4 Natural Hand Soap Recipes For Clean, Hydrated Hands

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Want to make sure you’re doing everything in your power to maintain a safe environment at home? It begins with making the conscious decision to choose products that are formulated with safer ingredients – especially those that will be coming into contact with our skin.

Conventional products contain a ton of chemicals that are known to have a negative impact on our health. As the body’s largest organ, our skin is also incredibly absorbent and using these products can introduce harmful toxins into our bloodstream.

Where to start? Natural hand soap. Instead of buying it from the store, making your own hand soap from scratch is oh-so simple, and it’s much safer for you and your loved ones. The best part about making your own hand soap is that you can customize the recipe with your favorite scents and moisturizing oils.

Benefits of Using Natural Hand Soap

Better for your health

Your health always come first. Whenever possible, going down the organic or natural route with commonly used products will have a remarkable impact on your overall health and wellbeing.  Making your own hand soap helps reduce your exposure to all the chemicals and toxic substances that are used in most personal care products.  

Budget-friendly  

Another great reason to make your own hand soap? Think about how often you’re washing your hands on a daily basis. Making natural hand soap (in bulk) will save you a ton of money in the long-run! Instead of consistently purchasing overpriced soap, it’s relatively inexpensive to DIY it with a few basic ingredients like castile soap and essential oils.

It’s super easy

What we love the most about DIY hand soap? You get the final say over what goes into it! Making your own hand soap is actually a lot easier than it sounds.

You’ll need castile soap for all of the recipes in this article. It’s a concentrated soap with scented or unscented options. With the unscented version, you can use essential oils to add your favorite scent to the hand soap (along with its therapeutic benefits). For hand soap with ultra-nourishing qualities, you can also add a moisturizing oil like olive or almond oil.

Fragrance

We all have our preferences when it comes to different scents, but it’s a good idea to stay away from products that contain fragrance. These products might smell good, but they’re not so great for your health.

It’s not a requirement for organizations to disclose any of the ingredients that make up the fragrance component of their products. “Fragrance” is often used as an umbrella term to disguise a long list of ingredients that may irritate skin or even increase the risk of serious health problems.

Parabens

Stay away from parabens! Parabens are used as a preservative in a wide range of commonly used products. These chemicals are linked to reproductive toxicity, disruption to hormone activity, and an increased risk of breast cancer.

Where to Source Your Ingredients

I prefer shopping from and supporting small businesses – these businesses directly benefits families and communities. These are the small businesses I receommend:

• Get your essential oils at Rocky Mountain Oils (find out why here).
• Get your liquid castile soap and other ingredients at From Nature with Love.

Best Recipes for Homemade Hand Soap

Basic Hand Soap

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons liquid castile soap
• Water (distilled)
• Essential oil

Directions:

1. Grab an empty soap dispenser (8 oz) and fill it up with water until the container is nearly full.
2. Add 2 tablespoons of castile soap into the bottle. Make sure you add the soap after the water or you’ll end up with a ton of bubbles.
3. Voila! Wash away with your own homemade hand soap. This is the easiest recipe for creating your own natural hand soap.

Uplifting Citrus Hand Soap

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup of water
• ¼ cup of liquid castile soap
• 20 drops of lemon essential oil
• Soap dispenser

Directions:

1. Fill your container with ¾ cup of water then add ¼ cup of liquid castile soap into the soap dispenser. The water always goes in first!
2. Add 20 drops of lemon essential oil into your mixture.
3. Place the cap or pump back onto your dispenser and then shake it up.

Calming Lavender Hand Soap

Ingredients:

• ½ cup liquid castile soap
• ½ cup distilled water
• 1 tablespoon vitamin E oil (optional)
• 1 tablespoon of sweet almond oil, olive oil, or jojoba oil (choose one)
• 15 drops tea tree essential oil (optional)
• 5-10 drops lavender essential oil (optional)

Directions:

1. Add ½ cup of distilled water into a container or soap dispenser.
2. Pour the liquid castile soap into the water before adding the rest of the oils into your soap mixture. 
3. Pop the cap or pump back onto the container and give it a good shake to combine all the ingredients. 

Invigorating Peppermint Hand Soap

Ingredients:

• ¼ part castile soap
• ¾ part distilled or purified water
• 1 tablespoon fractionated coconut oil or almond oil
• ½ tablespoon vegetable glycerin
• 9 drops peppermint essential oil
• 15 drops bergamot essential oil

Directions:

1. Pour the castile soap, carrier oil, and vegetable glycerin into your soap dispenser.
2. Next, add in the essential oils.
3. Shake it all up. 
4. Add the water into your mixture.
5. Shake again!

How to Store Natural Hand Soap

It’s relatively inexpensive to grab a new soap dispenser, but you can always store your homemade soap in an old soap dispenser.

Do you prefer foamy hand soap? You don’t need a special recipe – it’s all in the pump. A foaming soap dispenser is required for hand soap that foams up. For non-foaming hand soap, just use a dispenser with a regular pump.

Conclusion

Try it out for yourself! Show everyone how resourceful you truly are by making your own hand soap for you and your loved ones. Natural hand soap is the perfect addition to any home and it can also be used as a cute little gift for friends and family. Making your own hand soap is incredibly easy and it doesn’t require a ton of ingredients – as a bonus, doing this in bulk will save you a lot of money over time.

Remember to support small and get your ingredients at Rocky Mountain Oils and From Nature with Love.

Have you ever tried making your own hand soap? We always love hearing from you! Let us know in the comments about your own experience along with any tips you might have to share – and of course, if you have any questions for us.