This DIY came from an old ideas notebook I started back in 2014 or so—on a trip to Costa Rica, I believe (there are a lot of doodles of geckos and notes about surfing and passionfruit and goodness… to be back there now!). This little notebook is filled with all kinds of ideas, and it’s really fun to flip through all these years later, and remember what I was thinking back then and mesh it with what I’ve learned in the intervening years. Some of the ideas are pretty… misguided… but some are pretty good! When I saw “Silk Aloe Body Wash” in there I was shocked I hadn’t made it already, and figured it was high time I did—so here we are!
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Thinking back to 2014; if I’d made this body wash then, it likely would’ve been based around a liquid soap paste, with added aloe vera juice and hydrolyzed silk. My formulating preferences have since shifted to surfactants—the ability to create mildly acidic cleansers is a huge plus, and I’ve honestly been much happier with the quality of my syndet body washes than I ever was with my liquid soap ones. And, of course, syndet products are far easier and faster to whip up! Liquid soap paste requires a lot of stirring time over a stovetop or crockpot, and that’s really not my jam.
With the “silk” theme I chose foaming silk (INCI: Sodium Cocoyl Hydrolyzed Silk Protein) as the primary surfactant for this body wash, but no worries if you don’t have it—I think Sodium C14-16 Alpha Olefin Sulfonate (Bio-Terge AS40) would be a really simple swap, though you may need to do some pH adjusting as it does have a slightly higher pH than foaming silk. Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate would also be a good option to explore (if you have it), or even Sodium Laureth Sulfate (it has a lower ASM, but lathers like crazy and is generally stronger, so I’d just do a 1:1 swap).
I’ve rounded out the surfactant blend with non-ionic decyl glucoside and amphoteric Cocamidopropyl Betaine. Both help boost lather and make the overall body wash milder. I’m loving decyl glucoside recently for its dense, rich lather, but you could easily use a different glucoside in its place (again, paying attention to the pH of your final product if the glucoside you use has a dramatically different pH than decyl’s 11–12).
Our water phase is mostly distilled water, aloe vera juice, and some moisturizing vegetable glycerin. I’ve also included a small amount of citric acid to make the end product mildly acidic, and a wee bit of a green water-soluble dye for purely aesthetic reasons.
I’ve doubled up on the silk with the inclusion of some hydrolyzed silk for some moisturizing, film-forming goodness. The whole body wash is thickened with Crothix™ liquid, which is a very easy way to elegantly thicken surfactant-y things of all varieties. If you don’t have it I’d probably try 1% iota carrageenan instead as a starting point, making up the remaining 2.5% with more distilled water. You could also leave the body wash unthickened and package it in a foamer top bottle!
For scent—please know that this body wash does not smell amazing on its own. It doesn’t even smell neutral on its own… it smells pretty ick. You will want to add something nice-smelling to this body wash, be it a fragrance oil, essential oil, or swapping the distilled water out for a hydrosol (though unless your hydrosol is very fragrant you’ll likely still want to supplement that with a fragrance or essential oil).
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Silk Aloe Body Wash
15g | 15% vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada)
20g | 20% foaming silk (USA / Canada)
15g | 15% decyl glucoside (USA / Canada)
15g | 15% Cocamidopropyl Betaine (USA / Canada)
0.01g | 0.01% green water soluble dye0.3g | 0.3% citric acid (USA / Canada)
0.2g | 0.2% hydrolyzed silk (USA / Canada)10.49g | 10.49% distilled water
20g | 20% aloe vera juice3.5g | 3.5% Crothix™ Liquid (USA / Canada)
0.3g | 0.3% Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada)
0.2g | 0.2% fragranceWeigh the glycerin, surfactants, and dye, into a measuring cup or beaker and stir to combine. Once that mixture is uniform, add the citric acid and silk, and stir. Gently add the water and aloe juice. Stir gently until uniform, and then add the remaining ingredients—it’s useful to leave the mixture to sit for 30 minutes or so after a bit of stirring so it can do some dissolving on its own.
Once the mixture is uniform, you’re done! Package it up into a “tottle”—I used this one from YellowBee.
Use as you would any other body wash. Enjoy!
When made as written the pH of this body wash is around 6, which is great.
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this body 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 may 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 100g.
- To learn more about the ingredients used in this formulation, including why they’re included and what you can substitute them with, please visit the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia. It doesn’t have everything in it yet, but there’s lots of good information there! If I have not given a specific substitution suggestion in this list please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
- You could use a powdered aloe vera concentrate instead of aloe vera juice. If yours is 100x concentrated I’d recommend using 30.39% distilled water and 0.1% aloe vera concentrate.
- The dye is optional; replace it with more water if you don’t want to use it. You could also try a small amount of green mica instead of the dye (~0.5%) as the finished body wash is thick enough to suspend a small amount of mica.
- If you’d like to learn more about the surfactants used and compare them to ones you might already have so you can make substitutions, check out this page. Also, please read the blog post—there are suggestions up there as well.
- If you change around the surfactants I would recommend replacing the citric acid with more distilled water and then test and adjust the pH as required once the body wash is otherwise complete.
- You could use a different hydrolyzed protein instead of silk.
- If you’re like to use a different preservative, please review this FAQ and this chart.
- If you don’t have Crothix™ liquid you can leave this body wash unthickened and package it in a foamer top bottle (not my favourite approach for in-shower things if we’re being honest), or try replacing it with 1% iota carageenan and 2.5% more distilled water.
