We use the Dr. Bronner's Pure-Castile Soap with Peppermint. You could use just about anything that makes you happy. If you have sensitive skin, there are products on Dr. Bronner's website that may work wonders for you. I like his products because they are natural products and earth friendly. You can visit the company website to find out more information, www.drbronner.com .
We purchased our foaming pump bottles in bulk so we would have enough for the entire house. They are relatively inexpensive and seem to do a great job. Here is the bottle that we purchased on ForSoapMakers.com .
Here are some tips that I learned. On my first attempt, I put too much soap in the dispenser and had a mess with it clogging up. I then figured out that you needed water mixed with the soap. Since the pure-Castile soap is not diluted, water greatly helps to make this work. It didn't take me long to learn not to fill the bottle too full because then the pumping mechanism that creates the foam does not work correctly. I also use distilled water so there isn't any chance that chemicals from our city water supply get in the way of the cleaning action of the soap. In the pure-Castile soap we buy, it has peppermint oil included. If it did not, you could always use some high quality essential oils like at Ananda Apothecary.
Here's the way to do this so that hopefully it works like a charm for you. Leaving space at the top of the bottle so the foaming pump has air and no liquid, fill the bottle about 4/5ths full. Then add soap for the rest of it (again leaving space for the pump mechanism). Some sites talk about using 1 tablespoon of soap and others talk about using more than that. You'll need to find your own comfort level but it really doesn't take that much soap to do this or as much as one would think. Keep in mind that less is more!
After that, you should just be able to put the pump handle on the bottle and pump the soap away. You will see that it doesn't require too much soap like regular commercial soap bottles. In this homemade version, a little goes a long ways which makes this method pretty darn cheap!
Blog Post And Images (c) 5/2/12 Don Shetterly - use and reprint by permission only http://www.donshetterly.com You are welcomed to share the link to this blog post, but ask for for permission before reprinting this article. Thanks!
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I always wondered how to make my own - I figured there was a way, I just never bothered to do the research. So thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteI always thought it was hard to and then I started experimenting and reading and found it was pretty easy. We've been doing this for several months now and I don't see any problems showing up. It is much cheaper because it doesn't take much of the Bronner's soap for this. No more of that yucky store bought stuff for me with all kinds of things in it.
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