If you’ve been using liquid dishwashing detergent, prepare to have your world rocked. Seriously. Solid dishwashing paste kicks dishwashing butt in ways you didn’t think could happen. It’s so amazing that I was actually excited about washing dishes as I was developing this recipe. Solid detergent blows liquid detergent out of the water and I will never understand why it’s not more readily available in North America. But no matter, because now you can make your own super concentrated lemon dishwashing paste!
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Back in 2015 I spent a month in Costa Rica. I’d been for about ten days in 2014, so I had a few things I knew I wanted to bring back to Canada after the second trip. You might be thinking rum, but you’d be wrong. What I stuffed my suitcase with when I returned home was Axion dishwashing paste. Yes, I do realize that is really quite odd, but hear me out. Axion is incredible. Axion was the start of my love affair with solid dishwashing pastes.
Axion is basically a semi-solid surfactant paste with added abrasives (baking soda) to boost scrubbing power. You swipe a bit up on your sponge, and the smallest amount is enough to clean a sink full of greasy dishes. The paste lasts forever, takes up far less space on your counter, and uses less water and less packaging than traditional liquid detergent. The added abrasives make it even more effective than pure concentration alone. Basically, dishwashing paste is superior in every way to liquid dish detergent. It performs better, meaning you’re done dishes faster, and your dishes get cleaner with less effort. There’s no going back.
This is the paste you’ll have when the surfactants finish melting.
While I have found a local source for Axion since motoring through the two kilos I carted back from Central America (Unimarket!), I (of course) wanted to make my own. Given many recipes using surfactants start with a surfactant paste, and the end product here is basically a surfactant paste, it wasn’t too difficult! In contrast to when we’re blending surfactants for use on the skin and the hair, our main concerns here are highly effective grease cutting. We obviously don’t want to create something that’s going to be irritating to the skin in passing, but since this paste goes on sponges and on dishes and is supposed to get things super clean in no time, our surfactant blend will differ from the sort of thing you’d see in a shampoo or hand wash.
The paste will loosen up when you stir in the d-limonene and baking soda.
And it’ll thicken right back up as it cools!
Our surfactant blend is made up from some of the stronger surfactants I have. I used quite a lot of SCS (Sodium Coco Sulfate) as it’s an excellent cleanser and produces oodles of lovely bubbles. To that I added some Cocamidopropyl Betaine, which helps stabilize our lather and makes for a milder blend. Our last surfactant is Bioterge AS40 Surfactant (Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate), which offers great cleansing and more lovely lather right off the bat. In order to keep this nice and pasty our surfactant blend is heavily tilted towards the SCS as it is solid, with the other two serving as a nice melting medium to get us a stiff paste.
In addition to the surfactants I’ve added some baking soda for some crusted-on-food busting up power, and some d-limonene for bright, citrusy scent and even more grease cutting power. The final paste is smooth, white, and generally unassuming—until you get it on a sponge. That’s when the grease blasting, dish cleaning, holy-wow-move-over-liquid-detergent magic begins. This stuff is incredi-balls (a step up from amazeballs), and I can’t wait for you to fall in love with it. I’m pretty sure you’ll have some Super Concentrated Lemon Dishwashing Paste next to your kitchen sink from now on.
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Super Concentrated Lemon Dishwashing Paste
44g | 44% Sodium Coco Sulfate (SCS) (USA / Canada)
13.5g | 13.5% Cocamidopropyl Betaine (USA / Canada)
14g | 14% Sodium C14-16 Alpha Olefin Sulfonate (Bio-Terge® AS-40) (USA / Canada)14g | 14% baking soda (USA / Canada)
14g | 14% d-limonene0.5g | 0.5% Liquid germall plus (USA / Canada)
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 SCS, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, and Bioterge into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Place the measuring cup in your prepared water bath to melt everything through. Stir the mixture with a flexible silicone spatula to incorporate and speed up the melting process. At first it’ll seem like there’s no way it could possibly melt at all, but it will, I promise! I left mine over medium-low heat for about 30–40 minutes, stirring occasionally, but mostly doing other things.
Once you have a uniform, soft, semi-transluscent paste, stir in the baking soda and d-limonene. Stir the mixture occasionally as it cools. Once it is cooler than 50°C, add the liquid germall plus and stir thoroughly to combine.
