How to make Liquid Soap
I have a thing about soaps. Either I like expensive bar soap, or else, I like liquid soap. Plain old Dial or Irish Spring soaps just don’t cut it for me. For showers, I enjoy my expensive bar soaps but for normal hand washing, I prefer using liquid soap because it is tidier on my bathroom sink counter. This great tutorial shows how to turn any ordinary bar soap into Liquid soap.
Many homemade products do just as good a job as those the retail products that you buy in stores. Things like disinfectant wipes and liquid soap can be made at home for a fraction of the price of store goods.
Making liquid soap is so easy. All it takes is melting the soap with water, adding a little vegetable glycerin, and in no time at all, you have liquid hand soap.
To make liquid soap, you will first need a bar of normal soap. Then get out a food grater and grate away. You’ll need to end up with about 1 cup of soap flakes from your bar.
Next, combine the soap flakes in a large pot with 10 cups of water. Add 1 tbsp of vegetable glycerin to the water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and cook it over a medium low heat for 1-2 minutes until the soap dissolves.
You can make the liquid soap without the glycerine, since normal bar soap contains this, but adding a bit extra will make your liquid soap more creamy and less likely to have clumps in it. (affiliate link) Who wants clumps in a soap dispenser.
You can also add 1 tsp of essential oils at this time if you would like your soap to have a lovely scent. Lavender, Tea Tree, Eucalyptus, Lemongrass, Orange, and Peppermint all make great scented soaps. (affiliate link.)
Let the soap cool completely, then use a funnel to pour it into a fancy soap dispenser. If the soap is too thick, use a hand blender to beat it until smooth. (add a tiny bit of extra water to get the consistency that you like.)
Easy peasy and so much less expensive than normal liquid soap!
25 responses to “Turn a Bar of Soap into Liquid Soap”
Thank you!
my pleasure!
Followed the directions to the letter, it ended up being almost a solid mass. Is this normal? might it depend on the type of bar soap? (hotel soap, deodorant) And or the glycerine? My glycerine was not labeled “vegetable” tough it does say pure and natural! 🙂
The last time I tried making liquid soap, it was liquid laundry detergent, same thing happened. and even after adding water, I had problems.
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks.
Hi Monika. It could be the soap or it could be the glycerine in it. The glycerine does make it more creamy. The water soap mix is one cup of soap flakes to 10 cups of water. Perhaps it is the grater itself? The soap should be flakey. You may have grated it with too fine a grate and thus ended up with too much soap to water mix, perhap?
Carol
I’ve just made mine ,, it’s superb 🎊🎊🎉🎉thanks for the tip 😍
Thank you for sharing! Approximately how many cups of liquid soap does your recipe yield? Thank you in advance!
it’s been a while since I made it but the recipe calls for 10 cups of water, so the finished soap was likely close to this amount.
Thanks, Carol. My friend gave me a lovely, fancy bar of soap and I really wanted liquid soap in the shower. Now I know what to do!
I’m so glad to have found you! We usually use bars down to a nub but even so my frugal self hates to throw them out. Thanks to you, I can collect those nubs and use them up. 🙂
Can this be used in a foam soap dispenser?
I don’t think it will foam Rachel.
Mine turned out slimy, anything I did wrong? Should I wait longer about 12 hours so far
I’m not sure why it would come out that way Marisa. It could be simply the contents of the soap you used. It worked fine when I tried it.
Thanks for sharing the technique. If I’ll turned a bar soap into a creamy soft bar, what should I change in your given recipe?
I can’t suggest changes, since I have not tried to do what you suggest.
is there a substitute for the vegetable glycerin?
If you Google this question, you’ll get some ideas but I have not tried any of the substitutes so I can’t attest to how they will turn out.
I tried this but mine ended up watery and wasn’t thick enough to get a lather up. It wasn’t completely cool when I saw it very runny so wondered if it cools thicker or if I’ve got the ratios wrong? I don’t have a cup measurement (UK) so did a conversion which said this was 2.36ml so is this where I went wrong?
I US cup is 236.588 milliliters.
Hello! Can I use this method to make liquid conditioner from conditioner bars and does it thicken as it’s cools?
I have not tried this so I do not know if it will work.
Could I use ivory bar soap?
I have not tried it specifically but think it would work.
what is the best way to store the balance of the soap and will it stay in liquid form?
Hi Kay, I stored my soap in tight jars with lids. It stayed liquid during the time I was using it.