Natural Body Care Series: Homemade Body Wash

 Lately I've really been wanting to make the switch from store-bought body care products to natural, homemade ones. I've been putting it off for a while because it's intimidating. I also have made the excuse that it's expensive to make natural products, but if doing so creates a better state of health for my family, it actually will save me money in the long run!
The commercial products are just so full of chemicals, phalates, and who knows what else that I feel guilty putting them on my and my families bodies when I know there are healthier, natural alternatives that work just as well or even better.

So I'm on a mission to switch our family from store-bought to homemade body care!
My first foray is:

 (Mostly) Homemade Body Wash

What I mean when I say "mostly" is that I used a bar of Ivory Soap (leftover from making Homemade Laundry Detergent) for part of it.
In my next attempt, I'm going to use some Yardley of London Lavender bar soap- I can't wait to see how it turns out! I just had the Ivory soap already at home, so I tried it with that first.

I found the recipe for this on Pinterest, and modified it slightly.

Here is the original recipe.

Here is what I used:

1 bar Ivory Soap
2 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup Eucalyptus Castile Soap

Yield: About 10 oz. (it reduces and thickens as you simmer it)

Melt your soap in the microwave (on a microwave safe dish of course) for about 60-90 seconds. It will puff up into amazing shapes that make you want to mush your hands around in it and play with it.
 (or is that just me??)
I didn't get a picture because I suck and forgot. Next time. It looks really cool.

Pour the water into a large pan or pot, add the soap and Castile soap and stir gently.
Heat over medium-low heat until the bar soap is dissolved, around 30 min. It will be really foamy at first, but gradually will get clearer and kind of gelatinous.
Make sure you stir the soap every few minutes to help everything dissolve nicely and so it doesn't scald on the bottom. I stirred it with a rubber spatula at first, then with a whisk at the end to get any lingering lumps of bar soap.

Once the body wash is thickened and most of your lumps are dissolved, remove from heat and pour into a glass or plastic container. The body wash will thicken as it cools, add more water if needed to make it more creamy.

I imagine you could add oats or rice pulverized into a powder for exfoliating, or any essential oils if eucalyptus isn't to your liking. Play around with it and see what you come up with!

I'm already looking forward to making my next batch and trying some lavender body wash. :)

Next up in the series: Homemade Avocado Hair Conditioner





This post is shared at Wild Crafting Wednesday at Mind, Body and Sole.