Homemade Dishwashing Liquid February 8, 2008

UPDATE: You will have to wait until I perfect this one — it’s not ready for prime time yet. I just tried to use it and it had clogged up the nozzle of the container.

I played around with making some homemade dishwashing liquid this morning and I have to say, it came out pretty good.

By the way, this is for hand washing dishes — not for the dishwasher!

Here’s the recipe I used (from this site):

Dishwashing Liquid
3 TBS organic liquid castile soap
2 cups warm water
2 TBS vegetable glycerine
2 TBS white vinegar or lemon juice
10 drops lemon essential oil

I modified the recipe because it didn’t work for me (too watery, not sudsy enough). Plus the Dr. Bronner’s castile soap I was using was already diluted with water (I think). Also, I only had a 16 ounce container, so I cut her recipe in half, then added stuff to it to make it work.

Here is what I did:

1. Reuse a plastic dishwashing liquid bottle (rinse it out). Mine is 16 ounces.

2. Fill halfway with warm water (about 1 cup).

3. Add 1.5 TBS castile soap (I used the unscented variety). This seemed like nothing to me so I added more. Again, my Dr. Bronner’s was already diluted. So I put in 5 TBS of the diluted stuff. You could probably just do 1-2 TBS if yours is not diluted.

4. Add 1 TBS glycerine (I got mine from Mountain Rose Herbs).

5. Add 1 TBS white vinegar. Seemed like not enough to me so I upped it to 2 TBS.

6. Add 10 drops of essential oil. I used some lemon and lime essential oils I had bought at Whole Foods.

7. Snap the cap shut and shake. It was very weak and diluted. I tried it on a sponge and it was not so great.

So I modified it by doing the following:

8. Add another 1-2 TBS of glycerin.

9. Add another 1-2 TBS of vinegar.

10. Add some aloe vera gel (I had this in the fridge and I noticed that my Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day dishwashing liquid has aloe vera gel in it) — maybe 3-4 TBS.

11. Add more diluted Dr. Bronner’s — maybe 4-5 more TBS.

12. Add about 20 more drops of essential oils. I have to say, compared to the essential oils from Mountain Rose Herbs, the ones I got at Whole Foods are ass. They barely smell like anything! The ones from Mountain Rose Herbs are so pungent that if you just open one, you can already smell it.

After I did all that, it worked great. Still watery but VERY sudsy. And the extra vinegar made my dishes sparkle and they squeaked when I rubbed them. I still wish it were a little more gel-like and less watery.

I then added a tiny bit (a couple TBS) of H202, or food-grade hydrogen peroxide. Not necessary I guess but that stuff is a really good all-natural anti-bacterial so it can’t hurt to add it if you’ve got some on hand.

Sorry for such a convoluted recipe. I will post a more succinct one soon — as I play with this some more. Also, next time I do it, I’ll keep track of the cost.