I still remember the first time I tried a foaming hand wash; I was a kid (maybe 10?), and visiting some American relatives. They always seemed to get the groovy new tech things first (not to mention all the cool kinds of candy they got that we didn’t! It took what felt like a good decade to get peanut butter M&M’s in Canada. Hrumph.). Anywho, there I am, washing my hands, and I go to get some soap and BAM! There’s a floofy cloud of Disney-scented bubble fluff in my hand. What was this sorcery? I was pretty taken with the entire thing, but my parents didn’t particularly care, and as such the foamy magic never made its way into my day-to-day life. Until now. Enter this oh-so-lovely Green Tea Foaming Hand Wash!
If you’ve been paying attention you’ll have noticed a bit of a green tea theme on the blog as of late. This is the last green tea recipe of the series, so now you’ve got a Green Tea Facial Lotion, a Green Tea Cleansing Oil, a Green Tea & Roses Facial Cleanser, and now this Green Tea Foaming Hand Wash. They all make a pretty lovely gift set if I do say so myself 😉
The foaming part of a foaming hand wash is pretty much entirely in the bottle. Put something with an ability to lather in one of those and you’ll be pumping out bubbles pretty quickly. When you’re concocting something to put in a foamer bottle the main consideration is making it a very thin liquid, which is kind of wonderful as it seems like we spend quite a lot of time trying to do exactly the opposite with most other liquid surfactant concoctions. Making these sorts of thing super thin is delightfully easy given they are almost entirely water.
I used three surfactants in this wash, and decided to switch up #3 a bit from my Orange Cloud Foaming Hand Wash. That one used Bioterge AS40 as surfactant #3 for some good flash foam, but this time I thought I’d try some coco glucoside instead. The difference is definitely noticeable! I find this hand wash has a much richer, silkier lather, while the Orange Cloud was lighter and fluffier. It’s amazing how changing out 10% of the recipe can make such a big difference!
As I’ve noted in my other foaming hand wash post, the foamer bottles I used are sort of like an air horn, and I am not keen on that design. The foam shoots straight out the front of the foamer, meaning it’s a two-handed operation; one hand to pump, one hand to catch the foam. I also find the foam tends to accumulate in the dispenser since gravity isn’t working in its favour. So, all in all, don’t get a foamer like the one in the photos if you can avoid itāthey aren’t very good.
Alright! Let’s get foamy!
Green Tea Foaming Hand Wash
14g | 0.49oz Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate (SCI) (USA / Canada)
24g | 0.85oz Cocamidopropyl Betaine (USA / Canada)127g | 4.48oz distilled water
20g | 0.71oz coco glucoside (or another liquid surfactant)
6g | 0.21oz vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada)
2g | 0.07oz hydrolyzed silk (USA / Canada) (wondering about substitutions?)2g | 0.07oz powdered green tea extract
2g | 0.07oz panthenol powder (vitamin B5) (USA / Canada)
1g | 0.03oz Liquid Germall Plusā¢ (USA / Canada) (or other broad spectrum preservative of choice at recommended usage rate [why?])5 drops palmarosa essential oil
5 drops litsea cubeba essential oil
2 drops geranium essential oil
2 drops frankincense essential oilPrepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer over low to medium-low heat in a small saucepan.
Weigh the SCI and Cocamidopropyl Betaine into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup or beaker. Place the measuring cup in your prepared water bath to melt everything throughāthis will take at least an hour. It’s not done until you have a thick, uniform, white paste.
While the SCI mixture does its thing, combine the water, coco glucoside, glycerin, and silk in another beaker. Stir the green tea extract, panthenol, and preservative together in another.
Once the SCI mixture is uniform, add the water mixture, and heat through until the SCI paste dissolves into the water mixture. This will also take a while; I covered my beaker with a piece of cling film to reduce water loss as it was taking so long. Periodically stir and mash the paste around, and you will slowly notice it start to vanish into the liquid.
When all of that is uniform, remove it from the heat and let it cool until the outside of the beaker is only warm to the touch. Stir in the tea extract mixture and decant into a 250mL (8oz) foamer bottle. Enjoy!
