Gardener's Hand Scrub Soap Recipe (With Video Tutorial)
This gardener’s hand scrub soap recipe is simple and easy to make and will be your favorite soap to use when your hands get dirty working out in the garden. If you’re like me, I rarely wear gloves in the garden as I like to get my hands in the dirt. That means that after a spending the day weeding or pruning tomato vines that my dirty hands are nearly black. The best way to get them clean is to use this gardeners hand scrub soap which I have been making for many years now. If you happen to be a mechanic, it also works great on grease and grime. One of the best formulations my family has ever found for cleaning really dirty garden-stained hands (or feet).
Yield: 10 bars
Cost: 1
Equipment
- 1 Kitchen scale
- 2 Mixing bowls
- 2 Glass jars
- 1 Immersion blender
- Measuring spoons
- 1 Silicone soap mold
- Oven
Materials
- 4.6 oz Sodium hydroxide lye
- 12 oz Dandelion tea or water be sure it’s room temperature or colder before mixing with the lye
- 25 oz Beef tallow
- 7 oz Dandelion infused olive oil or regular oil
- 1 ½ tablespoon Shredded loofah
- 1 tablespoon Poppy seeds
- 1 tablespoon Cornmeal
- ½ tablespoon Black walnut hull powder
- 1 tablespoon Orange peel powder
- .3 oz Lemongrass essential oil
- .2 oz Sweet orange essential oil
Instructions
Safety Precautions
- Be sure to wear protective gloves and eyewear whenever working with sodium hydroxide lye.
Making Infused Dandelion Oil
- Put 2 Tablespoons of cut and sifted dandelion into one quart of oil in a glass jar and cover with a sealing lid.
- Option 1 - if you’re not in a hurry: allow it to sit for 6 weeks to fully infuse
- Option 2 - place the glass jar into a crockpot. Fill the crockpot half full of water and turn it on low for up to 24 hours. This will cause the infusion to happen more quickly.
- Option 3 - place the glass jar on a trivet in your instant pot with about one cup of water in the bottom. Turn on high pressure for 30 minutes. This is the fastest way to make infused oil.
Making Dandelion Tea
- Put one Tablespoon of cut and sifted dandelion into a tea ball and cover with one quart of boiling water. Allow to steep until cool.
Mixing The Lye Water
- Using a digital scale, add the dandelion infused tea or water to a large glass measuring cup or container. In a separate container measure out the lye. Slowly add the lye to the tea or water and stir well. It will heat up instantly because of the chemical reaction, and will also produce a bit of an odor. Set it in a safe place away from kids or pets to fully cool (at least 2 hours, but up to several days)
Making The Soap
- Make sure you have all of your ingredients for the soap handy along with your measuring spoons, soap mold and immersion blender.
- Add the tallow to a large bowl or pot and melt in the microwave or on the stovetop. Be careful not to get it too hot.
- Add the dandelion-infused olive oil or regular oil to the tallow.
- Measure out the rest of the ingredients and gently mix into the oil mixture using the immersion blender.
- Add in the cooled lye water/tea mixture.
- Blend well using the immersion blender until all of the add-ins remain suspended in the soap mixture and it is well mixed.
- Pour the soap into the soap mold immediately.
- You can either leave the soap out at room temperature in a safe place to set up, or you can put it into a 170 degree oven for one hour. This will make it so you can use the soap within a day or two of making it.
- After baking, allow the soap to sit out on the counter overnight.
- Cut the soap using a soap cutter, bench cutter, or even just a sharp knife. If the soap went through the oven, it is safe to start using right away, however it will still continue to harden up and lose water weight for two or three weeks. If you let it set out at room temperature to continue curing after it’s cut, your soap will last longer because it will be a harder bar.
- To use, wet hands with warm water, and rub the soap all over your hands and the gentle exfoliant in the soap will remove all the dirt and grime off of your hands. I also keep a bar of this in my shower and use it on my feet especially during the summer garden season.
- Store cured bars of soap in a cool place in an airtight container for up to two years.
- Put a bar of this soap next to every sink in your home. I recommend placing it on a
Notes
- Always use cool/cold tea or water when adding in the lye because lye causes a chemical reaction when mixed with water that makes it get very hot. If you use hot water or tea, and mix lye into it, it will boil all over the counter and make a big mess.
- Mix the lye and tea or water together a few hours before you want to make soap. That will give it time to cool back down to room temperature
- If you don't have beef tallow you can replace it with coconut oil for this recipe.
- You can melt the tallow or coconut oil in the microwave or on the stove top. Make sure to heat it just until melted, you don’t want it to be any hotter than necessary. I prefer to make soap when my ingredients are close to the same temperature, preferably 100 degrees or cooler.
- Mix the soap with the stick blender just long enough for everything to be nicely incorporated and so the add-ins will stay suspended in the soap and not sink to the bottom. Probably less than a minute will be long enough.
- To speed up the curing process, put your fresh soap into a 170 degree oven for one hour. This will encourage the soap to go through what’s called gel phase, which speeds up the chemical reaction between the lye and oils which makes soap. This will result in a firmer soap that can be used within just a couple of days. Keep in mind that the soap will continue to cure and lose water weight over the next few weeks, but putting it in the oven makes it safe to use right away.
