One of the first recipe requests I got was from Zil, looking for a DIY dupe for a Dove Shea Vanilla Body Wash. She was working through her drawers and shower, slowly finishing off bottles of store bought stuff and replacing it with natural DIY alternatives. This body wash was running out fast, and she had nothing to replace it with. I’m thrilled to finally have a natural DIY Shea Butter & Vanilla Body Wash alternative for her.
This body wash is based around gentle liquid soap, made from moisturizing oils—unlike the original which is basically a detergent. The original gets its lather from chemical surfactants, and is then rounded out with some thickeners, preservatives, artificial fragrances, and a wee bit of unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada) and sunflower seed oil (USA / Canada / UK / NZ) (likely for marketing purposes as much as anything else).
Getting the paste soaking with some just-boiled water to soften it up.
After 8–10 hours of soaking we’ve got a nice, thick liquid soap.
I’ve used my basic liquid soap recipe for the paste, since it’s already got a healthy dose of unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada) in it, plus olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada) for an extra moisturizing kick, and coconut and castor for lather. I’ve softened the paste in water to create a thick, creamy body wash with luxurious lather.
The vanilla hit comes from two places—some wee vanilla flecks, and vanilla essential oil. I’ve also added a drop of cocoa absolute to round out the scent and add some depth. It smells like real vanilla, which can be surprisingly un-vanilla-like if you’re used to artificially scented vanilla body products. Artificial vanilla fragrance oil is always amped up with something that makes it smell like cake batter or frosting, but you won’t find those notes here.
For an added dose of luxurious moisture I’ve added some melted unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada) for a super-super fat. I positively adore unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada) for dry skin, and this addition helps make a body wash that’s silky smooth and purely decadent.
The resulting body wash is thick and creamy, with a warm vanilla scent. It is gentle and lightly cleansing, and free of artificial surfactants and fragrances. I’m pretty darn happy with it, and I think you will be, too.
Shea Butter & Vanilla Body Wash
125g | 4.4oz of my basic liquid soap paste
110g | 3.7 fl oz just-boiled water7g | 0.25oz unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada), melted
50–60 drops 10-fold vanilla essential oil (or benzonin essential oil)
1 drop cocoa absolute
1/4 tsp vanilla flecksPlace the soap paste in a sturdy leftovers container with a sealing lid. Spread it out using the back of a fork, and top with the just-boiled water. Seal the container and let it sit for at least three hours. After the three hours, you can use the fork to twist up the paste a bit, and gently re-heat the mixture (I give it a quick 30 second blast in the microwave). At this point you should notice that the water is thicker and the soap paste is getting a bit softer. Re-seal the container and let it sit for a few more hours. The paste should have absorbed all the water after 8–10 hours.
Once you have your diluted paste (you should feel like the consistency is a bit on the thin side—this is ok as it thickens overnight after adding the unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada)) transfer it to a bowl. Stir in the melted unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada), essential oil, absolute, and vanilla flecks.
Decant to a squeeze bottle for easy shower use and use as you’d use any body wash. Enjoy!
This sounds really wonderful. I’ve yet to make your liquid soap recipe though. I’m going to try this weekend. How do you find the time? (I’m a bit jealous)
Thanks, Mary 🙂 As with most non-work things in my life I find I have to forcefully carve out time for my DIYing, and guard it fiercely 😛 Having this blog also helps keep me working on things as I need 4 new recipes a week! It’s a bit like a rather needy pet, haha.
Hello! This looks amazing! Let’s say hypothetically someone tried powdering the Cocoa powder, but it turned into a paste. Could one regrind it or is there anything one can use the paste for? It totally wasn’t me or anything.. 😉 Lol.
Hi Colie! So… I’m not sure what you’re talking about. Powdering cocoa powder? Isn’t it a powder already? Are you talking about cocoa butter? This recipe doesn’t have anything cocoa-y in it at all :/
Thanks for the reply. Sorry for the confusion lolAhh gosh darn it. I’m sorry, you just have a million bajillpn good recipes and I’m a open tabber hehehe. I leave em up for weeks at end.. I meant to leave this on the cocoa dust powder post! I can repost it there if you think it’s pertitant, lol
Ha! No worries 🙂 You can fix that super easily, just chill the cocoa butter so it goes all solid, and try again 😉 Just be a bit more sparing with the blending this time, perhaps do it while the cocoa butter is still chilled (so it’s less prone to melt), and be sure to include a bit of clay and/or starch in the blender to keep things moving 😉
I was wondering if it’s possible to add honey to this recipe to produce something similar to the Original Source honey and shea butter body wash
Definitely! I’d start with about a teaspoon and see what you think—it’s easy to add too much and end up with a stick final product.
I absolutely love that you’re making liquid soap. I started making bar soap last year using your method and I have never looked back. I cannot wait to try this recipe for my mother’s birthday she loves shea butter and she is my favorite guinea pig. However, she is not the biggest fan of straight vanilla/cocoa flavored things, she’s more herbal. I got some lovely vetiver from Saffire Blue and I figured I’d throw some jasmine and lavender in as well to round it out. On the other hand she really loves this Narcisso Rodriguez perfume that has vetiver, sweet orange and vanilla in it. So that is an option as well. I have never added essential oil to liquid soap, but I’m thinking vetiver is too strong to add 50 drops, plus I’ll have 3. E.Os instead of 2 as your recipe uses. Is there any way you could give me an idea of how many drops I should use of each? Thanks so much!
Jade
Hi Jade! Your scent blends sound lovely 🙂 Since liquid soap doesn’t go through any additional chemical reactions after adding the EOs like cold process soap does, you can basically just add your EOs a little at a time until you like how the final product smells! Easy as pie 🙂 But yes, take it easy on that vetiver, it’s potent!
