This brand new Lemon Rose Creamy Body Wash has me seriously excited to take showers. It’s been years since I used a body wash—my shower has been strictly soap since 2011, and I love soap… but I also love trying new things. I especially love trying new things that are awesome! This creamy body wash works up into an utterly lovey, lace-like lather that I just can’t get enough of. I’ll drizzle some on a loofah, work it up into a cloud of bubbles, and go to town. Swoon.
So, what’s a body wash, and why isn’t it soap? Body wash is made from surfactants—surface active agents. We use them a lot in the form of emulsifiers and solubilizers; those are typically non-ionic surfactants. The bubbly ones are usually anionic surfactants. We also use cationic surfactants (like BTMS-50) and amphoteric surfactants (Cocamidopropyl Betaine).
Anyhow, I digress. Surfactants mean you can have lather in anything—you can add surfactants to lotions, scrubs, masks, and bath bombs, which is all rather exciting. You can also make bars and liquidy concoctions from surfactants (both solid and liquid) that act just ike bar soap or liquid soap, but aren’t. Unlike bar soap, it needs very little aging time (and no lye), and unlike liquid soap, it’s pretty simple to make and get what you want in terms of consistency. Surfactant powered washes also have lower pHs than soap, meaning surfactant shampoos don’t have to be followed up with an acidic rinse to pH correct your hair, and in general, surfactant powered washes are much closer to the pH of our skin (5.5). So, if you have sensitive skin, you may find surfactant powered washes make your skin happier than true soap.
When it comes to the “natural” question, well… I’ve written a lot about that. Surfactants are not something you can get from stepping on an olive or hitting a coconut with a hammer (but then again, neither is sodium hydroxide). Some are derived from coconuts or corn, some are derived from petroleum products. Some are notoriously irritating (SLS is famous for this—it also makes me break out!), and some are more gentle than soap (all “no tears” washes for kids and babies are made with surfactants). All this is to say that not all surfactants are equal, and concentration is important. I’m choosing gentler ones and easing into working with them, and I’m having a lot of fun with it.
This project started as a recipe request, but no longer bears any resemblance to the requested product. The use is the same… but that’s about it. The request was for a homemade version of a cleansing shower “oil”. I say “oil” because it was a cleansing oil only in name; it was predominantly water and surfactants. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just not a cleansing oil! Judging by the photos, the consistency was fairly close to that of a liquid oil, so perhaps that’s where the name came from. There was a nice selection of oils in the product, but they all came after the preservative and fragrance in the ingredients list, and since we know those ingredients are typically used at 1% or less, then we can relatively safely say there was less than 1% of each of the oils. There were six different carrier oils, so we could be looking at a total around 5%, but given the product was transparent, I rather doubt it (my recipe has 5% oils in it and it’s far from clear!).
Anyhow, I began by creating a surfactant blend from three relatively common (and gentle) surfactants I’ve got in my collection: SCI (Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate), Cocamidopropyl betaine, and Coco Glucoside. SCI is a solid powder, while the other two are liquids. Ampohosol CG dissolves the SCI, which is fairly stubborn in that regard, and the two together make a very lovely, mild, creamy lathery mixture. I added coco glucoside as it is another mild cleanser, but you could use another liquid surfactant instead, or just use more Cocamidopropyl Betaine. Making changes to the blend will impact the viscosity and the lather, but it’ll still work (exactly how those things are impacted is obviously dependent on what swaps you make!).
I dissolved our surfactant blend into a mixture of water and rose hydrosol. I recently got a bottle of true rose hydrosol from Voyaguer and (imagine George Takei): ooooooooh myyyyyyyy. It puts the stuff from the grocery store to shame, and not just any level of shame. The kind of shameful look your dog gives you when you get home after it ate your throw pillows kind of shame. Real rose hydrosol is so richly scented and downright decadent that I’m embarrassed I ever thought the other stuff was ok. I mean… it is ok. If that’s all you can get. But if you can get the real stuff, do yourself a favour and order a bottle. It’s freaking incredible.
