title	subtitle	author	email	version
README	Homemade Foaming Handsoap Recipe	John D. Fisher	jdfenw@gmail.com	1.3

Homemade Foaming Hand Soap Recipe

We're fond of Thieves Foaming Hand Soap from Young Living but wanted to reduce our cost and environmental impact--i.e., stop shipping bottles of mostly water and buy ingredients in large enough quantity to meet our needs for several months. After searching Google, I found three recipes; see References.

The recipes either call for vegetable glycerin or oil to make the soap moisturizing and to lubricate the soap dispenser's moving parts. Glycerin may also work as a preservative for essential oils added for fragrance. With oils alone, the soap is smooth; glycerin alone generates more friction. Friction may be a property of the castile soap, reduced by the amount of oil added. Using both glycerin and oil, generates a smooth feeling soap which is also shelf-stable--i.e., the oil and essential oils are less likely to break down over the course of a month at room temperature.

The original recipe assumed a 12 ounce bottle and equal amounts of glycerin and oil (almond and fractionated coconut oil ,summer¹, both work nicely). The raw amounts are converted to milliliters and scaled for a 7 ounce (207 ml) bottle. Milliliters are convenient because, for liquids similar to water, grams and milliliters are the close to the same. I have a gram scale but do not have measuring spoons for the odd fractions of a teaspoon the recipe calls for. Measuring by weight is easier anyway.

After regular use, we discovered the soap tends to dry our hands. Increasing the amount of oil from 3 to 6 g, solved the problem. So the revised recipe increases the amount of oil and reduces the water by the same amount to maintain the total at 12 oz and hit the target mass of 6 g in the 7 oz bottle.

Fractionated coconut oil may solidify at cooler temperatures: Under our kitchen sink (exterior wall), the bottle solidified well above the freezing temperature. We've relocated it to the bathroom vanity to see if it melts. It's probably best to use almond oil in the winter.

Ingredients

Ingredients	Raw Amt	Raw Units	Amount	Scaled Vol	Density	Scaled Mass
Water	10.5	oz	309	181	1.00	181
Soap	2.0	tbs	30	17	1.01	17
Fractionated Coconut Oil	2.2	tsp	11	6	0.96	6
Glycerin	1.0	tsp	5	3	1.25	4
Total	12.0	oz	355	207		208
Units			ml	ml	g/ml	g

Table: Hand Soap Ingredients Scaled for 7 ounces (207 ml)

Thirty (30) drops of essential oil, per 7 ounces of soap, works nicely for strong fragrances, like Thieves Essential Oil Blend from Young Living.

Steps

1. Measure water, oil and glycerin.
2. Add to foaming hand soap bottle and shake to blend.
3. Measure and add soap to foaming hand soap bottle.
4. Add 30 drops of essential oil to foaming hand soap bottle.
5. Put the pump/cap on the bottle and gently rotate to mix soap without generating suds.

Adjusting Recipe Amounts

The Ingredients for 7 ounces of hand soap derive from an Excel spreadsheet.

• To change the bottle size, enter the desired bottle-size in cell I2.
• If the desired bottle size is in milliliters, change the units in cell J2 to ml.
• Other units may be used, but cells, D7:E7 and L2 must use the same SI units of volume. Use Excel CONVERT() function unit abbreviations, such as l for liters.
• The ingredients list provides a drop-down menu for changing oil and glycerin. Excel table Ingredients[Name] provides the list of possible ingredients. To add others, fill in the information below the last row of Excel table Ingredients[Name].

References

1. Homemade Moisturizing Foaming Hand Soap
2. How To Make Foaming Hand Soap
3. DIY Foaming Hand Soap

Footnotes

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