Here’s how to make DIY shower gel, you can whip this up at home and use it in minutes. I’m using mild, natural, and easy-to-use surfactants, that are suitable for even the most sensitive of skins.
I love liquid soap. I recently rediscovered how much fun it is to make! However, there is one problem, it takes so long to make! It’s a lot like a traditional soap-making method in that way. But surely there’s an easier way to whip up a bottle of my favorite smelling liquid soap? There is, using natural surfactants!
Introduction
While I know surfactants have earned a bit of a dirty name over the last few decades, stay with me here. Natural surfactants are readily available nowadays. No need to use that awful SLSA powder anymore!
This recipe makes a perfect homemade shower gel and can be adapted to suit your own needs. However, if this is your first time making soap with surfactants I’d advise sticking to the recipe below. No need to fix what isn’t broken, you know? Experimentation can come later.
Ingredients I’ll be Using For This DIY Shower Gel
Most of the ingredients I’ve chosen for my shower gel recipe are simple, fairly inexpensive, and easy to source. I’m using distilled water rather than a hydrosol (floral water) and reasonably priced essential oils. The essential oils can, of course, be substituted for another blend or even a fragrance oil if your budget is really tight.
Funny thing is, most store-bought shampoos, shower gels, and bubble baths are made using this method. Manufacturing traditional lye-based liquid soap is expensive and time-consuming, so it makes sense. Until the synthetic ingredients in them start to irritate your skin!
So I say enough of the store-bought stuff. We can save time and money by mimicking what the big players in skincare do, but spend a little more time making sure our skin gets the tender love and care it really needs. Let’s take back control of our skincare! But first, let’s chat about the ingredients we’re using today.
Surfactants
There are tons of reasons why you may prefer to use a surfactant to create your liquid soap. Chief among these is that it only takes around 20 minutes to knock up a fantastic cleansing shower gel. It also cuts out the risk of handling the lye (potassium hydroxide).
Lye is a super-strong alkali, but it is necessary if you want to make liquid soap from scratch the old fashioned way. But it can be an intimidating ingredient for an inexperienced formulator. Surfactants allow us to bypass this ingredient and this method entirely.
I like to think of surfactants in the same way you would a melt and pour soap base, only you need to add things to them to be able to use it. A bit of distilled water, a sprinkle of a thickening cosmetic gum, and a dash of a humectant are all you’ll need to do this.
The surfactant I’m using in my pink grapefruit shower gel is coco glucoside. It’s totally accepted in natural skincare formulation, is one of the mildest and easiest to work with and gives a good lather. So basically, it ticks all my boxes. If you are unable to get hold of it you can substitute it for Caprylyl/Capryl Glucoside or Plantapon TF. Any of these will work well.
Cosmetic Gum
A cosmetic gum, in this case xanthan Gum, is used to thicken our shower gel. It can be a bit tricky to use and needs to be blended into the glycerine thoroughly, otherwise you may end up with white specks floating in the gel.
Humectant
A humectant is an ingredient used in skincare that draws moisture to a product once it’s applied to the skin, leading to lovely skin-softening benefits.
I’m using glycerine in this recipe. It’s readily available and probably the easiest to use. I add it to lots of my products, as it really helps to plump out the skin and make it appear and feel much more supple.
Apart from all the obvious benefits to the skin, the glycerine keeps everything nice and slick, helping the gel to glide easily and evenly across the skin. It also has a way of helping the xanthan gum dissolve quicker, making the whole process a little easier.
Essential Oils
This diy shower gel has a lovely aroma that smells fresh and citrusy. It really smells amazing in the shower! The grapefruit and bergamot essential oils also have great cleansing and antibacterial properties. Both are excellent stress-relieving oils that can help to balance your mood and energize the mind. Great for your morning shower!
Preservative
As this is a water-based product, it absolutely needs a preservative. A simple broad-spectrum preservative at around 0.05-1% should do the job. If you are using an oil-based preservative it will need to be added to the surfactant after incorporating the essential oils (see step 2).
A water-based one should be added later in step 5. If you are not sure you can test your preservative by stirring a little into some water to see if it floats around the top (oil-based) or disburses into the water (water-based)
Something To Note
Okay, one more thing to keep in mind (I promise) before we make a start. The essential oils must be added to the Coco-Glucoside first.
The surfactant works as a solubilizer to absorb the essential oils so that they can be mixed with the remaining water-based ingredients.
If you were to add them at the end, they will separate and float around the top just as they would if you were to drop them into water.
How To Make Shower Gel At Home Without Lye
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. If you buy via the links here I may earn a small affiliate commission at no cost to you, please read my affiliate disclosure.