Transfer the paste to a wide plastic jar (given the constant exposure to water metal is not a good idea, and given the constant use and the possibility of the jar getting pushed off the counter or into the sink I’d avoid glass). I put a 70g batch in a 50mL plastic tub from YellowBee.
To use, swipe a damp sponge across the surface of the paste and use that to wash your dishes; you’ll quickly get a feel for how incredibly potent it is! Leave the lid on when it isn’t in use so it doesn’t dry out.
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this dish detergent will constantly be in contact with 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 100g (which is quite a lot!)
- You could use powdered Sodium Lauryl Sulfate instead of theSodium Coco Sulfate. I’d recommend sticking to sulfate surfactant because they kick so much greasy butt.
- You can use a different liquid anionic surfactant in place of the Bioterge AS40
- I don’t recommend altering any of the other ingredients. The pH of this product is high enough that many preservatives are not compatible with it.
I would love to make this dish soap, where can you find the ingredients?
Thank you
Everything is linked in the recipe; click the links 🙂
Do you think this could be used in a dishwasher? My kid tried liquid dish soap, which had the predictable effect and was something I couldn’t even get mad about lol. I would definitely like to get off the cascade band wagon though.
NO! This is ONLY for hand washing. Please don’t ruin your floors/dishwasher with it!
I know im late to the party here but this is such a smart idea. Also it should be mandatory that any detergent that has to be shipped should be like this, without water! Just think how much that could potentially save in emissions!? It would be a good start anyway 🙂
This stuff is fabulous, thanks Marie! Im a fan, made a lot of your formulas the last few years and also Calgarian 🙂
Were you ever able to come up with a solid dish detergent block? It would be so nice not to have it in plastic. I read on another comment that you were working on one. Just checking in to see if it’s out yet. I haven’t found one in the search. Thank you for all of your AMAZING recipes, education and advice!
I looked into Axion when you first mentioned it and was disappointed to learn that the reason you can’t find it in the United States was because it contains phosphates. Thank you for coming up with a more environmentally friendly and DIY alternative!
I hope you fall in love with it, it’s amazing! 😀
Do you happen to have calculated the cost for the dishwash paste?
If I’ll get to it before you are back from Australia, I’ll share it here.
I don’t, but using the links above I’m sure it’s easy enough to figure out 🙂 For reference, a 50g tub lasts at least two months for me!
Hi Marie,
I have a hard time finding the Bioterge in Europe and paying 30eur in shipping is not a valid option. What subs would you recommend? SCI? SLSA?
Thank you in advance for your help.
Ps. Could you use it to also clean around the house? Like the bathroom?
Ana
I’d recommend Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate (SLSa)—you should also read through the comments on this post to see what other people have tried 🙂
You can 100% use it around the house—it’s amazing for cleaning out ovens and bath tubs, too!
Thank you so much Marie for commenting and I sure apologize for it checking thr other messages first (I know it can get frustrating so sorry ).
Last question I promise. It came up somewhere else, that I could subs the Bioterge for Decyl Glucoside or Cocomide Dea. What do you think?
Decyl glucoside would probably be the better alternative of the two, though it is non-ionic rather than anionic, which means it won’t be as potent of a cleanser.
Marie, thanks for your wonderful, exciting Website. I enjoy experimenting with your recipies very much. One question; I’m having difficulty getting the Bioterge AS40 here in Germany. Do you have any alternative suggestions? Do I absolutely need an anionic surfactant? Coco Glucosid isn’t a problem, it’s readily available, would that be useable?
Thanks so much in advance.
You can certainly try it; anionic surfactants are better cleansers, which is what we want here, but I doubt coco glucoside would break the recipe. It would likely just be less effective, though you may not notice the difference 🙂
I do not have SCS so I am substituting SCI. Cost is $2.97. I remember this in Costa Rica and I also brought some home with me. We visited my sister-in-law there in Jaco for a month. There was no hot water and they never filled the sink with water. The dishes were always done with a paste, running water and a sponge.
Let me know how the SCI works as an alternative; it is significantly more gentle than SCS so I’m curious if there will be a noticeable drop in efficacy 🙂
This stuff sounds amazing! Marie, you have just blown my mind. I do not have a dishwasher and would love to cut down on the amount of dish soap (and soap dispensers) I go through. I’m going to order some Axion from Amazon before diving in to make my own. You’ve just completely changed my life 😀 (I know I probably sound too excited for dish soap, but you have no idea. I detest doing the dishes and in absence of a dishwasher, this is the next best thing).
