Castile Soap Recipes for the Body

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Frugal might be my second favorite F-word. As a teacher, I just don’t have money to waste. In trying to be frugal I have been researching different at home products to make. One product kept coming up, Castile Soap. Different sites claimed all the miracle uses for it, so of course I had to try.  Now, I definitely did not try everything (I drew the line at replacing my tooth paste). I will have a post about it as a household cleaner, but I started with using it on my body. Below are the links to the items I used in for making the foot scrub.

Castile and Sugar Scrub – I already love using sugar scrubs so this seemed like an obvious item for me to try. One major issue I have had with many sugar scrub recipes is that they became too oily or the sugar dissolved in the wet products. So like most things I do, I made it my way. I haven’t tested the shelf life of the recipe as it didn’t last that long at the house.

1 cup Turbinado Cane Sugar

1 tablespoon Castile Soap

1 – 2  tablespoon Coconut oil

6 Drops Green Tea and Cucumber oil (probably don’t need this much, but I don’t like the smell of coconut oi)

For the Body – Literally don’t need to do a thing for it to be a body or face wash. However, I had the unscented Castile soap so I felt a little let down. I love smell good soaps. I ended up taking 1 tablespoon of the soap and added 1 drop of Eucalyptus Mint essential oils just so I could have a little scent. It lathers up really well so it also worked as a shaving cream.  I did try it on my face but didn’t do it a second time. My face is used to the routine I have so my skin didn’t like a switch (since I don’t have acne or other skin concerns, I don’t want to risk a break out because of trying something new; maybe when I run out of my current products I will try it again).

Shampoo – Same as the body, you don’t necessarily have to add anything to it. However, I felt as if my hair was stripped of all the natural oils out of my hair to the point of being too dry. If you have dry hair this might be the routine for you. I also felt like it didn’t lather as much as I would like (yea, I know the lather comes from the chemicals in traditional shampoos and if we are trying to go more organic around the house, I probably have to say good bye to all the suds).

Fun fact about my hair, I always thought I had straight hair because I brushed it straight every day. I am 32 and just realized that there is too much wave in my hair or it to really be considered straight so I started treating it as if it were curly hair. New shampoo, new products, and lo-and-behold, I have curly hair. No spiral curls, nut definitely beach wave curls. I have to have some moisture in my hair for the curls to stay. So I search around to see what to add to the Castile soap to make it shampoo. Every recipe I found said to use honey and coconut milk. Why these two products? Well, both are incredibly hydrating and promote healthy hair growth by strengthening your hair follicles. Coconut milk also balances the pH levels of your hair. The honey helps to also moisturize your scalp.  Here’s what I ended up with (I didn’t make a large amount because I wasn’t sure how it would go):

¼ cup coconut milk

¼ cup Castile soap

1 tablespoon honey

15 drops essential oil of choice (I used Green Tea and Cucumber so go along with my sugar scrub)

I did have some issues with the shampoo wanting to stick around and I felt like my rinse time was taking too long. So after I rinsed, I used a mixture of apple cider vinegar, water, and essential oils as a rinse aid. I kept this in a spray bottle for easy application.

Try any of these or your own recipe? Please comment and share!