Liquid Dish Soap Recipe, grease-fighting and easy to make!
This is a post all about my homemade recipe for grease-fighting liquid dish soap! I have a confession to make, even though I said I had replaced all of my household cleaners with my own homemade there was one I just hadn’t tackled yet: Liquid Dish Soap. So, what have I been using to wash my dishes by hand with in the meanwhile? Well, I’ve literally just been dumping some of my homemade dry Dishwasher Detergent in the sink and scrubbing with everything I’ve got. It was actually working all right but I really wanted something for “real” that would have some “soapiness” to it etc. So, I got to searching and experimenting and FINALLY I landed on one that works great for us!
My first and foremost desire for liquid dish soap was a gelatinous consistency, I saw lots of posts online where they added glycerin and I just didn’t want to have to buy an ingredient I wouldn’t be using anywhere else. MOST liquid dish soap recipes online used grated bar soap and that was a little more up my ally as I grate half a bar whenever I make my laundry detergent. I found recipes that used borax and recipes that used super washing soda. I also found recipes that used vinegar. ALL are ingredients I keep on hand. Some of them used essential oils and they all made note that you certainly don’t need essential oils, they’re really just there to make it smell nice and that’s true of my recipe as well.
I have been hesitant to share my recipe here as it also includes two cups of my tap water and my tap water really can’t be found anywhere else. Ihave an old well and no water softener so, here’s the truth, you are most likely going to need to adjust the amounts of at least a couple of the ingredients to work with your water or the recipe will either end up really thick or really watery. So, here’s the recipe that I finally ended up with: its silky, its soapy, its thick enough to kinda stick without gumming up the bottle and, most importantly, IT WORKS.
2 cups water
1/2 cup grated bar soap
1/2 cup liquid castile soap (what I use)
1 tablespoon super washing soda (what I use)
1 tablespoon borax (what I use)
30 drops essential oil of your choice or none at all
Bring the water nearly to a boil and stir in everything except the essential oils, keep stiring until it all dissolves (it will become very clear) and allow to cool a little before adding in your chosen oils. Bottle and use as you like for washing dishes. I LOVE my little soap dispenser I purchased from Amazon that fits mason jars!
Again – you really don’t need the essential oils (especially if you use a scented bar soap or scented castile soap) but I like a combo of peppermint and tea tree essential oils. I saw a post online where they used nothing but lavender oil in their dish soap recipe but I kinda prefer that for other things like my body butter and my perfume. If its too thick after a day just add a little water and shake it up or, if its not thick enough, you can always heat it up again and add a little more grated bar soap. A big factor here is the grated bar soap that you use, the first recipe I saw similar to this one only called for 1/4 cup and, as you can see, I use a whole cup for this recipe but it may be the castile bar soap that I use or, as I mentioned earlier, my tap water.
This soap works great and I am so happy to have something specific when I hand wash some of my big pots now!
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I’m Tarah!
It’s been a hell of a ride since I started this blog and renovated and moved into this old farm house back in 2015. I got married, divorced, lost my doggo soul mate, spent two years as a single gal, remodeled everything, threw my back out countless times and was even found by an amazing guy in my own backyard! (The story behind Storyhardt Farm.)
Around here we’re totally fearless when it comes to bettering our home. We love to refinish old furniture, re-purpose old pieces, build it from scratch and totally renovate anything that needs it! If we can do it – so can you. We’ve got some serious plans for this old farm and, for first time ever, I have a real partner!
This is gonna be so much fun!
You can also find out more about the amazing Grandma behind this blog who moved in to this old farmhouse with my Grandpa nearly 70 years ago!
Wow…what a neat idea!
I would love for you to share this with my Facebook Group for recipes, crafts, tips, and tricks: https://WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/GROUPS/PLUCKYRECIPESCRAFTSTIPS/
Thanks for joining Cooking and Crafting with J & J!
Thanks Jess!
Great recipe – pinned and shared.
Thank you Carol!
Thanks for sharing this great info with SYC.
hugs,
Jann
Thanks for coming by Jann!
That is great that you can make your own! Thanks for sharing at Celebrate Your Story!
Thanks Chloe!
What an interesting idea! I love the thought of keeping everything as homemade as possible. Thanks so much for sharing at the #happynowlinkup!
Thanks for coming by Leslie!
Hi Tarah!
Enjoyed reading your post about creating your own soap or dish detergent. Very interesting! Does it matter what kind of bar soap you use to grate? Do you have dedicated utensils and pots just for the making of the detergent? Just wondering, as I used to make new soap bars out of scraps from old bars, and I had to do that. Otherwise, food tastes like soap!
Thanks for sharing with Sweet Inspiration this week!
Hi Florence, so far I haven’t had any problems with lingering soap but I always wash everything and scrub it good by hand right after making it! YES, it is very important what kind of bar soap you use as I learned that the hard way! With the liquid dish soap especially any type of really hard core oil based soaps will just leave your dishes oily etc. Like olive oil soaps etc. need to stick with basic hard bars!
Can’t wait to try this,i love making these recipes for cleaning. Thanks so much.
Thanks Marlene for coming by! Hope the recipe works out for you as well as it has for us!
This looks great!
Thanks Anne!
Thanks for sharing at Home Sweet Home!
Thanks for coming by Sherry!
Thanks for sharing your recipe! Love the Mason jars!
Thank you for coming by Linda, have a great weekend!
I’ve seen lots or recipes for laundry products, but I think this is the first time I’ve seen a homemade dish soap recipe, I will have to try it out ๐
Thanks for coming by Kyla!
I am looking for the recipe for the cleaning spray that has vinegar in it. Where can I find it on the new site. I lOve it!
Hi Michelle, my cleaning spray recipe is a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water, I usually add some drops of tea tree and orange essential oils just to make it smell nice. I LOVE IT! I use it on all of my surfaces as well as my hardwood floor cleaner as well!
I am trying not to bring in any plastic containers to my house so liquid castile soap is not an option. Can I just increase the amount of bar Castile?
Hi Gretta that should work fine!