Dishwashing soap

Dishwashing soap is designed for handwashing dishes. Its main component is coconut oil, which makes a hard and bubbly soap that cleans well. An important addition to dishwashing soap is citric acid which helps to reduce soap scum. Dishwashing soap has very little unsaponified oils, because its main task is washing, not moisturizing.

You can pour dishwashing soap directly into a ceramic bowl or into portion molds. A large soap log is difficult to cut because soap ill is crumbly and hard.

Ingredients for soap

190 g water

96 g lye

10 g citric acid

 400 g coconut oil

Tools

• rubber gloves
• safety glasses
• respirator
• electronic scale
• stick blender
• approx. 500 ml container for mixing lye solution (stainless steel, glass or heat-resistant plastic)
• 200-300 ml container for weighing lye
• Teflon or steel spoons for mixing
• a glass bowl or a heat-resistant plastic bowl for melting coconut oil and mixing soap batter
• soap molds or ceramic bowls 

Time needed

0.5-1 hour + 3-4 weeks for curing

Difficulty level

Medium

Quantity

4 large soaps (approx. 200 g/soap)

How to make your soap

SAFETY MEASURES! Use rubber gloves throughout soap making. I recommend using a respirator and safety glasses while preparing the lye solution. 

1. Weigh water into a container, and dissolve citric acid in it. Once the citric acid has dissolved, slowly stir the lye into the water, stirring the mixture with a spoon. NB! ALWAYS POUR LYE INTO WATER; NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND! Stir until the lye is dissolved. During this process, heat is released and the bowl becomes hot! Leave the mixture to cool.
2. Heat the coconut oil in a large bowl until it melts. The temperature of the lyes solution and coconut oil should be 30-50 degrees at the time of mixing. If the ingredients are too hot, let them cool down a bit.
3. Carefully pour the lye solution into the coconut oil. Mix the batter with a stick blender until it is the thickness of a pancake batter, and leaves a trace on the surface of the batter when the blender is lifted.

6. Pour the soap batter into portion molds or bowls. Before use, the soaps should cure for at least three weeks.

How to use

Rub the soap with a damp sponge or brush until the lather is formed. Wash and rinse the dishes as usual. If there is a lot of water left in the soap bowl after washing, pour it away so that the soap can dry in-between washes and does not become mushy.

Tips and Tricks!

I did not use any fragrance in this recipe. If you still want to scent the soap, I recommend using citrus essential oils, which are also used in cleaning products because of their disinfecting properties. It is better not to use fragrance oils here. Also, do not color this soap.

If you want to change the recipe, please note that citric acid must also be taken into account when calculating the amount of lye because citric acid reacts with it.