YAY! I definitely don’t think you sound too excited, I am right there with you 😀 Better dish soap makes for a better dishwashing experience, and if I can improve the experience of something I HAVE to do then I am 100% on board! I hope you fall in love with solid detergent!
I’m one month in to a tub of Axion, have barely made a dent in it, but it has been wonderful! All my dishes are now a one-scrub job and that scent is amazing. Definitely going to have to make my own when I run out… in 5 years 😛
Isn’t it the bestest?! I’m so glad you’re loving it 😀 Try it for tub scrubbing, too!
Hi Marie, looking through products in the UK and it seems D-limolene is incredibly expensive! Are you finding the same in Canada?
Mine is from New Directions; it’s currently abotu $30/L. Hope that helps!
You’ve done it again. Made this the other day and I love it. I did due slsa instead of sls, but it works great. Your blog is amazing and I’ve made almost everything! Never disappointed. Thank you!
YAY! I am so dang tickled 😀 Thank you so much for reading and DIYing with me!
Marie, The dish washing paste is fantastic! The ingredients arrived today and I immediately made a batch. I was cleaning up afterwards when I swiped the sponge across the spatula. I washed a whole sink full of dishes without adding more paste to the sponge. What a fantastic product. Thank you very much.
YAY!!! I’m so dang stoked you’ve made it and fallen in love 😀 WOO!!! I introduced my mom to it when she last visited and she now refers to it as “Marie’s magic paste” 😀
Would this work as efficiently with one of those silicone scrubbers (like Better Sponge)? Or does it need the thick sponge structure to last through a lot of dishes?
I’m afraid I have no idea as I’ve never used (or heard of) a silicone scrubber. Sorry!
I live in the UK and cannot find d-limonene. What would you suggest I use instead? White vinegar?
I’m afraid I don’t have any suggestions—definitely NOT vinegar as it is water soluble and not a terpene. You can try searching for “citrus terpenes” instead; I found some on Amazon UK, but the specific item was out of stock.
Hello Marie,
I found this on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/MG-Chemicals-d-Limonene-Industrial-Container/dp/B071R3Z8BL/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1521791312&sr=8-3&keywords=d-+limonene
Do you think that would work?
I believe so! You may wish to contact the supplier and describe your intended use to be sure, but I believe d-limonene is d-limonene… it’s just the “industrial grade solvent” bit that is giving me a bit of pause.
YES!!!
I used this instead of d limonene. It works perfectly.
https://www.dragonspice.de/naturkosmetikRohstoffe/Tenside/Hobbythek-Orangenkraft-Reinigungskonzentrat.html?listtype=search&searchparam=reiniger
Thanks for the amazing recipe!
Thank you so much for sharing! Enjoy your sparkling clean dishes 😀
I just made some but have not used yet. I used Sodium Laureth Sulfate instead of Bio-Terge, and Citra Solv I got on Amazon (Limonene is the main ingredient) –
https://smile.amazon.com/Citra-Solv-Degreaser-Concentrate-Valencia/dp/B007USNPCK/ref=sr_1_14?dchild=1&keywords=citrasolve&qid=1590865812&sr=8-14
We’ll see how it works, thanks for the recipe Marie!
Hi Marie,
I love your blog and have made quite a few of your recipes, they’ve always been lovely!
I was looking to make some dishwashing liquid/detergent for my mother when I found this recipe. The paste nature of it intrigues me, but I had a couple of questions about it if you don’t mind me asking:
What’s it like on the hands? My mother has sensitive skin, she has a hard time finding dish soap that doesn’t irritate or dry out her skin.
Can I add essential oils to the paste? My mother is partial to basil and rosemary scents, and not a big fan of lemon. Is the d-limonene essential or can it be replaced with a non-scented alternative?
Thank you!
It’s not going to be super easy on the hands, but it also doesn’t really come into contact with the hands much—it’ll always be on a sponge. I don’t fill up a sink and add this—that wouldn’t work particularly well since it’s solid—I wipe/scrub down things with a sponge that has a bit of this on it. Rubber gloves are also always an option!
Don’t swap out the d-limonene. You could add some EOs, but make sure they work well with lemon (basil & rosemary both do!).
