Today’s a project is a simple, no-heat hand wash that I’m making 500g at a time these days because I can’t seem to keep hand wash around for long. There are just six ingredients, and since nothing needs to be heated up it’s a very easy weigh-mix-voila project—perfect if you’ve just run out of hand wash and need more, stat!
Our surfactant blend is simple and gentle; non-ionic Caprylyl/Capryl Glucoside and amphoteric Cocamidopropyl Betaine—both coconut derived surfactants. They come together to create a mild, bubbly blend with a naturally skin-friendly pH. We blend surfactants with different charges to create a more gentle end product, which is why there are two surfactants here. If you don’t have Caprylyl/Capryl Glucoside you could use coco glucoside instead, but you’ll need to adjust the pH of the end product. The pH of Caprylyl/Capryl Glucoside is 5.5–6, while the pH of coco glucoside is 11.5–12.5. We want the pH of our end product to be around 6, so you will need to adjust the pH downwards if you use coco glucoside.
After our surfactant blend we’ve got some moisturizing glycerin and a whole lot of water (making this a pretty inexpensive recipe to make, too). We’ll top that off with our preservative and something that smells pretty. Mine is scented with a juicy, fresh citrus medley fragrance oil called “Citrus Mist“. You could also use a blend of citrus essential oils, like tangerine, lemon, mandarin, orange, and lime, but you’re also welcome to further mix it up if citrus isn’t your thing. It’s up to you! Just keep in mind that altering the fragrance or essential oil blend can impact the thickening of the end product, so make sure you’re adding your scent before you start thickening.
In addition to being a gentle surfactant, Caprylyl/Capryl Glucoside is also quite a good solubilizer, so that’s what is doing the majority of the work keeping our fragrance or essential oil blend solubilized in the hand wash. If you choose a different surfactant (like coco glucoside) you’ll likely need to incorporate an additional solubilizer, like polysorbate 20, so keep your scent blend thoroughly incorporated.
The whole lot is thickened with Crothix before transferring it to two 240mL (8 fl oz) pump-top bottles. If you don’t want to thicken the hand wash you can pour it straight into foamer bottles, and that’ll work beautifully as well! All in all, if you need a lovely, gentle, effective hand wash ASAP, this recipe is right up your alley. Happy sudsing!
Citrus Burst Hand Wash
50g | 10%Â Caprylyl/Capryl Glucoside (USA / Canada)
50g | 10% Cocamidopropyl Betaine (USA / Canada)50g | 10%Â vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada)
342.5g | 68.5% distilled water5g | 1% essential oil blend or fragrance
2.5g | 0.5% Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada)Crothix™ Liquid (USA / Canada), to thicken (as needed)
Weigh the surfactants into a 1L (4 cup) glass measuring cup. Gently stir with a flexible silicone spatula to incorporate. Add the glycerin, stir, and then add the water in two or three additions, gently stirring between additions.
To weigh out the fragrance and preservative you’ll need to use an accurate scale—preferably one accurate to at least e0.1g. As these more accurate scales tend to have fairly low (100–200g) maximum weights you won’t be able to put the entire batch of hand wash on that scale without blowing it out. So—grab a smaller dish. Add a couple tablespoons of the hand wash, and then weigh the fragrance and preservative into that, using the more accurate scale. Stir to thoroughly incorporate, and then stir all of that back into the master batch of hand wash. Doing it this way minimizes the amount of fragrance and preservative lost to the secondary container.
Now it’s time to thicken! You’ll want to add the Crothix™ liquid a wee bit at a time (5g or so), gently stirring between additions to incorporate, and leaving it to sit for 5–10 minutes between additions to ensure you’re getting an accurate idea of how much thickening has happened. I ended up needing 14g Crothix™ liquid for this version of the formulation, but a version I made a few months ago with a different fragrance needed 26g, and the only difference between the batches was the fragrance.
Once you’ve achieved the thickness level you want, transfer the hand wash to a pump-top bottle or two. I used two black 240mL (8 fl oz) pump-top bottles from Voyageur. I bought a dozen of these bottles over a year ago thinking they’d be amazing, but it turns out I like to be able to see into my bottles—at least a little—so I haven’t been all that smitten with them. They do look pretty sleek on my bathroom counter, though.
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this hand wash contains water, you must include a broad-spectrum preservative to ward off microbial growth. This is non-optional. Even with a preservative this project is likely to eventually spoil as our kitchens are not sterile laboratories, so in the event you notice any change in colour, scent, or texture, chuck it out and make a fresh batch.
Substitutions
As always, be aware that making substitutions will change the final product. While these swaps won’t break the recipe, you will get a different final product than I did.
- As I’ve provided this recipe in percentages as well as grams you can easily calculate it to any size using a simple spreadsheet as I’ve explained in this post. As written in grams this recipe will make 500g.
