MCO's Clean Diaries: Homemade Body Wash

Have you ever noticed how expensive body wash is? Like seriously, expensive. At $4 + per container you could literally spend a fortune to get clean in the shower! Mr. Hunky goes through body wash like crazy. I swear he must pour a whole palm size amount in his hand because he goes through one in about a week and a half. It usually takes me a couple of months to get through it because I only use about a quarter sized amount and I usually put it in my loofah so a little bit goes a long way. Mr. Hunky uses Dial Fresh Spring body wash which retails approximately $4, sometimes a bit cheaper if you can find it on sale, but still, that about $10-$12 a month just on body wash! Ridiculous. I needed to make a change, quickly.

After searching Pinterest for a while I came across a recipe over at Katie Gibson, where she makes her own Philosophy inspired body wash. I figured, why not try making Mr. Hunky's body wash! It seemed pretty easy to do, and it was! Everything needed to make your own body wash is easily found at your local Walmart or even at home! Please note: you will need glycerin for this project, you will find that in the first aid section next to band aids and hydrogen peroxide!

As always, I would make sure that your family doesn't have any allergies to the products that you are using while making your own body wash. Use this recipe at your own risk. 

What You Will Need:

1 8 OZ Bar of Soap

(You may use any type of soap you would like, but I have read in many places that Dove soap does not work for this recipe).

2 Tablespoons of Glycerin 

1 Gallon of Water

1 Empty & Clean Gallon Jug

1 Cheese Grater

What You Need To Do:

Start by taking your cheese grater and grating your 8 oz bar of soap, you can do this on the largest grate. 

Once you have your soap grated, put it into a large stock pot along with the two tablespoons of glycerin and a gallon of water. 

On medium heat, melt the grated soap and stir frequently. Your mixture will look like very soapy water and depending on what soap you use, it may look milky! You are doing it right, don't worry! If the soap is to thick, add some water until it is a consistency you like!

When you're positive that all of the soap is melted, take the stock pot off of the heat and move it to the back burner. You will let the mixture cool and congregate for 10-12 hours, I recommend making this right before you are ready to go to bed and in the morning you will be ready to finish it up!

The next morning your body wash will have the same consistency as Jello. Take your handheld mixer and mix the soap until it is liquid again. Once your soap is ready to go, grab your funnel and stick it into your gallon jug! Slowly pour the soap into the jug until it is full! Cap the jug and you're done!

Why Make Homemade Body Wash?

Well for one, you know exactly what is in it and you can pretty much make any scent you'd like! The biggest reason perhaps is the cost. For the price of 1 container of body wash from the store, you can make 1 gallon of body wash! 

Does It Have The Same Consistency As Store Bought Body Wash?

Homemade body wash is sort of snotty. It reminds me of egg whites because it is not as smooth as what you would get from the store. For the price though the texture is something I can absolutely overlook. Suds do not equal clean, so even though this soap may not bubble or foam as much as your store bought body wash would, you're still getting ridiculously clean!

How Much Will Homemade Body Wash Cost Me?

The cost will vary depending on the soap that you buy. You can get a lot of awesome soaps from the Dollar Store, but pay attention the the ounces because you need an 8 oz bar of soap, so for some soaps you may have to buy one or two for it to equal 8 oz. I found everything we needed at Walmart so my cost was as follows:

1 8 OZ Bar of Soap: I used 2 1/2 3 OZ bars of Dial: $2.24

2 Tablespoons of Glycerin: $3.88

1 Gallon of Water: Free!  Kind of, our water bill is approximately $26 a month so I could sit down to figure out the cost of that gallon of water, but I really don't want to. Regardless, it would be cheap.

Total: $6.12

The best part is that two tablespoons barely made a dent in the glycerin so I will be able to make at least 3-4 more batches of body wash before it's gone. So if you really do the break down and say that there are approximately 4 batches in the glycerin, it really only costs $3.21 for a GALLON of body wash. Pretty good deal in my opinion!

This concludes MCO's Clean Diaries for now, I do plan on trying antibacterial hand soap in the near future, I'll let ya know when I do! 

Want to make your own laundry detergent? Check out MCO's Clean Diaries: Homemade Laundry Detergent

Want to make your own dishwasher detergent? Check out MCO's Clean Diaries: Homemade Dishwasher Detergent