I also included some other goodies; some nourishing hydrolyzed silk, hydrating panthenol and some bright lemon essential oil make this really quite special. I also blended some lightweight grapeseed oil with some polysorbate 80 to emulsify it into the concoction. The “original” had a blend of grapeseed oil, apricot kernel oil, avocado oil, olive oil, coconut oil, and kukuinut oil, so you can definitely feel free to use any of those—I was going to use kuikuinut, but I couldn’t get the bottle open, so I switched to grapeseed 😝
The final cleanser is thick and creamy (and you can easily customize the thickness with crothix), and smells wonderfully of lemon and roses (a thing that’s hard/expensive to do without fragrance oils in bar soap). I love mine in a squeezy bottle, and I can’t get enough of shower time these days. I know some of the ingredients in this one are a bit odd, but you’ll be seeing more of them as I continue to play and learn in this Lemon Rose Creamy Body Wash is amazeballs. Try it—please.
Lemon Rose Creamy Body Wash
20g | 0.71oz Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate (SCI) (USA / Canada)
30g | 1.06oz Cocamidopropyl Betaine (USA / Canada)66g | 2.33 oz distilled water
20g | 0.71oz coco glucoside or decyl glucoside
6g | 0.21oz vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada)
20g | 0.71oz rose hydrosol8g | 0.28oz Polysorbate 80 (USA / Canada)
8g | 0.28oz grapeseed oil4g | 0.14oz silk peptides (wondering about substitutions?)
1g | 0.03oz Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)
2g | 0.07oz panthenol powder (vitamin B5) (USA / Canada)
1g | 0.03oz Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada) (or other broad spectrum preservative of choice at recommended usage rate [why?])40 drops lemon essential oil
1–2g | 0.03–0.07oz Crothix™ Liquid (USA / Canada) (optional; you may not need it)
Prepare 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 through—this 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 rose water in another beaker. Stir the polysobate 80 and grapeseed oil together in another beaker, and the silk peptides, vitamin E oil, 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 stir in the polysorbate 80/grapeseed oil mixture—the whole mixture will opacify and turn cream at this point. Let it cool until the outside of the beaker is only warm to the touch, and then stir in the silk mixture. You can now stir in your essential oil; I started at 20 drops and worked my way up to 40. You may find you like more! Play it by nose 🙂
Now you want to let the body wash well and truly cool; cover it and give it an hour or two (or even overnight), until it is properly room temperature. At this point, asses the consistency and decide if you’d like it to be thicker. Thanks to the SCI and emulsified oils it should be fairly thick to start, but if you want it to be thicker, stir in some crothix. I included 1g, which is roughly 0.5% (I formulated the recipe around including 1% crothix, but decided I didn’t need it, so technically the recipe totals 99.5% as I made it, which shifts all the percent values… though fairly insignificantly!).
At this point you’re ready to bottle it up and wash away! I used a 240mL/8oz squeezy bottle, but a pump top bottle would also work. Enjoy!
The pH of this body wash is ~5; my pH strips aren’t hugely precise, but it’s definitely somewhere around 5.
Before you ask if this can be made without surfactants… well, no. It can’t. You can kind of do the same thing by softening some liquid soap paste and adding the same essential oils and additives, but that obviously won’t be the same thing. It’s sort of like the difference between bread and gluten free bread. They may look the same and be used for the same things, but they definitely aren’t the same!
Look at that lather! That’s about three drops of the wash in ~20mL of water, blended up with a milk frother.
Hi Marie,
I love your website and I have your new book <3 it! This recipe looks so nice, I will definitely have to try it. I wanted ask about measuring the Germall Plus. I find it very viscous and hard to measure since the quantity/weight is so small usually that I find myself having to guess most of the time. My scale only goes as low as grams, not milligrams. Is that the issue? How do you do it?
Thx
Hey Nicole! You will need a more accurate scale—there’s no way around it. Mine was ~$15 on Amazon 🙂
A late, but useful response.
