Make Your Own Foaming Soap & Save $$!

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So I had no idea this was a thing until I saw a YouTube family making their own foaming hand soap. I watched in amazement as a few pumps of castile soap, topped off with water and essential oils went in, and foaming soap came out of the dispenser. It was THAT easy?

If you are looking to cut down on landfill waste and stick to organic or just more natural household items, this is a really easy way to achieve that! Castile soap is traditionally made from olive oil, but can be made today from a number of other oils like avocado, jojoba, or hemp. From eraorganics.com, “Since castile soap is made from safe, simple plant oils, it is considered safe for even the most sensitive skin types.”

As soon as I saw this soap-life-hack, I knew I needed to try it. In addition to saving a little bit on your grocery store trip, you also don’t have to worry about sending tons of plastic soap containers to the dump. Let’s do a little cost-analysis of store-bought organic soap vs. making your own organic foaming soap:

I’ll compare a store-bought organic hand soap to a brand of bulk castile soap that can be diluted down for foaming. The prices will be off of my local supermarket chain’s app.

Avalon Organics Glycerin Lemon Hand Soap – 12 oz bottle

$7.95 off H-E-B app =

$0.66 per oz

(What I used in my dispenser)

Dr. Bronner’s Pure Castile Soap – 32 oz bottle

$11.96 off H-E-B app =

$0.37 per oz

But here’s where it gets fun. You can use the pure castile soap straight out of the bottle, sure. But by using a foaming soap dispenser (like these), you can save even more. The foaming soap dispensers work by combining 1 part soap to 5 parts water. So let’s break that down even more…

The Dr. Bronner’s soap is $0.37 per oz at my local supermarket. The dispenser holds 14 oz of soap solution, only ~2.33 oz are of pure soap (the rest is filled with water). So your 14 oz bottle of hand soap will cost you about $0.86. I can guarantee you that is cheaper than any organic hand soap you will find around

Just for fun, we can also compare it to a conventional but marketed as ‘natural’ hand soap (not organic) and the price still holds up.

Meyer’s Clean Day Hand Soap – 12.5 oz

$3.88 per bottle on H-E-B app

Compared to your homemade 14 oz bottle of foaming soap which costs $0.86. That’s a great way to save some money! Of course, you have the upfront cost of the dispensers, but over many uses the cost is quite low.

There are a lot of different options of foaming dispensers. The ones I got have little infographics on the front that show how much soap to add then how much water to add. That’s very helpful so you can just pour the soap right in then fill to the top line with water – no extra measuring.

Another perk of this ‘bulk soap making’ endeavor is that there is a much less frequent chance we will run out of hand soap. You know, like, when you add a little water to your bathroom soap dispenser because it’s all out, then you keep forgetting to buy more at the store? Yeah. Hoping that doesn’t happen now!

If you want to make your own soap scents you can buy a 1 gallon jug of plain unscented castile soap here and add your own essential oils!