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DIY Shower Gel with Orange Essential Oil and Shea Butter
February 13, 2022
The standard store-bought shower gel may contain petroleum and other chemical-based ingredients, such as added fragrance. If you notice your skin getting dry, red, itchy or flaky, consider a different shower gel; however, I suggest making your own so that you can know exactly what is going into your shower gel. It’s easy to do.
To make my DIY shower gel, place the shea butter in a small pan and melt on low heat. Add the jojoba oil, almond oil and coconut oil. Shea butter is an amazing ingredient given its vitamin A contents. It is very moisturizing, too. Jojoba oil offers great skin-healing benefits and is helpful in reducing acne as well as psoriasis. For a vitamin E boost — something your skin craves — almond oil is the way to go. And, we know that coconut oil is a great moisturizer that also fights off bacteria.
Now, pour the oil and shea butter mixture into a medium-sized bowl and sprinkle the xanthan gum into the bowl allowing it to sit for about a minute. You may be wondering just what this ingredient is. Xanthan gum is a thickening agent. While it is not a good idea to eat too much of it, it can be helpful on the skin. Using an immersion blender on pulse, dissolve the gum into the shea butter and oil blend. Do this for one to two minutes.
Next, add the castile soap, vegetable glycerine and warm water. Castile soap is a favorite of mine because it is a natural, vegetable-based soap. Vegetable glycerin is useful because it is a plant-based humectant, meaning it provides moisture to the skin. Blend again for about two minutes. At this point, it will begin to look like a creamy lotion. That’s what you want!
Lastly, add the orange essential oil. Sweet orange essential oil has a delightful citrus scent, and it also fights bacteria while helping to reduce stress. Pour the shower gel into a soap dispenser. You may want to shake it before use as it could separate just a bit. Use within a few weeks since it does not contain any preservatives.
DIY Shower Gel Recipe
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 10 ounces 1x
Description
This DIY shower gel is made from some of the most skin-benefitting and cleaning ingredients, including shea butter, jojoba oil, almond oil, coconut out and Castile soap. Orange essential oil is the featured scent.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons shea butter
- 1 tablespoon jojoba oil
- 1 tablespoon almond oil
- 1 teaspoon fractionated coconut oil
- ¼ cup Castile soap
- 1 tablespoon vegetable glycerin
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
- ¼ cup warm water distilled water
- 12 drops orange essential oil
Instructions
- In a small pan on the stove, slowly melt the shea butter in the distilled water over low heat.
- Add the jojoba, almond and coconut oils. Blend well using an immersion hand blender.
- Pour blended oils into a heat-safe bowl.
- Add the xanthan gum and allow it to sit for 1–2 minutes.
- Next, add the Castile soap and blend.
- Add the glycerin and sweet orange essential oil. Blend well.
- The mixture should be creamy and thick. Pour it into a dispenser.
- Use within a few weeks.
- Prep Time: 10 min
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Thankyou so much for sharing wonderful recipe.
Hello: Sounds good & I want to make this! Regular coconut oil or fractionated coconut oil? Thanks
Fractionated can work better.
Thankyou so much for providing this practical information. I’m not sure where I might find some of those ingredients. If you would share some places I can go to find the ingredients, I would deeply appreciate it. I live in NE Florida. God Bless You!
I wish I could find a recipe with our coconut. I am allergic to soy, corn, coconut, dairy, nightshades, citrus, apples, grapes, strawberries, melons, onions, garlic, vinegar, & eggs. I can’t find many recipes without these things, especially shampoos, conditions and soaps. I found one shampoo but my hair looks like it wasn’t washed after using it.
Is there a commercially made shower gel that is ok to use? Something organic?
Can I use this recpies fore hair also thank your
Dr. Axe, I wish you would move away from the Castile soap recommendation for skin and hair. Very alkaline pH of between 9 and 11.5 with all that potassium hydroxide in it. One possible substitution might be soap berry extract. Naturally much closer to the normal pH of skin and scalp.
You might try lemon essential oil, if you are only allergic to oranges.
Test if you react with a diluted droplet on your wrist, before getting it all over.
To remove: Wash off with soap and water.
Also, how do you react to handling lemons in cooking (making lemonade, squeezing lemon wedges, etc.)?
BTW: The oil from citrus fruits comes from the skin (colored part).
Note: Meyer lemons are an ancient cross with mandarin or common orange.
My opinion only, but I would think that you could use any oil you like. I’m going to hazard a guess that your allergy is to citrus in general, not just oranges? Lavender is a common oil frequently chosen for such recipes.
Hi! Can castile soap be replaced with anything else?
what is a natural preservative i could add to the shower gel to help it last longer than a few weeks
Margaret,
I want to try this also, but I was thinking the same thing as you, about it spoiling. I don’t have potassium sorbate. I wonder if grapeseed oil or vit. E oil would help preserve this?
Has anyone tried it yet?
I just wanted to add, that it sounds like this is a great recipe but and I will give it a try, but I will add preservative (potassium sorbate) and as a binding agent I will try it with cetyl alcohol.
What binds oil and water in your recipe? If you don’t add any binding agent, the oil and water will separate in the bottle. Also, to have your product last few weeks you need some kind of preservative – otherwise it will go bad and do more harm to your skin than good.