Thickening Castile Soap

by Lisa
(Decatur, TX)

I purchased a gallon of Dr. Bronner's castile soap because I read it was one of the best. However, it is super thin and I like dish and hand soap much thicker. Can I add something to thicken it up?

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Thickening Castile Soap

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Aug 21, 2010

It worked
by: Lisa

Angela, thank you for your idea. It did work to use less salt and I did end up heating it. It just clumps if you don't. 2 t. Worked perfect with around 1 cup of soap. I think dissolving the salt first is a great idea. I'm a newbie and ordered the liquid but I'll make my own from now on. Thanks for the help.

Aug 21, 2010

Try adding a little salt at a time
by: Angela

Hi Lisa
I think the problem may be that we don't know what ingredients may be added to the store bought recipe. So you may have added too much salt?

I haven't tried this, but if I did I would be heating up the Castile soap and adding a little salt at a time until I got a good consistency. It might also be better to initially dissolve some of the salt in boiling water and then gradually stir it in.

This is an interesting subject and I guess thickening Castile soap would be 'trial and error' for each and every brand.

Aug 20, 2010

Tried the salt
by: Lisa

I tried adding the salt to the soap but I ended up with a clumpy mess that no longer resembles soap. What went wrong?

Aug 17, 2010

Thickening liquid soap
by: Tracey

Hi Lisa
I understand that castile soap can be quite runny. I'm not completely sure what you may be using it for, but adding a few drops of lavender essential oil can thicken liquid castile soap a little.

Or adding some good old table salt will make the soap nice and thick. You will need to add 1 cup of liquid soap which is about 8 oz to 1/2 a cup (4 oz) of table salt.

Continuously stir the soapy mixture until it has thickened, then transfer to a suitable container or bottle (you may need a funnel for this bit) and use as required.

Don't know if you'll be interested, but you can make homemade liquid soap by grating a solid bar of castle soap and adding 1 to 2 cups of water to it. Over the next few days give the mixture a stir from time to time until you are happy with the texture. You can add more water if your soaps a little on the solid side so I suggest you start with 1 cup the first time you try this.

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