How I Make Homemade Hand Soap and What I Use When I Don't Have Time For Refills

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castille soap filling up reusable soap dispensers

If you've been here for awhile, you know I'm a fan of the DIY versions of well, almost everything. However, sometimes I don't have time to do it myself like I'd prefer - like when I find out company is coming over and it's more important for me to clean the bathroom (post coming soon) than it is to make my own hand soap (ya know what I'm talking about?).

For my homemade hand soap, I like these reusable bottles I picked up. I have a mix of foaming and non-foaming dispensers. Foaming hand soap is my favorite, but sometimes the pumps do get clogged and I just run some hot water along the spout and use my nail to scrape off the excess. From time to time, I also take them apart and give them a deep clean (on the inside and outside). Okay, here's how I make it...and I make it simple.

I use a mix of castile soap and filtered water. I've tried a variety of different companies and like the Vermont Soap Co. a lot. They have everything from simply unscented to peppermint, tea tree, and orange! Sometimes I'll mix the scents but always like to have unscented on hand, too.

If you've seen any of my "recipes" this won't surprise you, but I don't measure. I squirt the soap in the bottom and top it off with water. I try to remember to leave enough room for the pump to go in so it doesn't overflow!

Oh, and yeah, I put some dish soap in one of the dispensers which makes it easier than tipping over the giant bottle!

filling up all my soap dispensers at once

But hey, I get it! Sometimes I buy my handsoap. I've recently been trying out this fragrance free formula from Kirk's. Another one I really like is this microbiome friendly cleanser (affiliate code: SATIATEDBLONDE). They also just released a new scent I got to try out called "balsam winter" that smells like the holidays and the bottle label is festive, too! Side note, I've been using their enzymatic body cleanse as my "soap" for awhile now. I even shave with it!

I picked up the dispensers, the unscented, ready-to-use hand soap, and sometimes some castile soap from Vitacost. Read about my other Vitacost purchases here: