Homemade Dish Soap

An easy recipe for homemade dishwashing detergent... cleans your dishes and smells great doing it!

You'll be amazed at how much money you save when you make your own homemade dish soap.

I make all my own homemade dishwashing detergent, laundry detergent and personal hygiene soaps (shampoo, shower gel, homemade liquid soap, the works) and my monthly grocery bill has gone down by about 25%.

This is a quick, easy homemade dish soap recipe. It cuts grease, kills germs and gives your spirits a lift every time you use it! And, if you want a scent other than citrus, I've included a couple other disinfectant aromatherapy blends you can try.

By the way, this recipe is formulated for hand washing dishes in the sink. Click on the link if you're looking for liquid or crystal homemade dishwasher detergent recipes.

Homemade Dish Soap Recipe

Ingredients

1/4 cup Soap Flakes (see directions below for making soap flakes)

1 1/2 cups hot boiled Water

1/4 cup Vegetable Glycerin

One of the essential oil blends below

Directions

  1. To make soap flakes, grate a bar of unscented natural soap using the coarse side of your cheese grater. I buy clear vegetable glycerin or olive oil soap bars from my local bulk food store, and many web sources suggest using Ivory soap. The cleaning power of your homemade detergent will depend partly on how strong a soap bar you choose.

  2. Put the soap flakes into a large glass pitcher. Add the hot water (must be VERY hot!) and stir until the soap is dissolved. If the soap flakes don't all dissolve, you can put the glass pitcher into a pot holding about an inch of water and heat it over a low heat until the soap dissolves.

  3. Let sit 5 minutes.

  4. Stir in the glycerin, then add the essential oils, stirring to mix.

  5. A loose gel will form as the mixture cools. Use your hands (or a potato masher if you're squeamish) to break up any lumps. Pour into a squirt bottle and use the homemade dishwashing detergent as normal.

Scenting Your Homemade Dish Soap

Here's some scent variations you can try in your homemade dishwashing detergent. All the blends are disinfectant, immune boosting and just plain yummy!

Citrus Blast

10 drops each Grapefruit, Lemon and Orange essential oil, plus 2 drops Geranium (optional)

Buy Grapefruit, Lemon, Orange, Geranium

Lavender Lift

15 drops Lavender, 10 drops Clove, 5 drops Cinnamon OR Orange essential oil

Buy Lavender, Clove, Cinnamon or Orange

Tea Tree Refresher

10 drops each Tea Tree, Lemongrass and Lemon essential oil, plus 1 drop Ylang Ylang (optional)

Buy Tea Tree, Lemongrass, Lemon, Ylang Ylang

Homemade Dish Soap Quick Trick

Want the disinfectant powers of essential oils without all the work?

Just buy a natural unscented liquid dish soap and add 20 drops of essential oil per 4oz (125ml) of detergent. (The grapefruit, lemon and orange blend from the recipe above is fabulous!)

Buying Homemade Dish Soap Ingredients

I've recommended Mountain Rose as my favorite supplier since starting out on this journey. I always research suppliers for quality, ethics, price and selection, and they're great on all fronts. So I feel good about offering their products to you.

Having said that, I have to share another supplier for essential oils that I personally now use because I've found their quality to be the best. I switched to doTerra after buying a few oils like lavender and tea tree and comparing them in my recipes.

What I found was that they worked faster and more effectively than any other brand I've tried. So I want to offer their oils to you as well. It's always good to have options, don't you think?

Here's how I see it...

Buy from Mountain Rose when you're watching your budget. Also for base ingredients like the vegetable glycerin in this homemade dish soap recipe.

Buy from doTerra when quality is your most important factor. You can shop retail by clicking the Shop button at the top. Or click Join & Save to become a wholesale customer and get 25% discount. Message me to learn more about the perks of going wholesale.

Buy from Amazon if you love variety. You can always find deals, and you'll never run out of options. Just remember that if you pay a low price you're going to get a low quality, especially in the land of essential oils. This is an area where you need to buy the best you can afford, trust me.

What Next?

Get more recipes for homemade cleaners... and clean your home with inexpensive, healthy cleaning choices.

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

Two homemade detergent recipes are formulated for use in automatic dishwashers. One is powder and the other is liquid.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Using homemade laundry detergent with natural cleaning ingredients is easy on your clothing, your skin and the environment. Also your wallet!

Homemade Stain Removers

Natural cleaning recipes for making your own homemade stain removers - from grass stains to ink blots.

Homemade All Purpose Cleaner

This homemade all purpose cleaner is one of the quickest, easiest homemade cleaner recipes you'll ever make. Non-toxic and gentle.

Homemade Bathroom Cleaners

Bathrooms are the perfect home for mold, mildew and bacteria. These easy homemade bathroom cleaner recipes are a great natural, non-toxic alternative to commercial cleaning products.

Window & Glass Cleaners

Making your own homemade window cleaner is so easy and cheap. Plus, non-toxic and biodegradable. It just smells so much better!

Homemade Floor Cleaners

Go green at home. Here's a couple of tried-and-true homemade wood floor cleaner and homemade laminate floor cleaner recipes you'll love.

Homemade Carpet Cleaners

Homemade carpet cleaners are more gentle, so you need to keep on top of spills, stains and general carpet cleaning. Here's a few simple carpet cleaner recipes to get you started.

Homemade Drain Cleaners

Here's some earth friendly, non-toxic homemade drain cleaner recipes and tips.

Homemade Cleaners Main Page

Making your own natural homemade cleaners is simple and effective with ingredients already in your cupboards. Not to mention money saving!

Aromatherapy Recipes Homepage from Homemade Dish Soap

SEARCH BY INGREDIENT, RECIPE OR PROBLEM