Homemade Liquid Dish Soap
Update: I will be working on a new recipe for this dish soap! Although it worked for me some people have a few issues with it, especially with the consistency. So I will be revamping it stay tuned!
I have been looking for a recipe that didn’t involve crazy ingredients and was inexpensive. Finally I found one over at Frugally Sustainable! This is so simple! You have to try it!
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups of boiling water
1 Tbs shredded bar of soap that has low suds (trust me learned this one the hard way) like castile, ivory, or homemade soap!
1 Tbs washing soda
1 Tbs vinegar
1/8 tsp of tea tree oil
a few drops of other essential oil (optional)
Directions
In a bowl add the shredded bar of soap, washing soda, and vinegar. Then pour boiling water over mixture and stir/whisk until everything is well blended and has dissolved. Let mixture cool on the counter stirring occasionally for at least 8 hours. After it cools add tea tree oil (since its an anti-bacterial, anti-fugal, and anti-microbial) and any other essential oils you would like. Transfer into an old dish soap container or a cute oil dispenser container.
Seriously how simple was that!
This was linked up to The Morris Tribe, Craft-O-Maniac, Homestead Barn Hop
Awesome!! We have been wanting to make homemade dish soap but we could never find a recipe. Thank you for sharing!
-Faith
I had the same problem! Glad I could help!
Most excellent! Thank you. ~Kelly
Hope you like it 🙂
Thank you for the recipe. I am looking forward to trying this one.
No problem! I really like this one so I hope you do too!
Does it cut grease? I am a Dawn user and it really cuts grease. Hope you say yes because I really would like to go natural AND cheap.
I really like it and think it does! Its not going to produce the suds that Dawn does but still works well! Its hard to find natural and cheap cleaners! I hope you like this one!
You can use some baking soda for the grease ! :}
I think I’d definitely like to try this. Where can you get tea tree oil?
I purchased mine at Hobby Lobby but you can also find it at Walgreens and probably specialty health store or organic stores like Whole Foods or a co-op!
thank you so much- i was searching for a good one of these!
Its hard to find! Glad I could help!
Do you know if I could use FelsNaptha bar soap? I use it to make my laundry detergent so I happen to have it on hand… Looking forward to trying this!
I think you could! FelsNaptha is pretty low suds. As long as it doesn’t irritate your skin it should be fine!
I found Tea Tree Oil at my local Walmart..In the pharmacy section.
Thanks! I looked there awhile back and didn’t find any! Im glad to see they are starting to carry it!
Just made a batch- I added a TBSP of Lemi shine to help with hard water stains (learned of this on another site)… I LOVE how easy & inexpensive it is to make!!
Me too! Thats a great tip! Thanks for sharing!
new follower! i also make many of my own cleaners, but haven’t tried dish soap before.. ill have to try this out!
Amber Rae
I’ve been using the powder homemade recipe of borax and baking soda with vinegar as rinse but still my glasses are coming out cloudy. How is the cloudiness with the liquid recipe?
I don’t see my dishes coming out cloudy with this recipe. The only thing is that it doesn’t get very sudsy so I probably use more then I should when hand washing. I wouldn’t recommend it in the dishwasher though. Who knows what might happen 🙂
Do you use white or brown vinegar??
I think either will work!
not impressed with this recipe. It did not cut the grease and left a film. Will continue to look for a liquid dish soap.
Sorry you didn’t like it! It works well for us the only complaint my husband has is that it isn’t as thick as the store bought stuff which doesn’t bother me. Hope you find a recipe that works for you!
I’ve found adding a Tbsp of vegetable glycerin helps generate more suds. Using lemon essential oil seems to help cut grease, too. I use this all the time, although I do keep a bottle of store-bought around for the really tough stuff.
That is a seriously awesome idea! Why didn’t I think of that! I will have to try that! Thanks for sharing!
did u use the glycerin instead of castile or both? having problems with a film yet?
Did this recipe separate into a white foam and water one anyone else? Any suggestions on how to get that to not happen? Basically, when I tried to use it after that it just floated as chunks in the water and didn’t clean anything. Maybe I over-beat it while trying to combine the soap?
Mine does this a little bit but not a lot, so I just shake it up before I use it and everything still comes clean. Maybe you could try what a previous blogger did by adding a couple table spoons of vegetable glycerin. That may help! Sorry you are having issues with it!
My end product wound up being chunky and the soap leaves a residue on my glasses. The separation and residue is enough for me not to use this recipe again. Any suggestions on how to fix these little problems?
When I was testing out this recipe I wanted it to be thicker so I added extra washing soda. This was not a good idea it made it super chunky. Normally it gets a little chunky but not very much. Could you have possibly added to much washing soda? You could try adding a couple tablespoons of vegetable glycerin and adding some lemon essential oil to increase suds and cleaning power! I hope this helps you!
OH THANK YOU!!!! glycerin and lemon oil helped This is so much better now and works, (no filmly inssue) 🙂 happy me and happy clean dishes. but i do find that it is very drying to my hands so i either wear gloves or I finish washing and my homemade hand cream. thanks for tip again.
I’m really excited about starting to make my own products around the house. Just started with homemade Shampoo & Conditioner and I am loving it! With this recipe, I’m curious what the benefit to letting it sit on the counter for 8 hours is? I don’t have very much patience, so it’s been sitting for 10 minutes and I’m already anxious to put it in a bottle and try it out….!
The reason you have to wait it so that it thickens. You probably could use it right away but it won’t be thick like regular dish soap! I usually try to make it at night so it has all night to thicken and I don’t keep looking at it! I’m so happy your excited about it and I hope that you love it!
I read through almost all of the comments on here and did not see this question. You say a bar soap and one suggestion is Ivory. Do you mean the ivory we use to wash ourselves? Also, what about Fels Naptha? Can I use this? Thanks so much!