Hello Marie,
I just received my goodies to make this. Just rising my fingers after patting it into the Yellow Bee container, was enough suds to do all of my lunch dishes! BTW paying the $30.00 shipping to get the containers was well worth it! They are the bomb. So sturdy and nice. My question to you is; I purchased the SCS as noodles (it was the only way it came) can I grind them into a powder so they melt faster? It took forever for them to melt and perhaps dried out my product a little, making it harder to stir in the Liquid Germall Plus and put onto the container.
Yay! I am loving hearing about people’s first experience with how dang potent this stuff is after they make it 😀 And I’m so glad you’re loving the YellowBee containers! They are oh-so-lovey 🙂
You definitely can grind up the SCS noodles, just be sure to wear a really good dust mask and do it somewhere with great ventilation! Floaty bits of surfactant powder are unbelievably unpleasant to inhale… just…. ackk. The mere idea of it makes me wince and gag 😛
Sorry just rinsing my fingers. Darn autocorrect. Love all your stuff and have made lots of lotions too. Keep them coming. You are a genius!
WOW! This stuff is amazing! My dishes are sparkling. My glass measuring dishes I use to make my DIY products have never looked so clean. Thank you sooo much for sharing this one with us Marie! And thanks to Carol for the suggestion on grinding the sodium coco sulfate noodles into a powder. And Marie’s warning on wearing a good dust mask when doing this is a must. Who knew we could get so excited about cleaning dishes! 🙂
YAY! I am so thrilled 😀 We have another dishwashing paste convert, wheee!!! I totally agree—I can’t believe how effective this stuff is, and how it makes dishwashing SO much more enjoyable. Grease, you don’t stand a chance 😛
I know this is an oldie but finally got around to making it. I watched the video and thought Marie is getting a little excited about dishwashing paste. And then I made it and um… I am a little excited too! So good!
Yay! Welcome to the “excited about dishwashing paste” club hahahaha
I’ve made a couple batches of this and absolutely LOVE it. So much grease cutting power! Thank you so much for sharing it.
Leslie
YAY! I am so dang glad 😀 Thanks so much for DIYing with me!
Hi Marie,
I’ve been travelling in Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica for the last 5 months and have been very impressed with Axion particularly as you can wash dishes perfectly in cold water and to me that’s the greatest benefit. I trawled Amazon and eBay UK sites and it’s not available, it doesn’t seemed to be available in the UK. Why is that? I’m going to have a go at making your paste. Should I be able to get everything I need in the UK?
I’m afraid I’m far from an expert on ingredient availability in the UK, so you’ll have to suss that out on your own. I suspect it’s not available across the pond because it would have to be imported by smaller companies at a higher per-unit cost, and perhaps the demand is not there? Even here I can only get it from a single South American specialty grocery store.
Hi Marie,
Because I live in Australia it’s pretty hard to find bioterge AS40, or another liquid anionic, is there any way to make this paste and not use it? Even if it doesn’t have as much cleaning power? Also, is SLES the same as SLS? Because I found SLES on new directions but not SLS, thank you,
A liquid non-ionic (look for a glucoside, like coco glucoside) would be the next best choice—hopefully you can find one of those. SLeS is not the same thing as SLS; it’s powdered and anionic, which is good, but more gentle. It’ll work, but with multiple substitutions for ingredients that form a pretty large percentage of the recipe and are responsible for a lot of the function I’m not sure how effective it’ll be. It’s still very concentrated, so it should be fine.
I live in Australia. I made the paste last weekend. I substituted Solubiser Poly 20 for the Bioterge AS40. Not sure if it was a good substitute, but all my googling efforts identified it is similar ‘surfactant’ (and the dish paste came out great – it literally strips off oil from the fry pan – so it must be ok). I had to source all the ingredients from 3 different suppliers in Australia – now taking up a lot of space in one of my cupboards – but I’ll never use dishwash liquid again so the cost I think was worth it.
Thanks so much, Margaret!
Hi Marie, I just made this and wow what a powerful detergent this is! I am so grateful to you. I had such a hard time washing plastic containers with castile soap DYI detergent, but this one is so much better than store bought one. Of course castile soap was much gentler on my fingers but your dish paste is gentler than store bought ones! I was wondering if I can mix in some good oil like camellia oil. Would it be nourishing for fingers and protect from surfactants? And if I add in water and polysorbate to it, do you think I can make it as liquid detergent? I’m not sure if polysorbate is good for dish washing though. Sorry still new to this so I would like your expertise!
