We love essential oil foaming hand soap, but not the price! If you want to know how to make your own homemade moisturizing soap with essential oils, then grab yourself a foaming soap dispenser or container and follow this easy DIY recipe. You’ll save money, stretch your soap further, and use simple, safe ingredients like Dr Bronners liquid castile soap.
We love using essential oil foaming hand soap, but we do not love buying it or the refills.
Because… 1) the price! 2) the sometimes unnatural ingredients and 3) the single use plastic containers. (Making our own means we can re-use the bottle!)
So I figured out how to make my own.
Why are handmade soaps better?
Benefit #1 is that you’ll save money over buying them. The essential oil foaming hand soap refills are pricey!
However, you’ll not only save money over buying the refill soap mixture for your dispensers, but foaming hand soap in general is a great alternative to bar soap or pumps of straight soap.
Why? You only use a tiny bit of soap in a foaming hand soap dispenser (it’s mostly water inside), and this allows your liquid soap to go way, way, way, way further. Like 20x further, if I was to guess!
Secondly, when switching to a natural lifestyle, many of us transitioned away from antibacterial soaps — which have been linked to antibiotic resistance and altered hormones.
Only natural ingredients? Yes, please!
As mentioned above, the other reason I love handmade soap, over store-bought foam soaps, is I don’t like discarding the single use plastic containers.
So — homemade foaming soap is less expensive, completely natural, and a better use of our resources!
Is foaming hand soap easy to make?
Yes! Even the children can get involved. Such a simple recipe — only 4 ingredients — and a great task for them to do!
We have 3 dispensers — one at each sink — and refill them all at the same time.
Ingredients For DIY Foaming Hand Soap
Surprisingly, your soap can be truly good for you. Let’s look at the 4 easy ingredients:
- Use a good base liquid soap (I use Dr. Bronner’s).
- Choose essential oils with antibacterial and cleansing properties. You may also choose essential oils for their aromatherapy benefits. Think: lovely floral scents, invigorating herbal smells and woodsy, calming fragrances.
- Moisturizing oil is needed to soften the skin because soap and water alone can be drying. Olive oil is the most convenient, but other skin-friendly options include argan, jojoba, almond, avocado, and grapeseed.
- Pure water!
Final tip: Be sure to leave a bit of room at the top for air! Without air, the pump can’t make foam and will just come out liquid. So be sure to leave a little room at the top.
That’s all! I keep my base soap under my kitchen sink. Then it’s easy to fill each bottle with water, base soap, a few drops of essential oil and a teeny bit of oil! Easy and fast.
Best Essential Oils For Hand Soap
I use this immune boosting essential oil blend — which has a wonderful wintry smell. No worries about toxicity while boosting your immune system, and you can adjust to suit (less or more essential oil depending on preference).
Other popular single essential oils for hand soap include peppermint, lavender, ylang ylang, jasmine, rosemary, tea tree, and lemongrass.
Best Foaming Soap Dispenser
Need a foaming pump dispenser? Here’s a glass option for you — or you can repurpose a cheap one.
If you don’t have one already, you could buy a cheapo just to empty it out and fill it with good stuff.
And now for the recipe…
Homemade Essential Oil Foaming Hand Soap
We love using essential oil infused foaming hand soap, but we do not love the price on the refills. 😉 So I figured out how to make our own refills. Use whatever essential oil you prefer; I’m using this immune boosting blend. This is a great task to get the children involved in, plus you can stretch your soap A LOT farther because you need so little soap in a refill — it’s mostly water!
Ingredients
-
pure water
preferably soft -
2
tablespoons
liquid castile soap
such as Dr. Bronner’s -
1/2 to 1
teaspoon
liquid oil
such as olive, almond, avocado, or grapeseed -
10 to 15
drops
anti-bacterial essential oil
such as lavender, peppermint or blend
Instructions
-
Add water to fill within 1″ of the top of the dispenser. You need enough room for the other ingredients and to put the pump lid back on.
-
Add liquid soap, oil, and essential oils.
-
Replace pump lid.
-
Dispense soap as needed. Use and enjoy!
Other household DIY recipes:
- Homemade Non-Toxic All-Purpose Cleaning Spray With Essential Oils #AskWardee 061
- Homemade Essential Oil Air Freshener #AskWardee 075
- Instant Pot Hard Lotion Bars
- DIY Essential Oil Chest Rub Decongestant (for adults, kids, & babies!)
- Homemade Essential Oil Roll-On Headache Stick {print & video instructions}
Looking for other great essential oil posts? Enjoy these!
- How to Organize and Store Essential Oils
- Is It Safe To Ingest Essential Oils? {medicinal & culinary use}
- Top 5 Essential Oils For Nourished Skin
- Top 5 Budget-Friendly Essential Oils For Natural Seasonal Allergy Relief
- Top 5 Essential Oils For Adrenal Support
- Top 5 Essential Oils For Women
- Top 5 Essential Oils For Men
- Top 5 Essential Oils For Gut Health
Do you make your own DIY foaming hand soap refills? What are your favorite essential oils to add?
This post was originally published and written by Wardee Harmon on 6/22/16. It was updated and republished on 4/3/20.