I started formulating last winter, and my LGP was also too thick to measure. Last week I made something, and my LGP was thick but much more fluid than last winter. The only difference was room temperature: in the winter my kitchen is in the low 60s (F), in the summer it’s around 80 (F).
So, the answer is to **slightly** warm your LGP. Not too much, LGP is heat sensitive, but you 80-90 (F) should be fine.
Good tip! Something I’ve started doing is re-packaging my LGP into a squeeze PET bottle with a turret cap so I can gently squeeze it out drop by drop. Total gamechanger!
Hello my fellow artisan homemade soap makers I am stumped with a problem and I am asking for your help. Here is my mystery problem. I made liquid shower gel, castile soap shower gel, and shampoo and they will not lather at all for my son-in-law. The rest of my family gets luxurious lather.
I did not us any surfurcants because of allergies. I tweaked the formulations and same results. Any suggestions. Helpppppppp! Thanks.
If it’s just your son-in-law, I’m guessing it’s either user error (hard with soap, haha) or something to do with his water. Does anybody else who lives in the same home have the same problem?
Hello Marie,
I love the little cloth on which the bottle is resting. Did you knit it yourself? If you don’t mind me asking, where did you get the pattern?
Hey Nicole! The cloth was a lovely gift from a friend of mine. She says she used this pattern 🙂
Thank you so much.
Hey Marie! This recipe sounds lovely. I wanted to give it a try but I am now unfortunately facing the fact that I cannot find the first two ingredients (Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate and Cocamidopropyl Betaine) in my country where I have so far found all the crazy cosmetic ingrediants I ever came across in your recipes. Do you have any idea about why this could be so? Is there another name for the first two? Or could there be a reason for them being prohibited to import? I guess I’ll have to order it from abroad. Thank you for your answer. All the best! Leeloohla
Hmm. Where in the world are you?
In Slovenia, Europe.;-)
Neat! Unfortunately I really can’t be of any help with ingredient sourcing, though :/ I couldn’t even tell you where Slovenia is on a map without checking, let alone advise on places to shop 🙁
For ingredients in Europe, I recommend https://www.ellemental.eu/
this is the list of countries where they ship. I’m not advertising for the company, it’s just a help for those in need. I live in Romania, so i buy from them.
Am wondering if there is any harm in leaving the oil and
Polysorbate 80 out? I have oily skin so prefer a squeaky clean feel after I wash my face and then add serum and oil back after. I notice some basic face wash ingredients on swiftcraftymonkey do not contain oil.
There isn’t, BUT I do find this to be a very squeaky-clean cleanser as written 🙂
I have noticed that surfactants as a general rule are pretty controversial. People don’t seem to realize that our bodies actually produce surfactant in the lungs. If we didn’t, they would collapse when we exhale.
I know, right?! That, and most people who object to them already use them… they just use ones that don’t lather aka emulsifying wax…
This definitely looks amazing! I don’t have all the ingredients, though. I can’t WAIT for Michele and Keith to open their warehouse! I will be on their doorstep every other week picking up supplies. And I will sign up for ANY workshop you teach there, just for the chance to DIY in person with you, Marie 🙂
I can’t wait, either! I’ll be a total shelf-stalking, fragrance huffing, butter poking creep 😀 And I can’t wait for the workshops, either! It’s going to be so awesome 😀 See you soon!
Hold up, what? Warehouse? Workshops?
I will make a road trip for classes you teach. Keep us updated!
I will! You should follow Windy Point on Facebook, too 🙂
I made it! Nice cleanser. I used SLSa as I still didn’t order SCI. Felt like rose water was lost in the smell of surfactants. Definitely use much more EOs. Got 6.5 on my pH meter, cool. Had to use 3 g of Crothix but could do with a tiny bit more.
Great recipe!
Awesome! I found the rose water scent really came out after a day or two—at first I felt it was lost, but then it popped right back out! Maybe that will’ve happened to yours by now 🙂
Hi Marie,
I was wondering if i could bump up the quantity of coco glucoside in place of the betaine.