Please don’t add any oils—you’ll just make a less effective detergent. Oils don’t offer protection to the skin, they just make the detergent worse at its job, basically, which sort of has the same effect, but that isn’t really desirable here. You’re basically giving the detergent something within itself it has to clean (the oil) in addition to whatever you’re trying to clean.
A liquid detergents would require some different formulating and thinking—you don’t want to just water things down, and polysorbate would most likely be completely unnecessary. It’s All in My Hands has a great guide here! This guide also has some information on making surfactant blends milder without the addition of extra oils.
I went in to Unimarket today and they didn’t have any dishwashing paste! I wanted to see if I’d like using it before I made my own. I was disappointed, but then I quickly changed my plan and headed over to Soap and More for the d-limonene and I’m just going to give it a go!
Thank you again for your inspiring blog!
Aww, no! I think I got mine most recently at the location up on Edmonton Trail around 23rd Ave, so perhaps pop in if you’re ever in the area? In the meantime I hope you love my version!
Finally got around to making this today. Cleaned up with it and in spite of having read that a little goes a lloooonnnnnggggg way, I was still amazed by how bubbly the dish cloth was when I finished (the paste-making containers plus a few extra dishes I found sitting around). Whoopee! I see some fun Christmas gifts this year. Thank you for this!
YAY! I’m very happy to have another convert on the concentrated dishwashing paste train 🙂 Toot toot, bubbles ahead 😛 Thanks for DIYing with me!
I was looking at the other comments and I had a couple for myself. Unfortunately the two suppliers I have access to in Calgary don’t seem to have SCS or SLS available right now and I wanted to try it out. Would using Slsa break it or just be less good?
And my second question is with the baking soda acting as an abrasive, would it wear down/scratch ceramic or non stick pans?
Thanks for your recipes. Made soap for years but just getting into the other stuff now.
Windy Point has SCS back in stock! SLSa likely wouldn’t break it, but SCS is better 🙂
I haven’t had any issues with the baking soda; you need so little paste that your pans don’t get a ton of exposure to it. The surfactants do the vast majority of the cleaning.
Love this stuff, thank you so much, but may I ask why it’s called “lemon”….? It sure smells like a world full of oranges to me.
It smells like lemons to me—it could be the lemons and oranges we’ve met in our lives (or our d-limonenes) smell different enough to trigger different memories/associations 🙂
Hey Marie,
I still haven’t made this but am definitely going to. A question: the Cocamidopropyl Betaine I can easily get has WAS of 30% is that enough or do I absolutely need the one with 38%? Ta very much luv…..
All the Cocamidopropyl Betaine I’ve ever found is 30%, including the stuff I used in this recipe. I’m not sure where the 38% is coming from as your comment is the only time that number appears on this page?
Oh beg your pardon, my fault, I expressed myself rather badly. When you first posted this I asked a supplier here in Germany who actually carried two strengths: 30% and 38% the latter they recommended for this recipe. That’s where the number came from. However, it is no longer available from that supplier, thus my confusion/question. I should have asked you first and not the supplier. Thanks for answering and apologies for any confusion I may have caused.
Ah, that clears it up! Thanks for clarifying 🙂
In Central America, you can hardly find liquid soap. At first, I had no clue what the paste was next to the kitchen sink, but soon figured out I was dish soap in a paste form!
They are definitely doing dish detergent right in that part of the world! I don’t know why it isn’t more common ’cause it is amazeballs.
I LOVE this recipe so freaking much! I was wondering if there was a way to make it more solid so that it can be formed into a solid block of detergent. I’m attempting to limit my need to have plastic packaging for it. I was using a 100% coconut oil soap block that I made, before I found this paste, but I wish I could make this paste in a block form for when I give it out as gifts and such.
Thank you so much for all of your hard work! You are the one who inspired me to start making my own cosmetics!
HOORAY! Stay tuned, I have a solid one coming out soon ❤️ Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
Thank you, I’d love to try this out. Do you have any information on how it would affect septic tanks, or where I could look that up? Thank you!
I’m afraid I don’t, though I assume it would be fine given there’s nothing in here that one wouldn’t find in traditional dish detergents. Unless you cannot use store-bought detergents with your septic tank, that is!
