Make your own shower gel: this is how it works

With inflation, the prices of cosmetics also increase. Is the breakthrough for self-made shower gel and co. coming now? Here’s how you can try it yourself.

Shower gel from the drugstore or the supermarket is often expensive or contains ingredients that are not ecological or even healthy. If you switch to homemade products, it can sometimes be cheaper. Above all, you know exactly what your shower gel contains. With these instructions you will succeed in making your own liquid soap.

To make shower gel yourself, you will need a few ingredients and utensils:

• a liquid surfactant suitable for cosmetics, preferably plant-based
• table salt
• Fragrance of your choice such as essential oil
• Food coloring of your choice
• lukewarm water

• measuring cup
• teaspoon
• digital kitchen scale
• bottle for filling
• funnel
• Label and pen for writing

1. For the shower gel, you should first measure out 23 grams of surfactant and 25 milliliters of water and mix both together. Then add three to four teaspoons of table salt and stir the mixture until a gel forms.

2. If the shower gel is still too runny, you can add a little more salt. Then add three drops of fragrance and a few drops of food coloring until the shower gel has a nice color and a good smell.

3. Finally, fill the finished shower gel into the bottle and label it waterproof: Your shower gel is ready.

You will get a different shower gel if you use soap flakes and starch.

• Soap flakes, preferably made from olive oil and without palm oil
• Water
• locust bean gum or cornstarch
• olive oil
• Herbs, honey or essential oils for the fragrance

1. For this shower gel, first put about 400 milliliters of water with 40 grams of soap flakes in a saucepan and heat the mixture. Stir the soap well with a whisk until no more pieces of soap can be seen.

2. Then add a dash of olive oil and, depending on the consistency you want, a small amount of cornstarch or locust bean gum.

3. Finally, you can add essential oils or other fragrances. Lavender oil, for example, is said to have an anti-inflammatory and calming effect, while honey is said to have an antibacterial effect.

The instructions for making shower gel initially sound very simple, but is the body soap really cheaper than from the supermarket?

There are around 1,000 milliliters of liquid surfactant in very different price categories from around ten to 100 euros. You can use this to produce the equivalent of almost 2.2 liters of shower gel yourself. Of course, there are also costs for food coloring (about ten euros for a set that is sufficient for countless soaps) and essential oils (about 15 euros for a set for several soap types).

After all, you spent around 55 euros for around 2.2 liters of shower gel according to the first recipe with a surfactant for around 30 euros/kg. For a conventional shower gel size of 250 milliliters, you pay around 6.25 euros. In the supermarket or in the drugstore there is already a shower gel for one to two euros per 250 milliliters. However, you can use both food coloring and essential oil for more soap in this case, so that these costs do not have to be repeated the next time.

Soap flakes are even cheaper and more shower gel can be made from them: a kilogram of soap flakes costs between five and 40 euros, depending on the price category. Around 12.5 liters of soap can be made from one kilogram. In this case, there are also essential oils (15 euros for a set) and olive oil (about six euros per liter) as well as cornstarch (about one euro per 400 grams).

For 12.5 liters of soap, according to the second recipe, you pay a total of around 42 euros for soap flakes for around 20 euros. If that is also calculated back down to the price for a 250 milliliter pack, the result is a price of only around 84 cents. The second recipe is therefore significantly cheaper than a shower gel from the supermarket – and here, too, you can continue to use essential oils and olive oil after making them.