making liquid soap from your leftovers

As we mentioned in our previous blog, your bar of soap will gradually get smaller the more you use it, and you will end up with small pieces of soap that are just too small to get hold of. At this point you could pop them in your soap bag, or you could get crafty and make your own liquid soap! 

This recipe makes enough soap to fill around 4 soap dispensers. If you don't have that many dispensers, don't have enough soap left overs, or just don't need that much soap, you can always halve the recipe to suit!

​you will need:

- 100g of soap leftovers - any scent, any brand
- A knife, cheese grater or vegetable peeler
- Water
- Essential Oils (optional)
- Soap colouring (optional)
​- Blender
- Saucepan
​- Empty soap dispensers

​What to do

Take your soapy leftovers and grate or finely chop them to make soap flakes. This may not take long if they are already pretty small!

Next add your soap flakes to around 1800ml of water and bring to the boil in a saucepan. Take the mixture off the heat after a minute or so of boiling and stir thoroughly to melt all the soap flakes. Your mixture will be fairly thin, but don't panic!

Allow the mixture to cool for at least 15mins. Stir again. Your mixture should be slightly thicker now. 

Cover the saucepan (or transfer to a bowl if preferred) and allow it to cool for 12 to 24 hours. After the soap has rested, check it again for consistency. The goal is to have a bowl of congealed soap. If it seems to thick, reheat it and add some more water. 

Before pouring your soap into their dispensers, run your finished soap through a blender to smooth it out. Once you are happy with the consistency, you could add a few drops of your chosen essential oil and colouring if you'd like, although if it was previously fragranced this scent should carry through.

Be sparing with the essential oils as they can cause a reaction. Lavender, lemon, eucalyptus or peppermint are great choices as they are non-toxic and have anti-bacterial properties. 
​

ta da!

From 100g of left overs, some boiling water and a little time, you'll probably have enough liquid soap to fill 4 or more of your favourite dispensers. (Of course if you don't have enough dispensers or need that much soap, you could halve, or quarter the recipe to suit)