This is one simple DIY shower gel recipe you can make at home in just minutes. Use mild, natural, gentle, and simple surfactants that are safe for all skin types.
This soap-making process is very similar to traditional soap-making methods. Is there a simpler way to make my favorite scent liquid soap? Natural surfactants are the best!
Surfactants are a controversial topic that has been around for a while. But I’m not going to let this stop you. Nowadays, natural surfactants can be found easily. There is no need to continue using the horrible SLSA powder!
This recipe makes the perfect homemade shower gel. It can also be modified to meet your needs. If you’re new to soap-making with surfactants, I recommend following the instructions below. You don’t have to fix what isn’t broken. You can experiment later.
Table of Contents
Learn How to Make Shower Gel
Ingredients for this DIY Shower Gel
My shower gel recipe is simple, inexpensive, and easy to source. I use distilled water instead of floral water and reasonably priced essential oils. If you have a tight budget, the essential oils can be substituted with another blend or even a scent oil.
This method is used in most shampoos, shampoo bars, shower gels, and bubble baths. It makes perfect sense to make traditional lye-based liquid soap. You won’t feel any irritation from the synthetic ingredients until then!
Store-bought products overall are not a good thing. While we can save time and money by following the best practices of big skincare companies, it is worth spending a little more to ensure our skin receives the care and tenderness it needs. Let’s first talk about the ingredients that we use today.
Surfactants
There are many reasons you might prefer to use a surfactant when making your soap. It takes only 20 minutes to make a great cleansing shower gel. This also eliminates the need to handle the lye (potassium hydroxide). Lye is a strong alkali but is essential if you want to make soap from scratch. It can prove to be intimidating for inexperienced soap makers. Surfactants make it possible to completely bypass this ingredient.
Surfactants are best viewed in the same way as a melt-and-pour soap base. You only need to add things to make them work. You will only need a little bit of distilled water, some thickening cosmetic gum, and a pinch of humectant.
Coco glucoside is the surfactant that is used in the pink grapefruit soap, for example. It is a natural skincare ingredient that can be used in a variety of ways.
Cosmetic Gum
In order to thicken the shower gel, Xanthan Gum is used. It is a little tricky to mix and should be thoroughly mixed into the glycerine. Otherwise, you might end up with white specks in the gel.
Humectant
A humectant is an ingredient in skincare that attracts moisture to a product after it has been applied to the skin. This can lead to wonderful skin-softening results.
This recipe calls for glycerine. Glycerine is readily available and one of the easiest ingredients to use. It helps plump the skin and makes it feel softer.
Glycerine has many benefits for the skin. It makes everything smoother and glides easily across the skin. The xanthan gum can also be dissolved faster by glycerine, making it a little simpler.
Essential Oils
The DIY shower gel smells citrusy and fresh. This shower gel smells incredible! Grapefruit and Bergamot essential oils have excellent cleansing and antibacterial qualities. They are both excellent stress-relieving oils and can be used to help you feel more positive and energized. Great for your morning shower!
Preservative
Use a pipette to add your preservative.
This product is water-based, so it must have a preservative. You can use a simple broad-spectrum preservative with a concentration of 0.05-1%. After incorporating essential oils, an oil-based preservative will be needed to be added to the surfactant.
Step 5 should include a water-based preservative. You can check if your preservative is oil-based or water-based by adding a small amount to some water.
DIY Shower Gel Recipe Without Lye
This super simple DIY shower gel recipe is easy to make and can be used at home in just minutes. I use mild, natural, gentle, and simple surfactants that are safe for all skin types.
Ingredients
- 150g Distilled Water
- 20g Glycerine
- 2 grams Xanthan Gum
- 25g 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
Equipment
- Glass Mixing Beakers
- pH strips to safely test the acidity
Instructions
- Mix the glycerine in a jug/beaker. Next, add the xanthan. Mix until the xanthan Gum is completely dissolved in the glycerine.
- Add the coco-glucoside to a small container. To fully disperse essential oils, you will need to stir coco glucoside. To avoid unwanted foaming, you need to carefully stir the coco glucoside.
- You will need to mix in an oil-based preservative if you use it now. You should add a water-based preservative later in step 5.
- Incorporate the coco-glucoside in the glycerine-gum mixture. You will again need to combine the ingredients well. However, be careful not to foam the surfactant.
- Slowly add the distilled water while stirring the mixture. Mix gently until the mixture is fully combined.
- After the gel has become thick and creamy, add the preservative to the mixture. If desired, you can also add a few drops of liquid soap coloring.
- Coco glucoside may have a high pH level, so make sure to test your shower gel with a PH strip. The pH range should be between 4 and 6. You can adjust the PH modifier to lower it if it is too high. You can either use Lactic Acid or Citic acid.
- Dip one of your universal indicator strip into the body wash mixture to test for PH. This will be compared to the scale included with your strips. To bring it down if it is too high, add a few drops of Lactic Acid.
- Citric Acid can be used to modify the PH. To do this, you will need to dilute it in 10% citric acid and 90% distilled water. You should only add small amounts of citric acid at a time. Then, test the mixture again until it reaches a suitable PH. Don’t add too much of your pH modifier to your batch. You won’t want your whole batch to go stale.
- This recipe uses a surfactant, so it is unlikely your body wash will be lower than a 4.
- To store, transfer to a PET plastic container with a pump or screw cap lid. Clear plastic bottles should be kept out of direct sunlight.
Last Thoughts
This is a great way to start making liquid soap with simple surfactants. There are many surfactants available that can provide something new or valuable, such as extra foaming, creaminess, or cleansing. You can experiment with it as you gain confidence.
You can customize your shower gel in many other ways. You could try a hydrosol in place of water. For some morning energy, peppermint hydrosol combined with peppermint essential is a wonderful combination.
Also Read : The Product In Your Kitchen That Will End Dandruff Immediately