Hi Marie! I’m so excited to try this! I made an error in ordering and got Bioterge AS90 (powder) instead of AS40 (liquid). Is there any way for me to use the powder in this formulation?
Hmm. I suppose it’s worth trying to make your own solution with the powder. The ASM for the liquid is 39% while the powder is 88%, so to turn that 88% into a solution with a 39% ASM… *spreadsheeting* you’d need to make a ~44.5% solution of the powdered surfactant to create a solution with approximately the same ASM. Let me know how it goes and good luck!
I did an active matter calculation and subbed it in and it worked out well. The only thing is that the AS90 product hasn’t gone through the same rigors as the AS40. Thanks for replying. And I really do love using this dish soap!
Fantastic, I’m so thrilled to hear it! Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
I needed some of this and have all the ingredients on hand! We switched to handwashing recently and I can’t wait to try this. Thanks so much Marie! 🙂 Jen
Woohoo! I hope you love it 🙂 I am still so thrilled with this stuff—it kicks greasy butt and makes hand washing fun… well, maybe not fun, but better!
Do you think this could be made into a bar form to wrap up and take camping? What could you add to it to solidify it.
Check out my friend Ariane’s recipe that is designed to be solid 🙂
Also I want to add some essential oil like rosemary and cedarwood to this to give it a earthy scent. Just don’t know how much to add and if I decide to scale it how do I weigh the drops?
I honestly wouldn’t bother—the scent of the lemon doesn’t last long with constant use and exposure to air, and there’s a lot of d-limonene in here (it also contributes to cleaning, so not smelling it isn’t a huge loss). The amount of essential oils you’d need to use to a) notice the scent and b) have it last would cost enough to be something I wouldn’t do for a dish soap.
If you must, you could include them at up to 1%, removing that 1% from the d-limonene, but I suspect you will not notice the scent for more than a day or two.
Happy making!
Made this today as I just happened to have all the ingredients. I did make on slight substitution. Instead of baking soda, I used washing soda. We love it! I showed my husband how to use it and even he was impressed. Thank you so much for the recipe. I’ll definitely be making this again.
Good morning Evelyn!
Oh that sounds like a neat sub! Nice one!
Hi Marie, I have made this a couple of times. It’s amazing my next batch I am lacking d-limonene, but I have what’s called Citrasolv (ingredients: limonene (the clear liquid from the peel of the orange, food grade( (C10-16 Pareth-1 (plant drive surfactant ) Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (orange Peel Oil. All of this from the bottle, would you say this is the same thing???
Hey! It’s not the same thing, but it sounds like it is primarily limonene, and since the rest of it is another surfactant and orange essential oil I’d give it a try 🙂 I bet it’ll work just fine!
Hi Marie, I can’t wait to give this recipe a go – I’ve been obsessing about it since I spotted it!
I’m having a hard time finding D-limonene in small quantities in the UK and noticed my sweet orange EO has 95% D-limonene in it, can I use that instead? 14% seems like a lot for an EO though so I’m guessing no, but before I make it without the D-limonene, I though I’d ask… Thanks, Nic
Hey Nic! This is a really good question and I’m not sure I have a great answer for you. My conclusions would be the same as yours—yup, nearly entirely made of the thing we want, but yup, that’s a lot of essential oil! Tisserand doesn’t list a maximum usage level in Essential Oil Safety, and given this is not for application to the skin, but rather dishes, I’m not sure how relevant it would be if he did. I’d probably dial it back to 5% & make up the other 9% with more Cocamidopropyl Betaine and see how that works. Happy making!
This looks awesome! I use 100% coconut CP soap as my dish soap which works well but I’d love to try a surfactant version.
However, the chemicals I have access to is limited so can I use SLS and SLES as the two anionic surfactant instead? I have the rest of the ingredients and want to use up the bag of SLS I already have.
Yup, those should work! The SLS will likely be even more effective than the Sodium Coco Sulfate (SCS) 🙂 Happy making!
Hi Marie. I finally got all the ingredients to make this and let me tell you something, I FREAKING LOVE this !!! It works so well. I can’t wait to gift some to my mom and my kids. Thank you so much!!!
YAY!!! I am SO dang thrilled to hear it 😀 I still use this stuff all the time ’cause it kicks greasy dishes BUTT haha. Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
OK Marie, read the whole post & blog through and did not find this question. What if I wanted to turn this into a liquid dishwashing fluid (not detergent for the dishwasher, just liquid or the sink). Could I just add water until it’s the desired consistency? What do you think?