Thanks,
Debbie
I think so! It will not be as mild as the betaine adds mildness, and your melting time may be longer, but I think it should work.
Hi Marie
Another great formula
I’ve noticed you’ve recently started using distilled water. Can i ask why you decided to make the change?
How long do you keep your distilled water for once it’s open? I always buy it in small amounts, use what i need and then dispose of what’s left just to be on the safe side.
I’ve always gone with the theory that as soon as you’ve opened it and it’s exposed to the air it is no longer pure, and will start to grow bacteria even if refrigerated.
It would be interesting to know if it’s safe to keep for any length of time once it’s opened.
Grace x
Honestly, I bought some, so I’m using it. I’m not noticing a huge difference, but I do hear Calgary has great tap water.
I keep it until I’ve used it all. Distilled water is not sterile, it simply doesn’t contain any added minerals or salts, and since there’s nothing in there for bacteria to eat, I really wouldn’t worry about bacteria growing as it has no food. So… yeah. Mine lives at room temperature and gets used as needed. I buy it a gallon at a time. Not a very posh or exciting answer, but there you have it!
Dear Marie, I’m missing both the Cocamidopropyl Betaine and coco glucoside but am about to order from this place http://www.farmaciavernile.it/index.php and wonder if I could substitute with their ‘Aminoxid ws 35’ INCI Cocamidopropylamine Oxide ( http://www.farmaciavernile.it/index.php?page=shop.product_details&product_id=1191&flypage=flypage.tpl&pop=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=65 ) and ‘Coco glucoside and glyceryl oleate’ ( http://www.farmaciavernile.it/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=2814&category_id=8&keyword=coco+glucoside&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=65 )
I just found this at my regular vendor; Babassuamidopropyl betaine ( http://www.aroma-zone.com/info/fiche-technique/tensioactif-mousse-de-babassu-aroma-zone ) is this actually what I’m looking for, only derived from babassu instead of coconut?? 😀 They also have INCI Lauryl glucoside – could that be a substitute?
Thank you so much Marie for sharing all your amazing wisdom and knowledge and for being such a huge inspiration <3 YOU ROCK!
Hello again Marie, I did a bunch of searching and found all the correct ingredients, no substitutes 😉 Can’t wait to also make my very own body wash! Please disregard my first message.
Hope you are having a lovely day! Thank you for all that you do <3
Woo! Happy making 😀
I’m afraid I’ve never worked with any of these ingredients and I just really don’t know—the world of surfactants is still very new to me!
Wondering why the silk I have smells so yucky? It takes me using quite alot of lemon oil to cover the smell of the silk so that I imagine it is too much eo as my face is a bit red. I know I can leave it out or use something else but since it was not the cheapest ingredient I would like to find places to use it so I guess I am just wondering if you know why it smells as it does. I have both peptides and aminos and they both have that strong scent to them….I think I got them from NDA.
Hmm. Boo 🙁 My silk has a smell, but it’s definitely not that strong or gross, and I’ve had some from a couple batches. It smells a bit sweet, but is easily masked and never comes out in final products. Can you contact NDA and ask if they’ve had any news/feedback about the batch that would indicate something is wrong?
Hi Marie,
I’ve bought all the ingredients to try making this, except for Crothix. Would that be ok for me to use Guar Gum to thicken it if need to (I’ve used Guar Gum for my handwashing liquid)?
Thank you and look forward to your reply
PS: I love your book. I do hope you will write another just about skincare priducts :).
You can definitely give it a go! The consistency will be different, but I imagine it should still thicken fairly well 🙂 Happy making and thanks for buying my book!
Another wonderful formulation! I replaced the rosewater with more distilled water and just went with the lemon EO. This was my first attempt at an all surfactant wash and it went together without any bumps!
This, the Lemon Chiffon lotion, and the Lemon Poppyseed scrub make for a refreshing bath time Thank you!
Oooh, how lovely! Bath time at your house must make one quite hungry 😉
Hi Marie, I made this recipe and it was amazing, and nice and thick…for the first day or so but then it turned to the consistency of water (still works fine and smells great), but I’m wondering why it thinned out like that. Any ideas where I might have gone wrong?
