Those that sell us cleaners have us thinking we need a separate product for every use, but it is very possible to clean both your body and your house with just a basic olive oil soap bar and a few additions that you probably have around your kitchen. We do use some other homemade cleaners too, but, we wanted to share with you one of our most versatile tricks: taking a soap bar and transforming it into a multitude of cleaners.
If you research DIY soap recipes online, you will find that many of them call for liquid Castille soap. Authentic castile soap is based on recipes invented long ago in the Castile region. Castile soap is a name now used loosely in English-speaking countries for vegetable oil-based soap that contains no animal fats.
We use a basic saponified olive oil soap bar which we turn into a liquid and then combine with a few other ingredients to create a multitude of cleaners. Here are the instructions for how to liquify a bar soap, followed by some examples of how you can turn that liquid into various body and house cleaners:
Liquid Castile
Ingredients
- plain olive oil soap bar
- water
Instructions
- Grate your soap bar down (just simple saponified olive oil, no added ingredients) It doesn’t need to be perfect but the smaller your shavings the quicker they will melt so try not to have big lumps of soap in there.
- Mix it with a couple of cups of cold water in a pot. One cup of soap shavings with a couple cups of water is fine to start, this doesn’t have to be perfect measuring, you’ll see why in step 5.
- Heat while stirring. You don’t want it boiling, just hot, and you don’t need to stir constantly, you can leave it on low stirring occasionally while choosing your oils, gathering your bottles, etc.
- Let it cool. Once all your shavings have melted into a nice smooth liquid, let it cool.Alternative to 3&4: You can skip the heating and cooling by simply mixing half a cup of soap shavings to a cup of water and leaving it overnight when the shavings should be soft enough to mix into a smooth liquid. While I have heard this works fine, I have also had reports of this producing a liquid that’s more likely to crust which can cause problems if you’re dispensing with a pump.
- Add water. The soap will thicken as it cools so you really need it to be fully cool before you can tell if it’s the consistency you want. If it’s too thick when it’s hot certainly add a bit of extra water before it cools, but definitely wait till it’s fully cool to judge the final consistency and at this point you can add extra water if you find it too thick.
- Bottle. Grab yourself a funnel or freehand it if you’re steady and pour it into your favourite dispenser/bottle.
- Add scent (and extra water for some products). You can do this before bottling if you’re just making one product, but if you’re making a batch of soap to make a few products like we do then adding to the bottles is easier. In this case don’t fill your bottles all the way to the top, if you leave some space when adding the essential oils and/or extra water you will be able to mix it all together quite easily by turning the bottle from end to end and side to side.
Notes
USES
What you add to your products will depend a lot on personal preference, and over time, experience. Here are some ideas based on what we use, just to show you how easily this one technique can replace an awful lot: Hand Soap:This one we do just a little thinner so that it dispenses better from a pump, and add eucalyptus essential oil for the antibacterial/antiseptic/antiviral (plus astringent/deodorant/much much more) properties, plus an extra oil (mint/orange/whatever you like) for scent. Body Wash:
This one we keep the original thickness and add calendula for the skin care properties. To this we add something for scent that also has properties for the skin depending on our individual needs – sometimes mint for freshness and antibacterial properties; or chamomile, thyme, or sage for skin care – the options are vast. Face Wash:
Thin down the original thickness with witch hazel for great but mild astringent properties. To this you can add essential oils that are suited to your individual needs: Chamomile is a nice calming and skin soothing example. Shampoo:
This one we make quite a bit thinner, these soaps don’t foam in a way you might be used to and we find making the shampoo thinner helps to be able to cover the head. We add rosemary because of its list of hair and scalp improving properties. As well as a regular use shampoo, we make a separate clarifying shampoo by adding baking soda.
(One thing to note is that yes you will go through the greasy adjustment stage when switching to this shampoo, but once your scalp has adjusted to not having its oil stripped completely it will balance its oil production.) Dishsoap:
Because this liquid soap is all natural it is perfectly acceptable for washing your dishes. (You can mix in some soda crystals with the soap shavings in step 2 for some really powerful grease cutting stuff.) Laundry Liquid:
You can use your liquid soap for handwashing your laundry or even put it in your machine, use soda crystals for the prewash on heavily dirty items and you’re good to go. General Cleaner:
Mix up a thick liquid soap with baking soda to form a paste and it will make an excellent soft scrub for surface cleaning.
