I’m a bit hooked on making hand washes these days. They’re fun and easy, and something I’ll likely end up using 10–20 times (or more!) in a day, depending on what that day looks like. So, unlike something like lip balm or lotion, which tends to take a while to use up, I feel like I absolutely torch through hand wash. Some people would consider that a problem, but I’m just stoked that I get to make more things! This Vanilla Spice Hand Wash is all kinds of lovely, with creamy, fluffy bubbles, and makes all the hand washing I do a pleasure. Plus, who doesn’t need hand wash? It’s an awesome homemade version of something that’s usually purchased at a store, making it a great gift!
This hand wash is based off of one I made this summer, when I first brought home a shiny new bag of sodium coco sulfate. In order to acquaint myself with it I dissolved/melted it into a bunch of different liquid surfactants in different ratios to create a bunch of different surfactant pastes, and then dissolved those sudsy blobs into water and created a bunch of different hand/body washes, making for very fun showers for the next few weeks as I tested everything. This hand wash is based off of one of those experiments, combining sodium coco sulfate with Cocamidopropyl Betaine to create a fluffy and bubbly surfactant blend that we’ll transform into a Vanilla Spice Hand wash.
For the essential oil blend you’ll notice we’re using vanilla oleoresin instead of benzoin, and that’s because vanilla oleoresin is water soluble, so it works really well here! It’s also because benzoin resinoid is really, really viscous, and I was concerned about it incorporating evenly. To spice up the vanilla I’ve added a touch of cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg essential oils—yum!
One of the things I was really excited about this summer was thickening with salt, so we’re doing that here. It works like a charm and doesn’t require anything special, which has to be my favourite combination (cheap + easy + effective, basically haha). The final product has a lovely consistency, too—silky and a touch gel-like without being wobbly (and it’s definitely not slimy!).
The final hand wash is almost too lovely to give away—fragrant with light spice notes, lovely lather, and silky smooth. It’s wonderful and you should definitely make some 🙂
pH test #1
pH test #2 after adjusting with citric acid.
Vanilla Spice Hand Wash
12.5g | 0.44oz Sodium Coco Sulfate (SCS) (USA / Canada)
20g | 0.71oz Cocamidopropyl Betaine (USA / Canada)205g | 7.23oz distilled water
10g | 0.35oz vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada)1:1 citric acid solution, as needed
1.25g | 0.44oz Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada) (or other broad spectrum preservative of choice at recommended usage rate [why?])
10 drops vanilla oleoresin
4 drops cinnamon bark essential oil
2 drops clove bud essential oil
2 drops nutmeg essential oil
2020 update: Given the irritation potential for this essential oil blend, I’d recommend using a vanilla spice fragrance oil rather than the essential oil blend. Please refer to supplier documentation for maximum usage rates for the particular fragrance oil you’re using when used in rinse-off products; 0.1–0.2% should be more than enough to adequately scent the product.
Salt (NaCl), as needed
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 small heat-resistant glass measuring cup you’ll be using and note that weight.
Weigh the surfactants (the SCS and the Cocamidopropyl Betaine) into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Place the measuring cup in your prepared water bath to melt everything through; this will take 15–20 minutes, and stirring it will definitely speed things along.
Once you have a uniform, smooth surfactant paste, add the water and vegetable glycerin, gently mashing the paste with a flexible silicone spatula or fork to help break it down a bit. Leave that in the water bath to dissolve, checking occasionally to ensure the water bath does not simmer dry. You can help this part along by gently mashing the paste to help it break down, or you can leave it to do its thing while you do other things; either way, it’ll take at least 40 minutes. I’ve tried it both ways, and I think I prefer just leaving it alone and getting some chores done rather than hovering and mashing.
While the paste is dissolving, do a quick bit of addition to figure out how much your concoction should weigh when you remove it from the heat. In grams, that’ll be the weight of your measuring cup (as noted earlier), plus 247.5. Note that number, we’ll be using it in the next step.
When the mixture is uniform and there are no surfactant blobs left, remove the measuring cup from the water bath. Weigh the entire thing; thanks to evaporation there will be a discrepancy between the number from the previous step and the number on the scale—add some more distilled water to make up the difference, and then leave the mixture to cool.