Sincerely,
Crystal
Hmm, odd indeed. I have no clue, especially since it thinned out so fast :/ Hmm. Hopefully continued research and experience will eventually turn up an answer, but I don’t have one right now.
Hello Marie, I live in Malaysia and where I live, I can only find sodium cocoyl alaninate by Ajinamoto Company instead of SCI. Can I use that instead of SCI? I manage to get my hands on Amphosol but no luck on coco glucoside either. Can I use only 2 surfactants instead of 3?
Hey! 2 instead of 3 should be ok, but I really don’t know anything about sodium cocoyl alaninate. If it’s powdered I suppose I’d try working with it by dissolving it into the Amphosol, but I’d recommend doing some research and finding out what the maximum recommended usage is as you won’t want to exceed that 🙂
Marie, I am a failure. An utter and complete failure! I have made so many of your recipes (and always use your links to order my supplies), but this one flopped on me. No suds, runny like water. I am so sad! I love showers. It’s a weirdness, I know, but I think about how long it will be before I can take my next shower! ;). I used every single ingredient exactly as you directed. My scale goes to 1 gram, but I am ordering one that you suggested that goes down to 0.01 grams for greater accuracy. The only sub I made was using Turkey Red for the Poly 80, since I only have poly 20 for now. I will try again, but was wondering if anyone else had an issue and if you could give me some advice? Thanks so much!
How odd indeed! I did eventually experience some thinning, but no suds?! I’m honestly not even sure how that’s possible :/ The TRO may be the issue; Susan from POI and I were talking about this recipe and she rather baffled at the TRO suggestion due to the sulfate content, so that may be the issue. Apologies, all this surfactant business is still quite new to me and there are so many more variables than with a simple lotion!
Hi there, i made this one last night (knocked one nore off my list!!) and it is sooooo good. I changed a few things coz I didn’t have stuff like floral rose water or polysorbate 80 (used more water and used olivem 300 instead) but it came out sooo luxurious and creamy and super foamy. I made two batches… one with litsea cubeba e.o. to use as face wash and one with sweetgrass f.o. to use as a creamy hand wash. I also made the green tea foaming hand wash and also love it! A curious thing though: the batch I added litsea turned pink and the other with f.o. didn’t change colors. I wonder if the litsea is responsible for the color change. Either way I’m loving this creamy body/face/hand wash. Thanks for another wonderful recipe
Woo! Mine (made with the lemon EO) turned pink over the course of a couple weeks, too, so I guess whatever compound it was is present in both 🙂 Thanks for DIYing with me and enjoy!
I made this shortly after you printed it and loved it but decided one night in a rush to use it as shampoo. Unless you tell me why I shouldn’t, I’ll keep using it for shampoo. Not sure if I need the acid rinse afterwards but use it anyway. Cause I like the eos I use.
Now what do you think of using it as an oil based wood furniture soap? Like Murphy’s Oil? What do you think, gentle enough? Strong enough?
There’s no reason not to, and you don’t need an acidic rinse 🙂 I’m afraid I have never used an oil based wood furniture soap, so I have no idea how they perform or what’s needed for a successful formulation there, sorry!
Hi Marie, thanks for the great formula I’m excited to try it. I’m just wondering, the SCI you used in this, is it stearic acid free? It appears some SCIs come from the suppliers combined with stearic acid. Thanks!
It’s plain ol’ SCI, no stearic acid added 🙂
I’m looking for something easy to keep in my gym bag, that I can use as both a body wash and shampoo. I have been looking at this recipe and the snowflake shampoo bar. I quite honestly think a bottle would be much easier to deal with for this purpose. Is there any reason you don’t recommend using it also as a shampoo a couple of times a week?
Thanks! (Either way I’m planning on making this because it sounds AMAZING!)
Just saw the comment above! Got my answer 🙂
Your recipes are always the best! You make even the most intimidating recipes seem super approachable! I tell everyone to come here for ideas.