Do you sell this stuff, I would like to buy it from you.
No, sorry, I don’t sell anything.
Hi Marie. I just made liquid soap paste and after letting it sit with boiling water for four hours I’ve opened the container to reheat it, but noticed that very little water was left and the rest is just lots of thick soap paste. I followed the recipe ( 125g soap paste and 110g water) but now I’m hesitating as you said it’s has to be more on a runny side before you add shea butter. Any suggestions? Or is it how it’s suppose to be before all soap paste dissolves in 10 hrs? Thanks.
Hi Iryna! How did it end up softening up? The paste should soften into something of a more liquid-soap like texture as it absorbs the water. If it doesn’t, you can add more water, but I definitely recommend doing this slowly as it’s much easier to add more than to try and take it out!
Where did you get the squeeze bottle from? Can you post the link?
The ones I have are from Saffire Blue, but they’ve since discontinued them. Voyageur carries a good selection, though.
Hi Marie. I can’t wait to try this recipe! Do you know if this would be ok in a pump bottle? I’ve had trouble in the past with liquid soaps clogging the pump. Do you have any tips on how to prevent this from happening?
Thanks for all your advice!
Hi Stephanie! I’ve found this particular body wash to be better suited to a squeeze type bottle as it’s quite thick 🙂
Have you tried thinning your liquid soaps with a bit more water to reduce clogging?
Hi I made the liquid soap and also noticed I needed a lot more water. I made the soap paste in NOV 14, and I agree this is the best way because you can just make up the soap when you are ready. I found that when I followed this receipe you actually need about 2/3 more amount of water (compared to the paste). Maybe i didn’t make the paste correctly and it had too much water? Can you let us know. I think the idea of jarring the soap paste is a great idea because I can just make the liquid soap in small batches when I need it, so thankyou.
Hi Kim! I’ve been finding that as the soap paste ages, it seems to need more water to hydrate. I have no idea why :/
What are vanilla flecks (flakes)? And where can I buy them in the US? I searched around the sites you mentioned you buy from but I didn’t have much luck. Thanks!
Here you go! I’ve seen it called specks, flecks, and powder, so it can be tricky to find 😛
Thank you 🙂
🙂
My question refers to the benzoin. I’ve tried to use it once. Failed miserably. How the heck do you mix that tarry goop into your lovely creations? I’m hoping I will learn how to use it rather than tossing it. Thank you in advance!
Hi Patty! Benzoin is oil soluble, and you’ll find it’s a bit more willing to be so when it’s warm. I’ll often put my bottle in a hot water bath to get it to come out of the bottle faster, and then stir it into warm oils.
Can you link me to the product you have? It is possible to get benzoin that’s not the soluble kind.
Hi Marie, I made this yesterday and something happened that I would like to share. I wanted to use benzoin for the vanilla scent and as you know, it’s really hard to get it to even “blob”. So I started using an eyedropper to get it out of the bottle (I tilt over the bottle and put the tip in the orifice reducer). But this time I did something wrong and instead of sucking out the oil, I pushed in some air. And then it happened… the benzoin just came dripping out of the bottle. Awesome!
Ha, how odd! I wonder if the bottle had a vacuum inside it from the viscosity of the liquid (meaning air couldn’t get in to replace the lost volume of benzoin), so you forcing some extra air in there helped relieve that? Either way, cool find!
This looks lovely! I was wondering if you had any issues with the shea butter separating as the soap sits? Thanks!
I didn’t, though if you do, or think you might, you can cut back on the shea butter 🙂
Marie, does this need a preservative if it is not getting used right away?
Hi Lynne! Read this 🙂
Hi there Marie!
First, loving all of your recipes I have tried, so thank you for all your guidance!
Second, in comparing your liquid soap recipes to some others, I have seen that others use Borax when adding the water to the paste for neutralization I guess. Have you ever? Is it something you think would be beneficial? Trying my first go at liquid soap so I’m just trying to figure it all out.
Thanks so much!
Hey Sara! You only need to add borax if you super-lye the soap paste, which I don’t do 🙂
Is it possible to use cocoa butter in place of the Shea?
You can try it, but the end result will definitely be different; watch this for more info 🙂
Can this be done with the Dove Dry oil fragrance as well?
You can typically add any sort of fragrance oil to anything—just be careful with soap as some fragrance oils can accelerate trace!
I made this the other day and didn’t notice that the vanilla changed the scent much. I had added extra water like many others on here, so I increased the fragrance to accommodate the volume, I don’t have cocoa absolute, so dropped it. The smell is a bit off. I had used unrefined shea….I don’t know what went wrong, is it salvageable?
Hmm. What kind of off? Does it smell like unrefined shea? I do find that came through in my blend and I didn’t really mind it, but this didn’t really smell like a cupcake or any sort of dessert-y body wash because of it.
Its hard to explain fragrance. I get the soapy smell and something a little ?bitter? Just not something you want to rub all over yourself, lol. on the forum it was suggested to try a fragrance oil to overcome it, which I may. My shea is new and not rancid so I wonder if I’m just not liking that overlying scent.
Hmm, could be—I know many people loathe the smell of shea, and it definitely can vary from batch to batch, so even though yours may not be rancid, it may be particularly rank 😛
Hi Marie, how much citric acid and water would you recommend for balancing out the PH of this body wash? I do find it to be a nice body wash but making it PH balanced might be nicer to have with an addition of a preservative. Thank you
I’m afraid you can’t do that—read this for more information 🙂 You cannot make a pH balanced soap as it is, by very definition, basic.