While it’s cooling, we’re going to get set up to adjust the pH. Be sure to read this great article on the importance of diluting solutions when pH testing them—we’re doing that here! Prepare at least two small bowls by weighing 4.5g of distilled water into them (you’re going to want a scale that’s accurate to 0.01g for this). To make your citric acid solution, weigh 5g of citric acid into a small beaker and add 5g of distilled water. Stir to combine; you’ll probably a couple quick microwave bursts are required to get the citric acid to dissolve as this is a pretty concentrated solution.
To test the pH, add 0.5g of the hand wash to one of the bowls containing 4.5g of water to create a 10% dilution, and pH check that. It should be around 7/8. That is the point you are adjusting form. To the parent batch I added 0.3g of the citric acid solution, stirred, and re-tested in another bowl with 4.5g water and 0.5g hand wash; that was about 5.5, which is about what we want!
Cover the measuring cup with some cling film, and leave it to cool completely. Now it’s time to add your preservative and essential oils, stirring to combine. The mixture will become a bit cloudy as the essential oils solubilize. Our last step is thickening, which we’ll be doing with salt! Add 0.5g of salt at a time, stirring between additions until the salt is completely dissolved, until you’re happy with the viscosity of the hand wash; I added 1.5g total (~0.6%).
Decant into a 250mL bottle with a pump top (I used this one paired with this top from YellowBee; Ivan gifted both to me and they make a lovely pair, though perhaps a touch tall for use next to the sink) and enjoy!
Notes & Substitutions
- You can use Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate (SCI) instead of SCS, though this will result in a slightly different end product
- You don’t have to adjust the pH if you can’t be fussed; read this for information on why I pH adjust
- You can thicken with Crothix instead if you want; follow the same method
I can use different essential oil will that make the process different. Not sure what is SCI?
You can use different EOs, and here is a link to more information on SCI. You can also google ingredients, there’s lots of info out there 🙂
can this be used in a foaming pump bottle? If not how can I modify the recipe? Thanks
Just drop the salt thickening part 🙂
Awesome! Especially the link to ph (baking soda article). I recently started making liquid soap and am told that the ph should be 9.5 or higher so as not to have to use a preservative. Seems like I would much rather have a perservative in my soap than sloshing on mantle destroying soap all day ( I wash my hands ALOT). Thanks for the clarification. Love your blog! ( and your )! ❤️
The rather unfortunate thing about soap is that it MUST be basic; if you add enough acid to soap to make it acidic, it will de-saponify. That’s just how soap works; it cannot be acidic, and if you try to force it to be, it will cease to be soap. If you want something acidic that also lathers, it’ll have to be surfactant based. Thanks for reading and happy making!
Hi Marie – Thanks for the recipe. I read this and then re-read it again and I think you are missing a step where you actually put citric acid in the main beaker that contains the hand wash. I see where you tested the 10% solution in the small bowls, but no step later to figure out what amount of the citric acid solution goes in the main product. What am I missing?
Thanks.
It’s the 7th paragraph of the instructions 🙂
“To test the pH, add 0.5g of the hand wash to one of the bowls containing 4.5g of water to create a 10% dilution, and pH check that. It should be around 7/8. To that I added 0.3g of the citric acid solution, stirred, and re-tested; that was about 5.5, which is about what we want!”
So does this mean you simply pour the pH-tested portion back into the rest of the hand wash and the pH will be correct? As your article stands, the correct pH is in the separate beaker and not in the hand wash in the glass measuring cup. Just asking for some clarification in this. Thank you.
Think about it as if you were tasting a soup you were cooking—the testing beakers are your mouth 😛 You wouldn’t add salt to a teensy spoonful of something and then taste it, you’d add it to the pot and then re-taste from the pot 🙂 The wording was definitely a bit unclear, hopefully that analogy clears it up a bit!
I had the same question. I read and reread the paragraph that was quoted but am still a bit unclear. Are you adding 0.3g of citric acid solution to your undiluted solution, stirring that and then removing 0.5g, diluting and retesting? It’s just not clear to me where the 0.3g is being added. It says “to that I added 0.3g” which makes it sound like you are adding the citric acid to the diluted pH test but no extrapolation as to how much to add to the undiluted final product. Thanks so much for clarifying!
I’ve adjusted the wording 🙂 It’s helpful to think of it as if you were tasting a soup for salt; you’d add the salt to the master batch of soup, and then taste a wee bit of it, adjust the master batch, etc—you wouldn’t salt the small amount on the spoon before tasting it 🙂 Hope that helps!