Are you going to do more surfactant body washes like this? Seems like with my hard water situation this is going to be the only way I can make a “soap” that works for me.
Thanks, Anna! I definitely plan to, and I have a few in testing right now 🙂
That’s so exciting! I think my favorite video of yours is the basic basic lotion that just shows the general lotion process. It’s the basis for literally every lotion I make and is the reason I can tell everyone who asks that making lotion is actually super easy! Do you plan to make that style of video for other things?
Thanks so much! And you are very right, I totally should do more overarching videos like that for other things. What other topics would you be interested in?
Hi Marie! I’m fairly new to diying and I made this with all the same ingredients as you did except for the crothix to thicken it but mine also separated with all of the creamyish stuff floating on top & all the liquid at the bottom with kinda pink-ish tent to the whole thing. This happened within a week – week n a half of making it. I just made another batch and was wondering if I can use salt to thicken it? Thanks for the help and for all that you do!
Hello Marie,
Considering the ph of the final product is it safe to say that it could be use as hair wash? Liquid shampoo?
You can certainly try it! I have found that not all body washes translate well to shampoos, but that’s something only use can teach you 🙂
Hi! Can this be made as a solid body wash bar like the shampoo bars? Thanks!
That’s sort of like asking if you could make a soup recipe as a sandwich—sort of, but the entire thing would need to be re-developed and generally speaking you’d just have a couple ingredients in common.
Is it harmful to use SLSa in a face wash? , Marie
Nope, just ensure your active surfactant matter is reasonable for a face wash 🙂
Hi Marie. I just made this with hydrolyzed Baobab protein instead of silk, and i changed up the essential oil blend. It came out awesome! I did have a small hiccup when my scale turned off while measuring out the panthenol. I had to say “oh well” and guesstimate the rest. I’ll definitely be making this again.
Woohoo! I’m thrilled you’re enjoying it Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
Hi Marie,
Thank you for the recipe. I’ve been looking for a recipe of a body wash which I can incorporate with moringa oil.
So here, I want to substitute the grapeseed oil with moringa oil. Do you think it will work?
And one more thing, can I use Iselux ultra mild for this recipe? If yes, how should I alter it?
Hi, I’m a newbie at DIYing and have just ordered a bunch of ingredients to attempt one of your recipes (eg facial cleanser). However, this one caught my eye and I realised that I’ve got everything except Polysorbate 80. Is it OK to leave it out? If so, should I leave the oil out too? Then, what should I increase to make up the missing 16g?
Yes, that’s what I’d do—replace the extra 16g with more distilled water 🙂 Happy making!
Hii Marie. We donot have germall plus availible in India. Can you suggest a good substitute ?
https://www.humblebeeandme.com/faqs/can-i-use-a-different-preservative-than-the-one-youve-used/ 🙂
Hi Marie,
I made this body wash, but within 24 hours, it completely separates. The creamy layer floats to the top and the bottom is clearish (has some color to it from the mica powder I used). Do you know why this is or how I can keep it from separating? All of the more liquid formulations I have made separate. I’ve made a hair perfume and a toilet spray using Poly 20 and they both separated. I thought it was a problem with the Poly 20, so wanted to give this recipie a try since it calls for Poly 80. However, this body wash separated as well. I would appreciate your feedback!
I made the same observation with mine too.
Hello
Can you please provide percentages for each ingredient in this formula? or the total grams this formula made (was it 240 grams or 250 grams)?
I don’t have the % to share without calculating them; I’ve shared an in-depth tutorial on how to do this here. It was neither 240 or 250g, though—a quick guesstimation of adding up the weights listed here doesn’t pass 200g 🙂 Happy making!
Thanks Marie for this recipe. It looks lovely. Do we need an emulsifier so it doesn’t separate?
The polysorbate 80 + the surfactants do the trick 🙂
I, Why use polysorbate 80 if coco-glucoside can disperse essential oils?
It’s for the grapeseed oil, not the essential oils.