I don’t like bar soap. When I moved out into my first apartment and started couponing, body wash was always free. So I bought that and was hooked. My skin felt so soft and never felt like it was coated in that weird residue soap leaves behind. Right now, my body wash stash is getting low. So thank goodness it’s super easy to make homemade body wash from bar soap.

I know, I know. It’s easy enough to go to the store and buy body wash. But have you looked at the prices? Body wash is $7 not on sale and that’s just ridiculous considering you can make your own from bar soap and water.

Well, a bar soap, water, and elbow grease. Because you do have to do a little bit of work for this.

If you didn’t have to do any work, could you really call it homemade?

Homemade Body Wash From Bar Soap

Homemade Body Wash From Bar Soap Supplies:

• 1 oz. bar soap
• Garlic grater
• Medium sauce pan
• 1 cup water
• Bamboo spoon
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• Funnel
• Empty plastic container

How To Make Body Wash From Bar Soap:

Use the garlic grater to grate the bar soap into the sauce pan.

Grate 1 ounce of soap for every 1 cup of water.

If you don’t have a garlic grater (which is the finest grate), you can use a cheese grater.

The smaller the flakes, the easier this whole process is, so that’s why I suggest a garlic grater. But honestly, if you only have a cheese grater, that’s fine.

Add your water to the pot.

Heat it on medium-high heat until the soap is completely melted, stirring constantly with the bamboo spoon. The water will look milky and frothy.

Remove the homemade body wash from the heat add a scoop of coconut oil. One teaspoon of coconut oil works best. Too much and this mixture will get really thick and won’t liquify. Mix until the coconut oil melts down completely.

Let the homemade body wash sit to cool at least two hours (I leave it for five hours).

Stick a funnel in the top of your empty container. Carefully pour the liquid into the container.

The homemade body wash will last quite a while, so you can make it ahead of time and then use it when you need body wash. Homemade body wash is just soap, water, and (optional) coconut oil, so it is definitely shelf stable. 

And, in case you’re wondering, DIY body wash does lather up like a store-bought body wash. You still get all the great bubbles that you usually get with body wash, which is nice.

Soap usually takes a bit of effort to make any sort of lather. And if you do like that lather, washing with soap seems to use quite a bit of soap to attain that. So you would think the same would happen with this concoction, but you’d be wrong.

Tips For Making Homemade Body Wash Out Of Bar Soap

One: It really helps to put your homemade body wash into an old body wash container. That way, you’ll know how many ounces of liquid the container was to begin with, so you’ll know how many ounces of water you need to fill it.

You’ll also be recycling, which is one of my favorite pasttimes.

Two: The ratio I’m using is 1 ounce of bar soap to 1 cup (8 ounces) of water. So if you’re reusing a 12 oz. body wash container, that’s 1.5 ounces of bar soap.

I read so many blog posts that were so willy-nilly on the measurements, and that was driving me crazy. So this 1 ounce of body was per 1 cup of water is what I came up with and it has worked well for us every time.

Homemade Body Wash From Bar Soap: Frequently Asked Questions

Want more homemade bath products?

I wish I had more free time because I would make everything from scratch. When I do have time, though, I make homemade bath products because they’re really so simple to make. Just take a little investment of time.

• Homemade Bubble Bath
• Mint Sugar Scrub

Would you make this homemade body wash? Be sure to let us know in the comments.