Categories: Life

How to Make Liquid Soap From Leftover Bar Soap

Michael Timmermann | March 25th, 2020

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I was flipping through the channels the other day when I stopped to watch a story about a single mother who makes homemade soap to save $10 a month.

As I sorted through multiple recipes online, I discovered that she’s not the only one doing this. A lot of people are turning economical bar soap into luxurious body wash or liquid hand soap, potentially saving $100 a year or more!

And after trying it out myself, I don’t think I’ll ever have to buy liquid hand soap again.

Follow along as I show you step-by-step how I turned scraps of leftover bar soap into homemade liquid soap that will last for months or maybe the rest of the year.

I promise that it’s cheap, quick and so very easy!

Recipe: Turn Bar Soap Scraps Into Liquid Hand Soap or Body Wash

Step 1: Gather scraps of old bar soap equal to 4 ounces, which is the weight of a regular bar of soap. You could also use a new bar of soap.

Step 2: Shred the soap using a cheese grater or a potato peeler.

Step 3: Heat the soap pieces in a pot with approximately 8 to 9 cups of water until it melts. Use less water if you want to make a creamy body wash instead of liquid hand soap.

Step 4: This is just optional, but you can add 1 tablespoon of vegetable glycerin, which will help moisturize the skin. I found this bottle of glycerin in the beauty department at Walmart for $3.88.

Step 5: Remove melted soap from the heat and let it sit covered for 12 to 24 hours.

Step 6: After the soap thickens overnight, use a whisk or a mixer to blend it together. If it’s too thick or too thin, you can make adjustments and repeat the previous steps as necessary.

Step 7: Transfer to containers for storage. Look how much soap was made!

I’m not a professional when it comes to soap making, but I couldn’t be happier with how I was able to reuse scraps of soap that may otherwise have gone to waste — and it only took a few minutes!

There are tons of different recipes and tutorials online. I found the following resources helpful:

How much money can you really save? It depends how much soap you make and use, but YouTuber Keila said she spends $1.60 to make four containers of body wash that would cost $20 at the store.