This natural body wash recipe uses natural ingredients and essential oils to gently cleanse your skin. It can also be used as a hand soap.

I love summer because it's so laid back for our family, but fall is my favorite time of the year. I love the cooler temperatures, pumpkins, and having bonfires on Saturday nights. My birthday is in the fall, so that helps sway my opinion as well.

I've already made pumpkin spice hand soap, bar soap, and perfume, but my daughter wanted a body wash.

I don't get into making liquid soap since it uses potassium hydroxide (KOH). I'm pretty sure you don't have KOH on your shelf to make a liquid soap either, so I set out to find a recipe that didn't use lye.

Soap making uses sodium hydroxide, so you'd have to buy a lye just for liquid soap making. Unless you're selling liquid soap that you make, it's hardly worth it to buy the KOH for a few bottles of soap a year.

That's why I created this DIY natural body wash recipe without using lye. Instead, it uses liquid castile soap, which is something that I buy and use all the time anyway.

This natural body wash recipe is really easy to make. I used my liquid hand soap recipe as a base, but I wanted this to be more nourishing.

Of course, I used pumpkin spice because Dakota and I are a little obsessed with it right now. Her more so than me. Believe me, I've got a basic girl on my hands.

You can use any essential oil in this natural body wash recipe. Just use no more than the number of drops that I use in this recipe.

PUMPKIN SPICE BODY WASH RECIPE

For hand soap, I water down the castile and add a little bit of oil and some essential oils. For body wash, I wanted a lot more oil because my skin gets insanely dry. I also didn't want to water it down because I wanted it to wash better.

Now before the comments starts, yes, I know that castile soap is made with lye. All soap is made with lye, or it wouldn't be soap. You're using castile soap that's already made, so you don't have to buy lye or add lye to this recipe, so I'm calling it a no lye recipe.

LIQUID CASTILE SOAP

The base of this recipe is liquid castile soap. It's a gentle soap that's made with olive oil. Soap made with olive oil doesn't suds very well, so some manufacturers add another oil with the olive oil for more lather.

You don't need suds to get clean, so don't worry if yours doesn't lather a lot. The bubbles just look good and make people think they are getting clean. You can definitely get clean without the bubbles.

I get my liquid castile soap from Bolek's Crafts. It's so new that it's not in their catalog, but you can call or email to order it. I really like their brand, and it's cheaper than other brands.

READ 15 Liquid Castile Soap Uses

GRAPESEED OIL

I wanted to use oil in this recipe because my skin is insanely dry in the fall and winter. I need a lot of oil and moisture or I'm itching like crazy.

Grapeseed oil is a dry oil, so it absorbs into your skin quickly. It won't leave your skin greasy after your shower, but it will moisturize your skin.

Grapeseed oil won't clog pores for most people, so it's a good oil to use even if you are prone to body acne.

It's high in vitamin E, which is an antioxidant. Vitamin E also helps tighten and moisturize the skin.

In the winter, I'll probably swap out the grapeseed oil for hemp seed oil or avocado oil. You can also combine two or more oils to get the benefits of both oils.

Learn more about carrier oils in my book Carrier Oils.

HONEY

I added honey for two reasons. The first is that honey is very moisturizing for your skin. It has enzymes that naturally exfoliate dead skin cells for better looking skin.

It's a natural humectant, so it pulls moisture to the skin. It keeps working long after you've rinsed it off.

READ Honey Benefits for Skin and Hair

The second reasons that I used honey is because it acts like a natural emulsifier, helping the oil and castile soap mix together.

When I make my hand soap, the oil tends to separate from the soap. Since I use such a small amount of oil, it doesn't bother me. I just shake it and use as normal.

This recipe has a lot more oil, so I used honey to act as an emulsifier.

You'll still get some separation in this recipe, even if you use honey. Honey isn't the best emulsifier, and you'd have to use more than what you do in this recipe to completely emulsify this recipe.

PUMPKIN PIE SPICE ESSENTIAL OIL BLEND

I used Crafty Bubbles Pumpkin Pie Spice essential oil blend. I've used it in several recipes this year, so you may have seen it already.

It's a blend of:

Cinnamon
Clove
Nutmeg
Ginger
Vanilla

It's part of their Fall/Winter essential oil set and in the Holiday Favorites set. I'll be using all of these essential oil blends, so if you want to play along at home, this is a great deal. (PS I can not wait to start using gingerbread because I got the cutest mold to make things!)

You can also try one of these fall essential oil blends or one of these pumpkin spice essential oil blends.

INGREDIENTS

3 ounces liquid castile soap
3 ounces grapeseed oil
2 ounces honey
30-50 drops Pumpkin Pie Spice essential oil blend
8-ounce bottle with a pump style lid

DIRECTIONS

STEP #1

Combine the liquid castile soap, grapeseed oil, and honey in a small bowl. Use a stick blender to mix it well. Let sit until the bubbles calm down.

The stick blender is optional. You can mix in a bowl, stir, and pour into a bottle. My raw honey is about a year old and starting to crystalize. It's still good, but it didn't want to mix well.

I still had some separation even using the stick blender. You'd need to use a better emulsifier than the honey to not have separation.

STEP #2

If you used a stick blender and your body wash is foamy or has bubbles, let it sit until the bubbles disappear. I let mine sit overnight.

Pour into an 8-ounce bottle with a pump style lid. Add essential oils. Shake gently to incorporate.

When it separates, just give it a good shake, and it's ready to use.