DIY Honey and Orange Body wash

Being on a bit of a homeopathy spree and seeing as how our body wash was almost finished I decided to make some more. I made the original in August. It lasted 3 months! So very cost effective. There were some problems with the original though. It smelled strongly of soap and had an unpleasant slimy texture.

This time I tried something a little different.

For the base soap I bought a simple honey bar from a local market (R20 made with honey, glycerine and vegetable oil). I was hoping the honey would give the wash a more natural smell. I am still looking for a pure vegetable oil - glycerine soap but haven’t managed to find anything yet. I will keep looking.

Ingredients:

Half a bar of honey soap
3 cups of warm water
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon coconut oil (I would’ve put more but we’ve run out)
½ tablespoon Apricot kernel oil
5 drops lavender essential oil
5 drops tea tree essential oil
40 drops sweet orange essential oil (DH kept adding more since he found that the smell didn’t carry over the honey of the soap and he likes citrus smells as much as I do – I have noticed though that the orange essential oil smell doesn’t carry as strongly as the peppermint or tea tree, so I might not use it the next time I make a body wash)

I heated all the ingredients (except the essential oils) in a pan until everything had melted. The mixture was very liquid but I’ve learnt from last time that it thickens considerably as it cools down. I then let it cool down a bit before adding the essential oils (I find that if I add them to a hot mixture they seem to just evaporate out). I mixed well and transferred the mixture to a small squeeze bottle and the extra into a glass jar. The smaller squeeze bottle will be easier to use in the shower than the screw top plastic bottle I used last time (not to mentions it looks better as well). Now you just need to wait for it to set, about 24hrs. Tada all done!

I made about 650ml for less than R20. DH has been using it since and I actually find it now has a very citrusy smell (so maybe too much orange essence after all). He says this version is much better than the last one so it looks like this recipe is a winner.