DIY: Homemade Foaming Hand Soap

Do you have the same problem we do with hand soap?  Our littles love to use gobs and gobs of it and it seems that as soon as you put a new bottle out, it's gone again! 

Last year I was able to stop by a Bath and Body Works outlet store and found a great deal on some foaming hand soaps.  I noticed that the kids used it like normal, but it didn't seem to run out nearly as fast.  I looked up a few "recipes" online and decided to try making it ourselves.  This can be a great easy way to stretch your soap and save your money, even if you don't have little ones racing through it!

Since I have a plethora of free dishsoap from all the recent deals (*see below), I decided to use that for my soap.  I've also used a hand soap and it works great.

I got out the supplies: 

• Gain dish soap
• empty foaming dispenser

{I think you could use any soap you'd like - but do avoid the ones with 'beads' in it so it won't clog the pump}

Then poured just about 1/2 inch of soap into the bottle.
{I read that many people like anywhere from a 1:4 ratio to a 1:10 ratio - just play with it to see what you prefer}

Next, I slowly added hot water to the soap until it was about half full.  I ran it down the side of the bottle so it wouldn't foam up.  I gently swirled it to mix the soap and water.  Then slowly filled it the rest of the way up, making sure to leave enough room for the bottom of the pump to fit, and put the lid back on.

{Don't shake or swirl too much, or you may have a foam overload!  You could put the water in first, then the soap, which may help it not suds up, but I thought this was easier to be able to see how much soap was going in.  Just be gentle with it and you shouldn't have a problem.}

*At this point you can add essential oils if you want a particular scent, or tea tree oil to make it naturally anti-bacterial (some people have a problem with mildew growing in the bottle and tea tree oil will stop that -- I'm guessing that it's from the bottle not being completely clean, or maybe grubbies in the water).

Then we tested it out.  My girls helped with this part.  =)

Now our crazy stockpile of soap will last even longer!   ;)
{and before anybody starts "turning me in" to the "Extreme Couponing" show on TLC, know that I do share with friends and family, ha ha!  AND we have a family of 7, so that means a lot of dirty dishes!}

I love how quick and easy it was to whip up, and overall I'm quite happy with the results.  The foam is a little more watery than I'd like this time, but I might add more soap and see it that helps to make it a little "firmer".  Even adding more soap, it's still saving a lot of soap and money - and makes use of the soap I have on hand and I'm able to reuse the dispenser without paying for the expensive refills!

**Edit: Now I do add a bit more soap and it's been working great for months - it's a Super Savings!  ;)   It also works great with hand soap, body wash, shampoo, baby wash.....etc.  I used this method to refill a baby wash foaming pump with Johnson's Head to Toe and it's been working perfectly!


Have you tried this?  How did it turn out?  How do you save money with kids, or health and beauty items?