Homemade Liquid Hand Soap

 I'm really enjoying the DIY world.  Again, I have Pinterest to thank for my new adventures.  This time, I'm making homemade liquid hand soap.  I hate bar soap - ewww!  Liquid soap, especially the good stuff, is expensive.  Why not make it myself?

I like to view multiple recipes and experiences to see if I can get a good perspective on my options and pull out the best from each and combine if I need to.  The original Pin that caught my eye was from The Farmer's Nest. 

Today, before I started, I read up on the different bar soap that people have tried.  It appears that the majority of the recipes I found tend to follow the same measurements (give or take a little).  I decided to try Yardley brand soap after reading about it on Savvy Housekeeping.  I chose not to use Dove (which is my favorite and only one I have used for years), because I want something different than the regular liquid soap I usually buy as Sam's Club.  However, I am just realizing that I could have stuck with my favorite Dove bar and just added essential oil.

I ended up using the recipe from The Farmer's Nest

I purchased Yardley Scrub & Smooth Bath Bar in the Sea Minerals scent from Walgreens.  I bought 2 bars (4.5 oz each). 

I also went to a local nutrition shop and purchased essential oil.  I created 2 batches and I am going to put essential oil in one of the batches and see if I like it. 

• I bought a gallon of distilled water and divided it equally into two different pans (8 cups in each pan).
• grated each bar of soap separately and added to the pans
• added 1 tablespoon of glycerin to each pan.
• heated water, soap and glycerin on medium high heat until the soap was melted and then removed from heat.

I am letting the soap cool for 10-12 hours.  I'll be back to post how it turns out.  I am curious to know what happens when extra glycerin is added.  The reason I mention this is because I re-read the recipe using the Yardley soap and read that you don't need to use glycerin when using this soap.  I just looked at the ingredients on the box of soap and it says that it has "Vegetable Glycerin" in it.  The other thing I read was that you can find Yardley soap at some Dollar Stores.  I ended up paying $2.49 per bar at Walgreens.
Here is a break down of cost to make this soap:
Glycerin 6oz bottle (purchased at Wal-Mart): about $3.00 (I can't find the receipt).  Amount used in recipe is 2 tbsp - less than $.50 worth.
Yardley Soap (Walgreens): $4.98 (2 bars)
Distilled Water: no more than a $1.00
For a gallon of homemade hand soap  ~$6.50-$7.00
Essential Oil .5 fl oz bottle - $4.99.  Recipe says to use about 10 drops.

 I just checked the soap after letting it sit for 2 hours.  It is already really thick.  I took out my hand mixer and blended up both batches because initially I thought it was going to harden.  I'm guessing I'll need to add a little more distilled water.  I'm going to watch it over the next couple of hours and see what happens.

***Update***
Life got away from me and I didn't finish my blog post regarding the handmade soap.  It turned out really slimy and chunky.  I ended up added about 2 oz more water into each batch.  Then I pulled out the hand mixer and tried to blend it all.  Unfortunately, there were still clumps so I strained the soap.  This left the chunks in the strainer and I dumped it into a bowl and mixed it up.  This worked wonders and I was able to get a smoother consistency to the soap. 
I added orange oil to the one batch, which didn't make a strong scent, but still smelled nice.  I then put one batch into the used Distilled Water jug and the other batch into a used soap container. 
I'm not sure if this really is cost efficient.  That will have to be something I research.  One blogger said she uses all the bars of soap that she receives as gifts, and turns them into liquid soap. 
Over all it was an easy project.