Loving the green tea theme! Quick question: my green tea extract is oil based (it’s green tea extract in fractionated coconut oil) so should I use a solubilizer/emulsifier to incorporate the g.t. extract to the water? I’m thinking maybe olivem 300?! And I think i have asked before but the amount of olivem to use is 1:1 (olivem:green tea extract), right? I never got the chance to make the orange foaming soap one so I haven’t experimented with the olivem but will give this a try and report back. Thanks Marie!
Yup, that all sounds good! You may not even need the Olivem 300 as I found my fragrance dispersed in here just fine without it, and I wasn’t expecting it to without the bioterge. Adding some Olivem 300 will do other awesome things, though, so go for it! Happy making š
Hello Marie
Would this be a nice face wash too?
I personally don’t like this level of lather in my face (so easy to inhale!), and I find this level of surfactants makes for a wash that’s a bit too cleansing for my face. If neither of those things bother you, though, it should be fine š
Hey, Marie! I did wonderful bubble experience using this foamer AND liquid soap made with YOUR recipe! It works wonderful!!! Just want you to know
Best regards,
from Croatia
Ana
Woo, very cool! Thanks for sharing š
Cocamidopropyl Betaine you are the bane of my existence! Still cannot find this. I can get my hands on something similar, my recipes are lovely and work great, just never ever foam. I get more the consistency of liquid soap with a wee bit of bubbles mixed in depending on the amount of water I use.
I must find a way to get you some green tea extract (liquid). I was doing some homework the other day about extracts and thought it was crazy! “Extracts” can mean so many things in the cosmetic world! Bonkers.
Can’t wait for my trip to Europe in the Fall so I can get my hands on a bunch of this Cocamidopropyl Betaine! Yup. I travel internationally just to buy ingredients. I’ve got all the recipes needing it bookmarked and saved as I so want to make them!
Thank you for this wonderful green tea series! I can’t wait to finally be able to make it!
I love how this hobby turns trips abroad into shopping excursions haha. I’m quasi-inventing trips to the USA just so I can place a Lotion Crafter order… but dat exchange rate. OUCH.
And I will happily adopt any liquid extracts you want to send my way!
You can get it on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=cocamidopropyl+betaine&crid=9V47NIDIB20Y&sprefix=Cocami%2Caps%2C304&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_6
Ran out of body wash so made this as I have finally got some SCI! Don’t have powdered green tea extract though so the body wash looks whitish grey, nice! It took just 15 minutes or less to dissolve SCI in betaine / coco glucoside. Not a big deal! The foam beats coco sulfates or bioterge / SLSA / Betaine blend (also made a batch to compare).
Don’t have a foaming bottle so it thickened nicely with 2% salt and 1% crothix. Nice!
Nice! I can’t get over how cushiony this foam is, and how much can change with slight surfactant blend tweaks. I feel the obsession deepening, haha. š
I just made this hand wash and I really like it. What do you think about adding Olivem 300 to make it a little more moisturizing? I only had liquid green tea extract so i added that at 5g. I also subbed some of the water for 15g of aloe juice and it turned out great! Thanks Marie!
You definitely could! Enjoy š Surfactants are so fun *bubbly dance commence*
Hi can I omit coco glucoside and use normal bottles intsead of foaming ones. Thank you
Marie, hello. Iām just double checking. This method says to combine the SCI with āAmphosol CGā but that ingredient isnāt listed in the formula above it, nor could I find it in your encyclopedia. Could you please enlighten me as to what it is?
Thank you in advance.
“Amphosol CG” is a trade/brand name for a specific Cocamidopropyl Betaine product š I’ve updated the instructions to remove the confusion!
Hello Marie,
After various successful experiments with some of your other recipes (thanks!) I’d like to try out this one. Could I make this into a “normal” thicker handwash by thickening the water or the final product with something? I hear that salt works for some other surfactants but not for SCI…
Btw here in Europe we still don’t have the peanut butter M&Ms and I think that’s a very sad thing…
Greetings from La Palma
Maria