DIY Foaming Soap Refill

I love Bath and Body Works! I love their candles, their gift baskets and I especially love their foaming hand soap.  Unfortunately, my kids love the hand soap too. I swear we can go through an entire bottle in just over two weeks..I am starting to think they are bathing with it and not just washing their hands!  So, I knew that my love for these hand soaps would have to go unsatisfied if I could not find an economical solution.

The wonders of the web pointed me to many different sites (including a favorite Not So Idle Hands) discussing methods and recipes for refilling these jars at home!  I have been doing this for a few months now and have perfected my recipe. So here goes for those of you out there who feel the same way. 

Materials needed:
Empty foaming soap dispenser
Body wash or dish soap in your favorite scent (I have only tested this out with 'clear' body washes and not creamy types)
HOT water (not boiling but really hot)

Method:
If your soap dispenser is a little gummy around the spout (like mine), give it a rinse to clean it off.

If you are picky like me, I tend to buy the refill soap in a similar scent and color as the original soap in the bottle (i.e. lemon, ocean, melon, etc.)

Pour your body wash/dish soap into the empty jar. I use approximately 1 inch of body wash or to the "T" on the side of the bottle.  For dish soap I use a little less because it foams far more. There is no exact science for this...if you use more soap, the suds are thicker.

Run you tap until the water is extremely hot. Decrease the flow of the water and slowly fill the jar, leaving approximately 1 inch on the top to allow room for the pump.

 

Carefully stir the soap and water until it is mixed. Do not shake.
Pump a few times until you feel warm suds and then you are done!

Enjoy.

I will be honest with you, I have used Bath and Body works Shower gel for this so the scent and the pump match. This is more expensive than using other shower gels or dish soap...but this is great for those of you who still want the scent but want to save some money. If you can buy the shower gels when they are on sale for buy 3 get 3 free you will save a lot. I think I should get 5 or 6 refills out of each shower gel!

 

 Next confession, I almost screamed with joy last time I was at Bath and Body Works as I noticed for the first time the lemon scented kitchen foaming hand soap (I am sure they have had it for a while but it is new for me).  You ask why...well my husband came home with two of these from Costco!

The 'new' bottle on the left has been refilled so you can see it is a little brighter in color but I am not complaining...we are using up the massive jugs of Sunlight dish soap one pump at a time.