You can certainly try it, but I suspect you will encounter some settling out issues with the baking soda and some splitting issues with the d-limonene. With solid things like this we don’t have to worry about those things, but they come out for liquid products 🙂
Hi Marie, this recipe sounds amazing, I’m all for less waste and unnecessary packaging. I have heard that SLS is particularly harmful to aquatic life when washed down the drain. Do you know if the alternatives you’ve mentioned (including in the original recipe) are any better on this front? I would love to try it otherwise!
Hello! I love this recipe and really appreciate you sharing it here. I bought sodium coco-sulfate from the website and, surprisingly, it came in noodle-form! When I go back to the website from the link you connected, it looks like this company only has the noodle-form available. Can the noodle-form be used? If so, how…in what form?
Yes, I used noodle form as well. You can see ’em in the progress photos!
Hi Marie
I’m keen to make a liquid dishwashing detergent. I’ve played around a bit with cocobetaine, cocoglucoside and glycerine. I’m finding it difficult to thicken.
I’m in Australia. I’ve tried Sepamax, but I find it hard to incorporate.
Have you ever made a liquid?
I’ve never made liquid dishwashing detergent, but the general principle isn’t all that different from other liquid syndet products, and I’ve made a lot of those 🙂 Check out my handwash, shampoo, and body wash formulations for some examples. Happy making!
MISS DOYLES has an awesome dishwashing recipe. You should check it out.
I just made this and yes, the hype is real! I was so pleased with how well a tiny bit on a dishrag cleaned my pile of dishes. I love the scent. It’s perfect for washing a few items without filling up the whole sink, which is my perferred method.
I discovered a 100g batch fits PERFECTLY in an old Altoids “Citrus Sours” 50g tin which I’d been holding on to for ages, looking for the perfect use. It’s been the highlight of my week, thanks so much Marie!
Hi Marie
I made this and love it, thank you. As promised It’s so much more affective than the green coloured water I was buying.
For the Bioterge I subbed SLSa (Europe) which has higher Actives but lower PH, so two powders and one liquid Surfactant. The mixture was quite thick.
Unfortunately I didn’t lower the % of SLSa to 8.5% to obtain the correct amount of actives in the formula and ended up with a PH of 8.6. (10% Solution with Extec PH meter) What is the PH of the original recipe? Should I be concerned as Liquid Germall Plus is only effective till about PH8? What’s the best way to lower this formulas PH without affecting it’s efficacy?
I’m also not sure what ingredient I would have added to make up the remaining 5.5 % to equal the original 14% Bioterge. What would you suggest, more CAPB Betaine?
I have learnt so much from you in the last week. Watching your videos, reading your Substitute Notes and your answers to questions has made me re-evaluate the way I’m analysing formulations. I feel I’m no longer going down the Rabbit Hole Maze…. as much as I used to. 🙂
I am finally getting around to exploring some of the “house and home” formulations and have just made this one. . I love it so much, I don’t even know if I want to try the solid dishwashing brick! I don’t use a dishwasher, and I go through buckets of Dawn liquid soap a month. I’m used to having to soak dishes for a while. I just made a cheesy, gooey, greasy dish last night and this was amazed balls! Actually, you are right, it is Incredi-balls! I have some little plastic containers of it that I am gifting with a sponge and directions to family and friends to share the love. Because nothing says love like washing dishes . Not sure it will be as appreciated as the lotion but we will see. I haven’t tried it on other surfaces yet but I can see it becoming a very handy kitchen sink, tub and bathroom sink cleaner! Thank you for sharing this!
Does anyone know if this formulation is safe for septic systems? Thank you so much!! 🙂
My parents have a septic field and they use this with no issues 🙂
I’ve been wanting to try this for ages but I can’t seem to get SCS where I live. Based on other comments I’ve read I think I’m just going to try it with SCI or will SLSa be better if I can get that?
I’d probably choose Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate (SLSa) 🙂
Would it be possible to replace Cocamidopropyl Betaine for Cocamidopropyl Betaine and MIPA-laureth Sulfate (Zetesol 856 T)? Because that is what I have. Thank you.
That should work 🙂 Happy making!
Is it possible to add food colouring to make it look a little prettier?