Learn how to make body wash from bar soap. This easy body wash recipe is perfect for beginners because it doesn't use lye or expensive ingredients. In fact, you'll only need two ingredients plus water to make a creamy body wash. This helps you save money, and you can customize the scent to fit your needs.

How to Make Creamy Body Wash

I'm a coupon shopper for the basics. I use digital coupons and go to the store about once a week and buy things like toothpaste, shampoo, and other basics when I can snag them about half off.

Body wash keeps getting more and more expensive with not good coupons. With 4 of us using it here, we can go through a bottle in no time!

At $5-10 a bottle, it adds up quickly!

I tried using bar soap, but then we'd need 5 bars of soap in the shower taking up room. Bar soap needs to dry between uses or it dissolves. This isn't always possible with so many showers per day.

So now I make DIY soap from bar soap to save money. It only takes a few minutes, and I can use the soap of my choice and even add essential oils or natural fragrance oils.

For more money saving tips, check out these posts:

Keep track of your natural living recipes with my Recipes for Natural Living binder. You can print the pages to create a binder to keep track of your food and other DIY recipes.

How Do You Make Homemade Body Wash?

There are several ways to make homemade body wash. You can make body wash completely from scratch with a liquid, surfactant, preservative, and thickener. Country Hill Cottage has 7 DIY shower gel recipes to try.

You can also use liquid castile soap. I've done this before, and it works in a pinch. However, liquid castile soap has a high pH, which can affect the skin mantle and cause dry skin. It's too drying for me personally.

You can also use a body wash base. I have used two of them to make my own easy body wash recipe. I used to use the Crafty Bubbles body wash base and sell it when I was selling my DIY bath and body products. It's a wonderful base, and I love it.

Simply Earth also has a body wash base that I've used. It's wonderful and easy to use, but it is pricey.

The best easy body wash recipe, in my opinion, is to learn how to make body wash from Dove bar soap or your favorite soap.

Can You Turn Bar Soap Into Body Wash?

Yes, you can make body wash using a bar of soap. This is the cheapest way to make an easy body wash recipe.

You don't have to handle lye to make the soap, and you don't need a preservative or an emulsifier like you do when making soap from scratch.

You just need a bar of soap, water, and coconut oil or glycerin. You can also add essential oils or fragrance oils.

How Much Does it Cost to Make Dove Body Wash?

I used Dove soap because it's fairly cheap. I also use it to clean my makeup brushes, so I usually buy a pack of the soap to have on the shelf.

One bar of Dove soap right now is $1.75. However, I can buy an 8 pack and pay just $1.37 per bar. This easy body wash recipe makes approximately 28 ounces of body wash.

That's just 5 cents per ounce or 98 cents per 20 ounce bottle!

A cheap brand of body wash is about $5 or more for that size bottle, so this is a considerable savings!

How Do You Make Body Wash With Soap?

To learn how to make body wash from Dove bar soap or other soap, you simply need to grate the soap and add the gated soap to water.

Then heat until the soap dissolves and add coconut oil or glycerin and a scent if desired. Let cool and bottle.

How to Increase Lather in DIY Soap From Bar Soap?

Lather and bubbles are necessary when using a body wash. However, I like the bubbles because I feel like it's working better.

When learning how to make creamy body wash, I add either coconut oil or glycerin to add more lather. Personally, I like using coconut oil because it also moisturizes my skin. Coconut oil also helps thicken the DIY soap from bar soap.

You can also learn how to make body wash from bar soap and glycerin. Glycerin helps draw moisture from the air to your skin. It won't thicken your body wash though.

You can learn more about other ingredients in this how to make melt and pour soap lather more because the ingredients work similarly in this recipe.

Adding Fragrance to Easy Body Wash Recipe

You can add either essential oils or fragrance oils to your easy body wash from bar soap. For a wash off product, you can use up to a 2 percent dilution rate for essential oils. You can use a printable essential oil dilution chart to help you calculate.

Since you can adjust the amount the water to make this soap thicker or thinner, and you'll add more or less water per ounce of soap that you use, I am hesitant to recommend an amount for the entire batch.

You can use up to 24 drops of essential oils per ounce of creamy body wash. I like calculating by the ounce because then I can make each bottle its own scent and not by the batch.

Since I used regular Dove soap that has a scent, I added a few drops of Gardenia natural fragrance oil from Nature's Oils. It complements the scent of the soap well.

If you use a different scented soap, you may not need to add any extra fragrance. Or you can use an unscented soap and add your own essential oils.

These are good ones to try:

You can also try one of these essential oil blends that smell like candy. You can also use natural fragrance oil from Nature's Oils.

Best Soap for DIY Soap From Bar Soap

When you're learning how to make creamy body wash, you want to use the right bar of soap. I usually use Dove soap because it works really well and gives me a creamy body wash.

You can also use cold process or hot process soap. I like this basic bastille soap recipe, but you can also find natural soaps on Etsy or from a local soapmaker.

You can also use soap scraps or buy soap flakes made from cold process soap. Ugly bars of soap are also perfect for this.

Don't use glycerin soaps or melt and pour soaps because they don't work well. They get very stringy and form a gloppy mess.

Tips for Making Body Wash From Bar Soap

Here are some tips to try:

The water and soap ratio is adjustable. I like to use 1 cup of water per ounce of soap, but you can use more water for a thinner body wash or less water for a thicker body wash.
Use up to 24 drops of essential oil or fragrance oil per ounce of finished product. I recommend making the body wash and adding the scent to the bottle as you use it.
I make one batch at a time. Since we added a lot of water to the soap, it can reduce the shelf life. I don't recommend making more than 3-4 cups of soap at a time.
Watch the weights for your soap bars. Dove soap used to be 4 ounces, but it's just over 3 ounces now due to shinkflation.
Add coconut oil or glycerin to increase lather. I prefer coconut oil because it's moisturizing for my skin.
Use distilled water for a longer shelf life. You can also boil water and let it cool before using. I use water from my Berkey since it removes nearly all impurities and microbes.

Easy Body Wash Recipe Ingredients

You will need the following to learn how to make body wash from soap:

1 ounce soap flakes (I used Dove, you can use your favorite brand)
1 cup distilled water
1/2 tablespoon coconut oil or glycerin
Essential oils or fragrance oils

How to Make Body Creamy Body Wash

Step #1

Grate the soap with a cheese grater. The finer the shavings, the quicker the soap will melt.

Step #2

Place grated soap and water in a medium saucepan. Add coconut oil or glycerin. Heat over medium heat until the soap is melted. Stir occasionally.

Step #3

Remove the soap from heat and let cool. Add essential oils using up to 24 drops per ounce of soap.

Pour into a bottle and enjoy! I reused an old body wash bottle, but you can 16 ounce bottles. I store leftover soap in a mason jar.

Now you know how to make body wash from bar soap and glycerin or coconut oil.

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body wash, diy, recipe, glycerin, essential oils, coconut oil

Yield: 8 ounces

Author: Cari @ Homesteading in Ohio

Estimated cost: $2