Ingredients
- 150 grams Distilled Water
- 20 grams Glycerine
- 2 grams Xanthan Gum
- 25 grams Coco Glucoside
- 0.5 grams Grapefruit Essential Oil
- 0.5 grams Bergamot Essential Oil
- 2 grams Preservative
- Liquid Soap Dye (optional, as desired)
- PH Modifier ((Lactic Acid, or a dilution of Citric Acid ))
- 1 Pump Bottle
Video
Instructions
- Place the glycerine into a jug or beaker, then add the xanthan gum to it. Mix well until the xanthan gum has completely dissolved into the glycerine.20 grams Glycerine, 2 grams Xanthan Gum
- Weigh the coco glucoside into a small beaker and add the essential oils. You will need to stir the coco glucoside to fully disperse the essential oils within it. This needs to be done carefully so to prevent unwanted foaming.If you are using an oil-based preservative you will also need to add and blend this in now. A water-based preservative should be added later in step 5.25 grams Coco Glucoside, 0.5 grams Grapefruit Essential Oil, 0.5 grams Bergamot Essential Oil
- Pour the coco glucoside into the glycerine and gum mixture. Once again you will need to make sure you combine this well, whilst being careful not to foam up the surfactant too much.
- Whilst stirring, slowly add the distilled water to the gum mixture. Stir gently until it has fully combined and has thickened.150 grams Distilled Water
- Once the gel is nice and thick, stir in the preservative then add a couple of drops of liquid soap coloring (if using).2 grams Preservative, Liquid Soap Dye
- Coco glucoside can have a high PH level so it's good to test your shower gel using a PH strip. This needs to fall slightly onto the acidic side with a range of between 4 and 6. If it’s a little too high, you can use a PH modifier to bring it down. You can use Lactic acid or Citic acid. To test the PH, dip one of your universal indicator strips into your body wash mixture. Compare this to the scale that comes with your strips. If it’s a little too high, you can add a couple of drops of lactic acid to bring it down. If you are using citric acid as a PH modifier, it will need to be diluted in a solution of 10% citric acid to 90% distilled water. Make sure to add small amounts at a time and then test again, repeating until you reach a reasonable PH. You don't want to risk wasting your entire batch by adding too much of your PH modifier. Because this recipe contains a surfactant, it is highly unlikely that your body wash will test lower than a 4 on the PH scale, so don’t worry too much about needing to raise it.PH Modifier
- Transfer to a PET plastic bottle with pump or screw cap lid to store. Keep out of direct sunlight, especially if your bottle is clear plastic.1 Pump Bottle
Notes
Final Thoughts
As I mentioned before, this is a great starter shower gel recipe that can help you master how to make liquid soap using simple surfactants. There are loads of surfactants on the market that all bring something valuable or new like extra foaming, creaminess, cleansing, or emulsifying. So feel free to tinker with it once you become more confident.
There are other ways to customize your shower gel. Perhaps you could use a hydrosol instead of water? Peppermint hydrosol and peppermint essential are a great combination for some much needed morning invigoration.
The bottom line is that this doesn’t have to be just ordinary when you can make it extraordinary!
hi, I made the shower gel following ur formula. it turned out so well. only thing is I was expecting it to produce a lot foam, which it did not.
what should I add to create foam? shall I add NaOH? what percent should be ideal?
Fantastic recipe, I use it as a hand and body wash 🙂
I wonder if I wanted to make a face wash, shall I just add less surfactants (and essential oils obviously) but would that be the main difference or?
Thank you in advance! 🙂
Hi Maria, You can use up to 15% of coco glucoside on the face and up to 1% of essential oils, so this recipe is within the recommended usage rates for a face wash. However, if you want to make it milder, you could halve the amount of coco glucoside to 6%, which would make it more like a foaming cleanser. You will also need to halve the amount of essential oil, as the surfactant would not be able to cope with the higher amount and would start to separate.
Hope this helps Angela
Hi, Angela! I made up a batch of this today and the recipe was so easy to follow! I swapped 50 g of the distilled water for Orange Blossom water and used sweet orange and vanilla oleoresin essential oils instead of the grapefruit and bergamot. As I was making this, I wondered about making it as the recipe calls for, then adding it to a 16 oz foamer bottle and topping it off with more distilled water. I think that would make the lather much creamier. What do you think?
It’s a fantastic body wash, though. It lathered up nicely and, more importantly to me, it washed off well with no residue! The orange and vanilla add a great scent, although I think I would like a stronger scent. Since it’s a rinse off product, do you think it would be okay to up the essential oil to 3-4 grams, and reducing the distilled water accordingly. I appreciate your thoughts on these questions!
Hi Deb
You can use up to 4g in this recipe. I often steer on the side of caution in my recipes just in case someone has sensitive skin or prefers a mild aroma. Like you, when I make it for myself I also up the essential oil.
If you are adding extra water it would be wise to make a note of how much extra you are adding as you may need to adjust the amount of preservative in the recipe.
