One of my favorite homemade products that I use on a daily basis is homemade dish soap. But it’s also one of the hardest things that I’ve had to get used to on my all-natural path. It has only 3 ingredients, making it super easy to throw together, but as is the case with most natural soaps, it doesn’t suds up very well. And by very well, I mean at all. We have been conditioned to think that more suds means more clean, but that isn’t the case. More suds really just means more chemicals.
Two of the most potentially harmful ingredients in most dish soaps are Triclosan, which is a known hormone disrupter, and Quaternium-15, which releases formaldehyde. Hormone disrupters interfere with the body’s natural hormone messages by either blocking them or mimicking the hormones themselves. This can lead to a host of problems, including decreased sperm count and a higher occurrence of certain types of cancer. Yikes, right? So I really don’t mind fewer suds and an extra 5 minutes to make my own.
Here’s the simple recipe (from gerberadesigns.com):
2 cups Liquid Castile Soap
6 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp white vinegar
There are lots of different scents of liquid castile soap. I’ve used the citrus, lavender, and peppermint, but I have been using the almond scent lately because it smells like amaretto, and that makes me happy. But you could choose any scent that makes doing the dishes a little more pleasant.
Happy cleaning!
Full Of Graces 
Oh….I really like suds… 😦
And lemon.
I’ve been using Seventh Generation lately, but this post made me go look at the ingredients. I don’t like the sound of benzisothiazolinone(!)
or methylisothiazolinone. Hmm. The -sothiazolinone suffix must mean something. I’ll get back to you on this… 😉
The suds, the suds… I can’t do anything about the suds. But Dr. Bonners has a nice citrus scent. And check this out: http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ingredient.php?ingred06=716930 and this http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ingredient/703935/METHYLISOTHIAZOLINONE/
I use Seventh Generation in my dishwasher. I have not been able to come up with a homemade solution for that. I feel like SG is at least a little more responsible… 😄
Awesome.
Love your recipe….can’t wait to try it. Thank you for sharing this!
Let me know how it works for you!
I’d love to! I have to find Castile Soap first….do I try Whole Foods?
Possibly? I know that Clark’s Nutrition carries it, or Sprouts, or any other natural store. I usually get mine on Amazon.com. It’s hyperlinked in the post. 😄
Thanks so much! 🙂
Okay, I ran out of dish soap at the city house, so I tried this. First I compared it to a couple of others I’d saved. They were pretty much the same except the other one promised more suds 🙂
So I added a tablespoon of washing soda and used hot water.
Well then the soda fell to the bottom and it took a lot of stirring to mix it up. And there aren’t very many suds. I should have just tried your recipe first.
Anyway, this post was the inspiration. (And the fact that I already make laundry soap and your deodorant.) Dishwasher soap is next…
Thanks for the update. And if you find a dishwasher soap that works, let us know!