Hi Marie.Love you blog. Have you ever used lauril glucoside and decil glucoside to do this kind of product?
I’ve got some lauryl glucoside that I’ve played with a bit, though I haven’t shared anything with it 🙂 Thanks for reading!
Hi Marie,can it be used as a showergel? I have just made the calculation and it would be a very cheap shower gel with all the ingrediants listed as “green”. If I buy a “green” shower gel at a shop that will cost a lot more.
Definitely! Enjoy 🙂
Is Coco Glucose interchangeable with Sodium Coco-Sulfate?
Did autocorrect change that from coco glucoside? ‘Cause coco glucose would be coconut sugar lol. If so, well… kind of. Kind of like how cumin and cinnamon aren’t great alternatives for one another, but in some dishes it can work. They are not great alternatives for one another, but they are both still surfactants, and in a liquid hand wash you are likely to still get good results. Just keep in mind that they have different states, charges, and active surfactant matter, and those are all factors—I’d recommend reading this for more info 🙂
“You don’t have to adjust the pH if you can’t be fussed”
Whew! I can’t be fussed. At least not until I buy pH strips.
I’m giving up trying to force my husband to use the bar of soap next to the kitchen sink. He reaches for the dishsoap dispenser every time, even right under my nose as I’m pointing to the bar soap. I’m tired of that daily spat, I’m waving the white flag.
Think this will be my Friday project.
He loves the homemade soap, don’t misunderstand. But prefers a quick swoosh of soap at the sink when he comes in. Wish he’d use the bathroom sink and leave my kitchen sink sanitary. But that’s another spat for another day.
😛 I look forward to hearing what you (and your husband) think!
Hi Marie, yet another exciting project to do that seems simple and wonderful. Just a quick question, can Sodium Coco Sulfate be replaced with Sodium Sulphate? I do not seem to find the Coco one easily in the UK.
No—sodium sulphate has about as much in common with sodium coco sulfate as table salt does. Sorry! The middle word is the bit that distinguishes it as a surfactant, so something like “sodium lauryl sulfate” would work, but sodium sulfate is mostly used as a filler ingredient and used in the manufacture of wood pulp. It’s not a surfactant at all 🙂
Thank you for all the recipes you share. If i wanted to thicken this with Xanthan Gum. When would i add it please.
Please don’t thicken it with xanthan gum—it gives the final product the consistency of snot and it’s pretty unappealing. I’d stick with salt, it’s common enough!
Hi Marie
I made your soap with SLSa instead of SCS. It cleans well, but without many bubbles.
I think I will try with SCS once I get something.
Question: Can I add a little more skin-friendly items, such as vitamin B5, colloidal oatmeal and allantoin? Without the washing ability is lost? My skin is sensitive and needs protection.
Thank you for your always exciting recipes and writings.
You definitely can! Simply remove the percentages from the water part 🙂 You might also consider reducing the overall surfactant concentration to make for a more delicate product; that will do a lot more for your hands than adding skin-friendly things as those things are just getting washed right off.
Hi Marie! Love you, love your hair! So I made this recipe last night. I think I added way too much salt (being too lazy to check back at the correct amount.) Later I read your link about adding salt for thickening, and it said too much could make it watery again! Who knew?! So tonight I made your Pumpkin Spice Foaming Hand Wash for grins and I noticed there that you had your ratio of citric acid to water 1:2, whereas here you have it 1:1. I still followed the 1:2 direction and adjusted the Ph without issue however, I’m wanting to add salt because I don’t have a foaming pump bottle! But I’m scared to add too much.. or would the recipe not work well thickened? Any advice? Thanks for adding so much fun to my life! I’m such a fan.
Ah yes, the ol’ salt curve and its finicky ways LOL. Make sure you’re starting quite slow, measure everything, be patient between additions, and throw on the brakes when you start to approach 2% salt. Failing that, crothix is pretty much foolproof as a thickener and it creates lovely products! I don’t think you’d enjoy using the hand wash without thickening—it’d be super thin and drooly :/
Thanks Marie! I appreciate you taking the time to help! xo
No worries, happy making!
Do you have to retest the pH and adjust the amount of citric acid each time you make it, or just the first time and then add that amount to each subsequent batch?
Assuming nothing changes you should be good to simply replicate it 🙂
If I used SCI instead of SCS, will my pH be still off or will it be in appropriate given the two have different phs?
It will be different; you’ll have to check and adjust if required.