Lava Liquid Soap

Lava Liquid Soap 

These two ingredients, glycerin and Lava hand soap, are all you need to make liquid handsoap.  Well that and some water.  Why would you need to make Lava liquid hand soap?  Well if you are like me, and your hubby gets super dirty at work (he does ranch work and works on a dozer), then they probably use Lava soap anyway.  And, if you are like me, then the dirty, nasty bar of soap that they use and then leave on the side of the sink or in the shower really icks you out.  So since I recently learned how to make liquid hand soap (and I will do a post on just using regular soap soon, but I had people wanting this), I thought I would try to make a liquid version!  That way C could use it to wash his hands, or in the shower as body wash for when he is dirty all over!  It is super easy, and super cheap!  All you need is one bar of Lava soap ($1) a bit of glycerin (mine was $5, but that is in my super small town, I’ve heard it is $2 elsewhere, but you can make quite a few batches) and some water to make about 4 cups of soap.

Grate your bar of soap using a cheese grater.  Add your water to a heavy bottomed pot.  Put your soap in the water.  Add your glycerin.  Combine.

It will look really weird.  Lava has a lot of little granules in it, and they will all sink to the bottom  Just keep stirring.  Turn the heat to medium low and heat until all the soap has dissolved, stirring occasionally.  Remove from heat.  It will look like liquid still–that’s ok!  It will take an hour or two to set up.  Just leave it alone and keep checking it every once and a while.

Mine looked like this after I had let it set up.  If it is extra thick, you can just add a little bit of water a tablespoon at a time, until it gets to the consistency that you like.  Then just pour it into a soap dispenser and you are good to go!  I filled an old body wash bottle and put it in the shower and then I stored the extra in old glass jars under my sink.

Perfect!  It is gritty, too, which is great since that is how it gets their hands clean!  I actually plan on giving this as gifts to all the dirty guys in our lives! HAHA!  This soap doesn’t foam as much as if it was just the bar, either.  I’m not sure why, but your hands are still clean since the soap is what cleans, not the bubbles.
One thing I forgot to mention– be sure that you don’t get the ‘moisturizing’ soap.  It doesn’t have enough ’soap’ in it, so it won’t thicken up.

 Lava Liquid Soap
1 bar Lava handsoap
1 Tablespoon glycerin
4 1/2 cups water
Grate the soap.  Add all ingredients to a heavy bottomed pot.  Turn to medium low heat until all the soap has dissolved.  Remove from heat and let cool completely and until it has thickened up.  If soap is too thick, add a tablespoon of water at a time until it is the correct consistency.  Store in an airtight container.