I have been trying to figure out a DIY dish soap recipe for months. MONTHS! I've been shaving down bars of soap, melting them, and then adding all these amazing ingredients, but then it ends up becoming a weird pile of goop. I've tried everything and NOTHING WORKED! Until now. This recipe is seriously so simple that I'm really ashamed that it's taken me this long.
Are you ready for this one? It might blow your mind cuz it's soooooo easy!!!!
DIY Citrus Dish Soap Recipe
- 1 cup of Liquid Castile Soap (like this one)
- ⅓ cup of distilled or purified water
- 1 tsp vegetable glycerin which helps to cut grease and thicken soap (I like this one)
- 5 drops of Lemon essential oil (I recommend this brand)
- 5-10 drops of a complimentary essential oil like 5 drops of citrus fresh and 5 drops of purification (I recommend this brand)
- ½ tsp fine salt
- Optional: 1/2 capful of Thieves Household Cleaner to have more suds
Next, add the water-- shake, shake, shake to get the salt dissolved. Add the vegetable glycerin and castile soap-- give it one good shake and you are ready to get scrubbing!
TIP: This works best when NOT added to dish water, but rather put in a small dish and you dip the sponge into it to clean the dishes individually.
I gotta say that I'm pretty impressed with myself. If I have a particularly greasy item I'll just squirt a little directly into the grease and scrub-- it easily has come off for me every time! The vegetable glycerin also helps it to be gentle on skin, too!
Essential Oils for Dish Soap
My favorite essential oils to use for dish soap are Lemon, Citrus Fresh and Purification because they smells fabulously and they clean really well!
I really like Lemon because of it's strong degreasing properties. I'll add other essential oils into the mix for better cleaning-- Citrus Fresh can help remove grease and grime from dishes, and Purification removes odors and disinfects as it cleans. Lately, I've been really liking Citrus Fresh, Purification and Lemon together. It smells so fresh and so clean clean!
But if you aren't a fan of citrus, you can use peppermint, lavender, Thieves, tea tree, pine or any other essential oil which is typically used in cleaning products, too. It's a lot of fun to create your own signature scent even for dish soap!!
If you'd like more information about essential oils please visit this post or if you'd like to join my Natural Living Support Group on Facebook please fill out this form!
I can't wait to hear what you guys think of this DIY dish soap recipe! I hope you like it!!
Are you looking for Hand Soap? Try this recipe! I looooove it!
This couldn't have come at a better time. I needed this. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI like it, but it's very watery. Is there any way to thicken it up? I added quite a bit more vegetable glycerin, but it didn't really help.
ReplyDeleteIt is watery, but that's pretty much the nature of most natural DIY products unless you use some kind of butter base to thicken them up or a thickening agent. I haven't experimented with anything like that so I am not really quite sure how that would work.
DeleteI am sure that you don't have a lot of plastics, but how does the soap work with plastic items?
ReplyDeleteI use it to clean some of my tupperware containers and it really is fine because it's diluted within wash water. It's more important about how it's stored because it's more concentrated.
DeleteWhat do you put the dish soap in? Is there a special bottle?
ReplyDeleteNo special bottle! I recommend glass to store it in, but that can be anything-- mason jar, bottle, oil dispenser. Doesn't matter! The citrus oils can degrade plastic as it sits so I don't recommend storing it in plastic.
DeleteHow much do you use per sink load?
ReplyDeleteI don't measure so that's not so helpful but not much. Just a quick pour-- very similar to how much dish soap I'd normally use.
DeleteI just tried this and my husband did not like it. I tripled the recipe to get enough to fill the mason jar I had. The dishes are clean but they have oil all over them. I'm going to try it again but only add 5 drops of each oil instead of 15 (clearly too much). I used Lemon, Purification and Thieves. Also, I saw other posts about adding Arm and Hammer Washing Soda so I'll try that as well.
ReplyDeleteDid you have any luck with alternative recipes? My husband is very sensitive to soapy tastes on our dishes -- especially his to-go coffee mugs. I don't want to ruin my good luck with convincing him EOs are a great thing!
DeleteI'm really not sure what happened in the first angelsteph's comments, but what I know is that has never happened to me before when I use the recipe per the instructions.
DeleteThanks! I should be receiving my YL starter kit in a few weeks -- I'm excited to try new recipes!
ReplyDeleteThat's amazing Jordan! I know you will love it and get so much use out of it! Your sponsor (the person you enrolled with) will also be a great resource and help to you so that you can reach your personal goals. It is one of the reasons that makes YL so amazing!!
DeleteMY SIL and I already have a date with lots of your recipes! I did have a question about this one though, YL doesn't have a "Thieves All Purpose Cleaner" maybe they did at one time, but would you use the "Thieves Household Cleaner" instead?
DeleteYes!! That's its! Thanks for letting me know. I'll updated the blog!
Delete