Foaming Hand Soap

Making foaming hand soap is super-easy and saves money by lessening concentrated soap usage. While you can certainly buy a foaming soap dispenser from Bed Bath and Beyond, Target, or online, I've chosen to reuse empty disposable foaming soap dispensers gathered from others. I figure, why pay for something new when I can get life out of something that would otherwise go in the trash or recycle bin? From Freecycle I've received empty Dial Complete and Bath and Body Works foaming soap dispensers. The Dial ones work great; I haven't tried the Bath and Body Works ones yet.

The recipe is simple: 1 part soap to 9 parts water. I just estimate 1/10 of the volume the bottle will hold. More soap to water is fine, so don't nitpick over the amount. Personally, I use Dr. Bronner's Unscented Baby Mild Liquid Castile Soap which is vegan, fair trade, organic, and friendly to the water supply.

Squirt in the soap then fill the rest of the bottle with water, leaving enough space for the bulky pump to fit in. Voila!

Sometimes I scent each batch of soap using essential oils (start with 10 drops, but you may need even double or triple that you get the level of scent you want), but usually I just leave it unscented.