- You can use coco glucoside instead of caprylyl/capryl glucoside, but you will need to adjust the pH of the end product (read the post for details)
- If you use coco glucoside instead of caprylyl/capryl glucoside you will also likely need to incorporate an additional solubilizer, like polysorbate 20, to keep the fragrance/essential oils solubilized. Start with approximately twice as much solubilizer as the scent blend, removing that amount from the distilled water.
- You could use ~20% hydrosol in place of some of the distilled water
- Feel free to scent as you want; just keep in mind that the amount of Crothix™ liquid you need can change with the fragrance/essential oil blend you choose.
Any substitution for Crothix? The one you noted at Amazon is out of stock and the others they have are really expensive because of shipping costs.
You can try salt thickening; it’s very inexpensive! Basically, stir very small amounts of salt into the hand wash (I’d start with 0.5g), and wait. Add more as required. Err on the side of less than 2% because too much can make it thin out again 🙂
Could you add something like olive oil and jojoba oil to something like this?
Hi Alecia! If you add oil, it will separate out. Check out this formulation instead 🙂
What sort of preservative would work well with this? I use liquid germail for most products. Would this be okay?
I used liquid germall plus, as per the recipe 🙂
This is so awesome! and so easy! Thank you:)
You’re so welcome! I’ve already made this one a couple times with different scents—it’s so easy and versatile!
Does this need to go into foamer bottles, or is a regular pump okay?
It is designed for a regular pump bottle.
Hey Marie
I was wondering if this could be used for dishwashing as well? So not dishwasher but for doing dishes in the sink or if those formulations are based on a different set of ingredients/ratios/criteria?the one I use seems the contain a set of surfactants and a thickener/preservative and that got me thinking…
You can try it, but I think you may find it’s not very effective. Non-ionic and amphoteric surfactants don’t have the cleansing kick that anionic surfactants do, and I’ve kept the ASM of this fairly low (less than 10%) so it isn’t very concentrated, either. This stuff is fabulous for dishes, though!
Firstly thank you for sharing so many fabulous recipes and so much advice! I’m very much a fan of the simpler recipes too, as they help with getting started on making new types of DIY skincare. 🙂
For this one though I haven’t been able to find Germall Plus or an equivalent single broad spectrum preservative available in the UK/EU – so am looking to use two or more preservatives blended together to create this. I’ve been reading up on this for months, on and off, so would like to finally figure it out!
I don’t suppose you (or someone!) would know a suitable mix someone has already created to achieve this? Else I’ll go and read up on some more of your wonderful resources to help work it out for myself! Thank you. 🙂
Hello Cocobom!
Sure you can! Check out Gracefruit® Preservative GPL when Gracefruit has restocked its shelves.
Happy making!
Barb
Marie, thanks so much for your latest newsletter – I appreciate all the information essp the hand washing test link! I made this hand wash yesterday frangance free with decyl glucoside, phenoxyet + ehg + chelator and xanthan gum. I addjusted pH to 5 with lactic acid. I’ve also had HEC issues, so I decided to give this ago now when we’re out of commercial one for a while. It works great. We’ve used foaming cream cleansers kind of like double cleanse hands lately. I wish you and everyone else on this planet all the best! ❤️
Hooray! Thanks so much (as always!) for sharing your experiments 🙂 Stay safe out there!
Hi! I’m writting from El Salvador, located -as you know- in central america. Well, recently, i´ve being interested in making my own things, as a hobby and i’ve being trying to do some research. Still, is very difficult for me to understand a lot of these things and, beyond that, to find de ingredients you use. I like your posts and your videos because you use, most of the times, the names of the ingredient and not the brand name, so that -in part- makes it easer to me. In the research of the ingredients in the local supliers -i’ve tryed amazon, but the providers don´t deliver so far from the usa or canada- i haven´t being able to find Caprylyl/Capryl Glucoside, coco glucoside and i just have found coco betaine. How can i know if Caprylyl/Capryl Glucoside can be substituted and when and for what!? (this info is very important, because you use, almost all the time Caprylyl/capryl glucoside)
Also, i haven´t found Cocamidopropyl Betaine, only coco betaine (wich i think is the same betaina de coco), so: can i substitute de cocamidopropyl betaine for coco betaine, and if is that is the case, can be substituted in all the formulas you have post, which could be the substitution criteria?
I have also notice that you often use Liquid Germall Plus™ , but i haven´t be able to find it. I only have a preservant named DMDM Hydantoin, can i use that instead of germall plus?
The last thing to say: Crothix™ Liquid is the thickener, i have read in this same space that salt can be used, but can i use a thickener called: dmdm hydantoin.
Thanks and i apologise for my terrible english.
Pd. i have found Sodium Laureth Sulfate (sles), can i use that instead of any other anionic surfactant in the recipes that you use that tipe of surfactant.