Make Your Own Dove Body Wash

We love Dove soap at our house.  It’s been our favorite brand for years and I rarely buy anything else.  So when I saw that some folks were making their own Dove body wash from a bar of Dove soap, I knew I wanted to test it out to see if this could be another way to enjoy my beloved Dove soap.

The method is pretty easy.  You grate a bar of Dove soap and then liquefy it by heating and dissolving it in a couple cups of water.  When it cools, it thickens up a bit and is a consistency pretty close to a store bought bath and body soap.  Because bar soap is usually cheaper than body wash you can save some money by using this strategy and still have the body wash option too.

Make your own Dove body wash

This recipe probably won’t work with other types of bar soap.  Dove soap is a moisturizing formula of bar soap which is why you end up with a final product that’s still fairly thick even when watered down.  I tried this recipe with a bar of Olay soap too, but it turned out much thinner than when I used a bar of Dove (and I wasn’t crazy for the runny consistency).  If you still want to try this with a different type of soap, you’ll probably need to reduce the amount of water used and you might still end up with runny body wash.

Another thing to keep in mind is that this recipe uses the 4 oz size bar of Dove soap. Sometimes you can find individual bars of Dove soap being sold at places like the dollar store – BUT – they’re usually just a bit smaller (something like 3.2 oz).  You can use one of these smaller bars, but again, I would suggest you reduce the water slightly too.

Here’s how to do it:

Homemade Dove Body Wash

You Will Need:

  • 4 oz bar of Dove soap

  • 2 cups of water

1.  Begin by grating the entire bar of soap.  I did notice it seemed to be a little slower going grating a bar of Dove than with some other soaps I’ve grated, but you want nice small pieces so it will dissolve well in the next step.  {It seems like all soaps are just a little different like I discovered when I was microwaving soap with a bar of Ivory!)

2.  Combine the grated soap with the 2 cups of water in a saucepan.  Heat on the stove, stirring gently, until the grated soap is thoroughly dissolved into the water.  This will take about 5 to 10 minutes.

3.  Transfer the mixture into a bowl and let it sit for several hours or overnight to cool and thicken.  Your final product will end up looking a little bit like Cool Whip.

Make your own Dove body wash

4.  Transfer to a container for use in the shower (I used recycled body wash containers).  This recipe makes approximately 16 ounces of body wash.

You can make this recipe using the basic original Dove scent, or you can try some of their other scents.  Dove also makes a line of Men Care soaps so you can make some body wash for the guys in your life too!

I tried out my homemade Dove body wash with a bath pouf and found that it lathered up quite nicely ~ maybe not quite as much lather as a store bought body wash ~ but still pretty good in my opinion.

 

 

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17 Comments

  1. Just so you know, you need to add a preservative if you want it to be shelf stable for very long. Any time you add water, it introduces the possibility of mold and bacteria, and Dove doesn’t use preservatives in their bar soap.

  2. Hi!
    Dove being the wonderful soap it is, is it okay to let it thicken IN a pump bottle?

    I have one of the newer scents, with the white strawberry in it. Almost cannot wait to try this. Thank you for posting it.

    1. You probably could just put the mixture in the bottle right away, however the advantage to letting it sit in the mixing bowl a bit longer is it will cool a little better and you can monitor if it is indeed thickening up to a nice consistency. The strawberry scented Dove soap sounds like a fun one to try for DIY body wash!

  3. I gave this recipe a try with dove scented and dove for men .I will not buy store body wash anymore, but i use just a little less water not much less and add some vitamin E liquid into the product once cooled .it makes it more moisturizing.

  4. Hi I tried this recipe today with cucumber dove bar. I added about 1/4 cup of brewed green tea instead of just straight 2 cups water and a few drops of lavender essential oil to my dove soap. It turned out better than the bottle stuff I buy in the store. I am so happy I tried this out

    1. That sounds like a very nice variation on this recipe and I’m so glad it turned out well for you!

    2. Rebecca, I think the idea of using tea in place of water is brilliant! I’ll try to remember to use good substitutes like that in anything that calls for water.

      1. I just made some of this q(but changed the recipe a little) by adding some goat cream, aloe vera and witch hazel essential oil instead of water and some liquid sunflower lecithin and vegetable glycerin to enhance moisturizing abilities. I also added two tablespoons Coconut oil with vitamin E, then added some peppermint essential oil for scent. Amazing body wash! Very moisturizing, thank you!

      1. I believe the antioxidants in tea are beneficial even when applied topically to the skin. I think tea can also work as a toner on the skin.

  5. Soon as the weather gets cold I always suffer with very itchy eczema on my legs ,since I have been making your recipe it seems to have completely cleared up , WOW ! One very happy lady .Thank you so much

  6. I purchased a 2pack of Dove- pink/Rosa/rose soap bars for $1.99…I read your article and then tied making a body wash using 1 bar.
    FANTASTIC!!!!….I absolutely love the heavenly airy smell-and the creamy thickness!!!!… plus, the aroma permeated throughout my entire house.

    Thank you so much for sharing!

  7. Hi–just found your site and am loving all your tips. I don’t use body wash, just Dove bar soap but this post got me wondering how this would work as liquid hand soap. Possibly need to add a bit more water. Any ideas or have you tried this and I just haven’t gotten that far back in the archives?

  8. I’m going thru your site and finding lots of good ideas, but this one gives me pause. If you end up with a product the consistency of Cool Whip how do you get it into the recycled body wash bottle? Couldn’t you just pour the slightly cooled stuff into the bottle before it thickens all the way?

    1. Well, it’s kind of like slightly melted cool whip 🙂 I spooned it into the bottle using a funnel. I think it would work, like you said, to just put it in the bottle in the first place. I wanted to be able to stir it up and see how thick it would get so I didn’t want to put it in the bottle until I had observed the mixture a little bit first to see how it would turn out. But I think your idea of putting the slightly cooled mixture in the bottle while it’s still a little more liquid might consistency is definitely an option worth considering.