Hi,
Is it possible to just use distilled water, coco glucoside, preservative and the essential oils?
I don’t really mind the texture since I’m used to using castille soap but I’m wodnering if the gum and the glycerine are needed other than for texture and mositure?
Thank you!
Hello,
Can I use Decyl glucoside instead of coco glucoside since I have that on hand already? Thanks!
Absolutely you can!
The only thing I can see happening is there might be a change in viscosity, but then it just means you may need to make a small adjustment to the xanthan gum (less if it’s too thick, more if it’s too thin). Maybe make a half or quarter batch and call it a prototype until you know how it’ll behave.
Which preservative did you use?
For this I used Preservative Eco, which is also called Geogard ECT.
Can you use germall liquid plus as a preservative?
Hi Julia,
Yeah germall should work just fine.
Hi Angela
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I have a normal kitchen scale and am worried that it won’t measure such small amounts (like 1 or 2grams) accurately. Is there any other measurement method you have for this recipe? Or must i just get the right scale? Do you use a normal kitchen scale?
Thank you so much.
Laura
Hi Laura,
It’s funny you bring this up, because I had this exact experience about 25 years ago! At the time, I was trying to get into lotion making by reading books from my local library (this is before we could hop on the web and google just about anything), and my kitchen scales were… well… garbage! The only solution for me was to buy a set of jewellery scales because any other method of measuring, such as drops, cups, tsp, tbsp etc., are not at all accurate enough when we’re making DIY cosmetics and skin care. Same goes for pounds and ounces – they’re too large!
Jewellery scales aren’t that expensive, and you can find them on amazon for under $15. The only annoying thing about them is they don’t last forever you’ll to buy a new one from time to time (every few years).
Hope this helps!
Thank you so much 🙂 It definitely helps but now I’m disappointed I have to wait until I get the right scale 😉
Hi Angela,
Besides the ingredients, what’s the difference between your shower gel and your liquid soap? Couldn’t you use the liquid soap in the shower or is it just for hand washing?
Hi Michele,
Sure you can use this on your hands or on your body! 😀
Hi Angela, I’ve followed the recipe and love the feel – however it doesn’t lather much, especially in the shower – can you advise what the best way to go about getting it to lather more? Thanks so much!
Hi Blair,
I find if I don’t think something feels foamy enough, I’ll add a bit of cocamidopropyl betaine. It’s a great little co-surfactant that’ll help improve the flash foam power of the product. But don’t add too much or you’ll end up with something more like bubble bath. Replace 10g of the distilled water with 10 grams of the cocamidopropyl betaine.
Hi Angela,
I’m very new to this and I’ve been reading through your different articles about liquid soap. If I understand correctly, when using a premade organic castile soap base, I’d just need to play around with essential oils/fragrances, glycerin, preservatives, and that’s it, correct? Since the premade castile soap base would contain Surfactants, or would I have to add this in separately? I’m getting my confusion from when I take a look at the recipes/directions you’ve posted with https://www.savvyhomemade.com/liquid-soap-base-recipes/ under the “Super Easy Body Wash” & “Rose Body Wash” sections.
My purpose is to provide insight, is to learn how to do this and potentially open a side business selling body care products, so any input is appreciated.
Thank you for sharing your wisdom!
Hi Athan,
If you buy a liquid soap base, you’re absolutely right all you’d need to do is add your additional ingredients to customize it (e.g. pigments, essential oils, fragrance oils etc). It will, of course, depends on the base you’ve bought. Sometimes these require you to add water, but not all. Make sure to read all the manufacturer/supplier guidelines before beginning.
In regards to making soaps with surfactants, this is a different method of soap making and not relavent for use with a soap base, so don’t worry. Your surfactants are already in your soap base.
Hope this has given you some more insight, and I wish you all the luck with your new business venture!
– Angela
Thank you Angela, look forward to getting started with these!
Hi Angela,
I made this and it lathers well and smells wonderful but is a bit lumpy. do you have any recommendations?
Thank you!
Hi Jennifer,
Lumpy you say? This is quite unusual! What form of surfactant are you using? Is it liquid or solid? The only other thing I could think of is perhaps too much xanthan gum has been used, or it has not been properly dissolved into the glycerine first.
Is it possible to make it into a solid bar rather than a liquid for shampoo?
Hi Heidi,
Unfortunately not with this recipe. As this one is made with surfactants, it doesn’t go through SAP (Saponification). So this is a completely different kind of soap, that aren’t really relevant to each other.
Hi Angela,
Thank you for this recipe.
Can I add a carrier oil?
Joi
Hi Joi,
Yes I’m fairly certain you can, but I haven’t tried this myself. You’d need to do a bit of experimenting. Start with a little and work from there. It’ll likely change the consistency of your shower gel. You could consider making an emulsified cream body wash, which is ultra-luxurious and made in a similar way, with just a few extra steps.