- The scent is up to you, but I do recommend including something that smells nice because this product smells pretty detergent-y without some sort of added nice-smelling thing (I used Salty Sea Air). Remember that different fragrances and essential oils can really impact the viscosity of the finished product when we’re working with surfactants; I find Crothix™ liquid to be fairly resilient to this, but you may find you need more Crothix after adding your fragrance.
Gifting Disclosure
The green dye and squeeze tottle were gifted by YellowBee.
yes! i have all these ingredients on hand and have been wanting a simple recipe like this. thank you, marie! gonna make this very soon!
Hooray! Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
it turned out soooo good! i usually feel tight and itchy after body wash, and this didnt do that at all. i felt soft and hydrated (which is amazing bc im always so dry). thanks again marie, your generosity with these recipes has made it so that i can do right by my own skin. 🙂
Hooray! I am so thrilled you are enjoying this ❤️ Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
Hi there. Could I use Plantapon TF as a substitution for decyl glucoside.
Yes, that should work nicely 🙂
Hi why would you use shower gel when you can use soap? I make homemade CP soaps and sure it needs to cure but I don’t think it’s a lot of work. Why do you prefer detergent based soap over completely natural and biodegradable fun to make CP soaps?
Hi! You must be new here—welcome 🙂 I have shared about 70 soap projects over the years, so I’m certainly no stranger to soap making or using soap!
One of the biggest reasons I started working with surfactants is because they can be much easier on the skin due to their ability to be acidic, unlike soap. Please read this for more information. Detergents have the ability to be much more compatible with our natural biology, which study after study has shown to be very important (see the previous link for lots of links to sources for that statement). I think that is a very good “why” for detergents vs. soap.
I still make and like both. Asking “why would you use shower gel when you can use soap?” is a bit like commenting on a soup recipe with “why would you eat soup when you can eat a sandwich?”. They aren’t mutually exclusive, and one shared soup recipe should not be assumed to represent a person’s entire diet 🙂
Happy making!
Hi Marie, thanks for your response. I know about pH but it’s actually a myth.. I saw the article about acid mantle and you were saying you won’t make traditional soaps anymore just because of pH. I have an access to great dermatologists and in older days in Japan they used to say about acid mantle like way back when so that a company like Kao can sell detergent based soaps and shampoos (they make it so cheap..), 30-40 or more years ago. That was their claim on ads I recall it as a child “slightly acidic just like your own skin”. That was actually a myth created and promoted by multi billion corporations in Japan. Biore in Japan btw is a very economical everyday thing and I only used it when I didn’t know better..I mean their cream contains mineral oils..which is a crude oil based products which many stay away from.
Not too sure why this myth is emerging in North America while in more advanced skin care countries like Japan are going towards the opposite direction. It’s great that you put lots of effort in research but that Kao reference is not something many would help persuaded,
I don’t make soaps for living but for healthy skin. Your skin won’t really become alkaline and your good bacteria balance is actually controlled by what you consume (your balanced diet with less processed sugar and dairy with complex carbs and not consuming too much refined sugar, and consuming fermented vegetables really helps), and not so drastically and significantly affected by what you put on your skin especially a wash-off product as you may have imagined in your article.
You would develop more acne and skin issues because of what you consume largely not so much by what you wash with. And many Japanese ladies here with beautiful skin have no problem using luxury CP soaps over Syndet bars.. Even if you have very dry skin or even skin disorders you can still use natural slightly alkaline based soap.
The quality of the soap matters not just because it’s alkaline..And we don’t use coconut oil but palm kernel and not that much hard oils like in NA or Europe.
I’m really surprised the main stream people are falling for the old myth that is already broken in Japan. Plus most people put what we call cosmetic water in Japanese (non-alcohol pH balanced toner). Or cream or serum after. The cream or serum or lotions are usually pH balanced for preservatives to work effectively. So it really doesn’t matter what you wash it with, slightly acidic or slightly alkaline. What matters is the quality and mildness of the soap. And this goes the same for surfactants, though you can’t really get away that it’s not really natural but some are heavily processed and not so friendly to the environment.
Anyways thanks for all your recipes I enjoy your channel on YouTube and the blog.
Hey there! I was having a hard time finding capryl and found this from Lotioncrafter instead, which appears to be a blend of capryl and decyl (which you mention as a substitute in decyl’s encyclopedia entry). This does contain glyceryl oleate, though. Would it still work as a replacement for the capryl and decyl?
https://lotioncrafter.com/products/surfpro-bioblend?_pos=4&_sid=b2031100c&_ss=r
That would be a lovely alternative in this formulation 🙂 Happy making!
I couldn’t find foaming silk in encyclopedia to look for an alternative. Any recommendations?
She actually gives an aklternative if you read carefully the post, to the 2nd paragraph 🙂
“With the “silk” theme I chose foaming silk (INCI: Sodium Cocoyl Hydrolyzed Silk Protein) as the primary surfactant for this body wash, but no worries if you don’t have it—I think Sodium C14-16 Alpha Olefin Sulfonate (Bio-Terge AS40) would be a really simple swap, though you may need to do some pH adjusting as it does have a slightly higher pH than foaming silk. Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate would also be a good option to explore (if you have it), or even Sodium Laureth Sulfate (it has a lower ASM, but lathers like crazy and is generally stronger, so I’d just do a 1:1 swap).”
Hope it helps.
Thank you Marie and greetings from Greece!! (boy is it hard to get materials here… thank God for INCI names and your AMAZING encyclopedia!