Save Money by Making Your Own Foam Soap

Foam soaps are very popular these days. They are fun to use and more environmentally friendly than regular soaps. You are also less likely to get a clogged drain when using them because clogs are often caused by a buildup of soap and hair. Unfortunately, foam soaps are often expensive and can get used up pretty quickly. You can save plenty of money on them by making your own. It's very easy to do.

If you don't have any foam soap dispensers in your home, start by buying a bottle of foaming hand soap. When it is used up, you will refill it with the foam soap that you make. There are many brands and varieties to choose from these days. Be sure to buy foam soap because a regular liquid hand soap dispenser will not work.

In addition to the bottle of foaming hand soap, buy a large bottle of liquid soap or dish soap. If you like your soap to be colorful, you may want to choose a darker colored liquid soap since the color fades when you add water to it.

I prefer non-toxic products, so I purchased two containers of Method foaming hand wash to start with. I also purchased a 34-oz plastic pouch of Method gel handwash refill. Method sells both a gel handwash refill and a foaming handwash refill for about the same price. I chose the gel handwash refill because I wanted to save even more money. I don't think there is a point in paying the same price for mostly added water when I can just add water myself.

To make your foam soap, mix 3 tablespoons of the soap with 2/3 cup of water or about 1 part soap to 4 parts water. You can either make this mixture right in the foam soap container when it's empty, or use a larger container so you don't have to make it as often.

I use an empty 32-oz dish liquid bottle. I multiplied the recipe by 4, which works out to be 2/3 cup soap to 2 3/4 cups of water. I poured the soap in first and then drew a line on my bottle with a marker at the point I would fill my soap. I then added the water and marked the bottle again at the point that the water came up to. I make a new batch each time the bottle is empty and refill my foaming soap containers from it. I like using different colors and scents of soaps to create my foam soaps. I recently started using foaming soap to wash dishes in addition to using it for hand washing.

Most liquid soaps should produce foaming soap when using the above amounts of soap and water. However, some liquid soaps may be thinner or thicker than average and may produce different results. If your soap doesn't seem to dispensing properly, try adjusting the amount of water used by either adding more or less and experimenting to see what works.