Easy Foaming Handwash - only 3 ingredients and 30 seconds!

A really quick recipe for foaming handwash that you'll use again and again as it's so easy!

Many years ago, I used to make lots of my own eco-friendly cleaning products for around the home. Somehow (maybe a house move and a second baby on the way and other things?) I got out of the habit, and it was only recently, when clearing out some old boxes, that I found some of my old 'recipes' and started again as part of my efforts to reduce our usage of plastic.

Not only will you stop having to buy expensive plastic bottles of handwash, you'll also SAVE money, because it costs less than 20p to make each 300ml bottle yourself, rather than the £1 it usually costs to buy a 250-300ml bottle! Below, you'll find the recipe for handwash, together with the links for the lovely glass foaming bottles I found and the organic pure castile soap I use. If you have to buy in the ingredients to make this, they will soon pay for themselves with the huge saving you'll make on every bottle of handwash you make for yourself from now on.

Another unexpected benefit - after only a couple of days of using this handwash, there was a visible difference to the skin on my hands - particularly the back of my hands. I kept doing a double take, as my previously rather dry, and sadly a bit wrinkly hands had become noticeably smoother looking and softer. What's not to love?!

Anyway, enough eulogising, here's how to make it!


Ingredients

• 2-3tsp Pure Castile Liquid Soap (I like to use this brand of pure, unscented, baby-mild organic castile soap - also good in other recipes for homemade toiletries / household products - a close second is this one, which is around half the price*)
• 10-15 drops essential oil (your favourite, or a mixture - I like to use those with antibacterial properties e.g. lemongrass, orange, peppermint, eucalyptus, lavender, tea tree, geranium, citronella - remember to bear in mind who else might be using it)
• 1/4 tsp Vitamin E oil (optional - to soften / condition skin)

You will also need

• Handwash bottle with a foaming pump (you can re-use a foaming handwash bottle, or buy your own - I love these glass ones from Amazon* - it must specifically be for foaming handwash though, normal handwash bottles won't work)

Method

1. Boil the kettle, then leave to cool down to warm (this will extend the life of your handwash, rather than using tap water).

2. Add 300ml of the cooled-down boiled water to the clean handwash bottle along with 2 tsp of the castile soap (you can add a third tsp if you feel you need it), 10-15 drops essential oil/s and the 1/4 tsp vitamin E oil (if using) and gently shake.

3. Wet hands before adding a pump or two of your foaming soap, lather and rinse! You may find your hands feel slightly different after rinsing than they do with your usual soap, but you will soon start to notice how much softer they feel!

Notes
You can use vitamin E capsules if you can't get hold of vitamin E oil or that's what you have in, and just pierce a capsule with a pin and squeeze it out, although vitamin E oil is readily available at most chemists, health food shops etc. and is available online. If you're re-using a 250ml bottle, just stick to the lower quantities of castile soap and essential oils, and make sure you leave enough room to fit them in! You might want to give your bottle a shake every now and then as you sometimes get a little of the oil floating on top.

Back in the day, I also used this as a mild babywash, BUT only adding a total of 3-4 drops of essential lavender oil and / or chamomile oil, not 10-15 drops.

*Please note these are Amazon Affiliate links, which will make no difference at all to the price you pay for the items on Amazon that you link to, but means that a few pennies from the sale come to me, which helps to fund my blog, as I don't have any adverts on it or ask for donations.