Surely to try, must have a marvelous smell!
    Thank you for share =)
    Silvia

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  17. What a great idea, and I will be making some for us. I'd so rather make homemade than buy commercial products. Thanks for sharing at Sunday's Best!

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  18. To fix the texture and create lather, use only 2 1/2 cups of water, and add 1/2 cup of any light/cooking oil. The texture will be creamy and will lather, guaranteed!!

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  19. Soap making is an art of creating healthy skin care products. I have almost created everything that I can put on my skin e.g. lotions, bath grains, natural deodorants, soaps etc.

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  20. i made liquid soap from my own homemade soap, just grated it & added water til i had the consistency right, still needs 'tweaking' but it feels beautiful & silky to use & my hands are lovely & soft. never thought to heat it up, i just left it in a tub of water for a few days til the soap dissolved.
    thanx for sharing

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  21. Hi buddy, your blog's design is simple and clean and i like it. Your blog posts are superb. Please keep them coming. Greets!!!

    Liquid Sindoor raw materials

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  22. I converted your recipe in grams, we don't measure with cups and such in Europe. I used 415 ml water, 50 grams soap, 6 grams Glycerin. My soap is very liquid-y. As thin as water. I heated it up again and added some extra grated soap, 30 grams, but it's still too thin.

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  23. Hi this is very worth to read. Thanks for sharing with us. Good to know
    Cleaning Products in Chennai

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  24. bookmarked!!, I love your blog!

    ReplyDelete

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