Making your own liquid soaps and bath products at home is not only fun, but it can also help save you money and complement a lifestyle focused on wellness and protecting the environment.

Natural soap-making ingredients such as coco glucoside, mango butter, and glycerin are becoming more popular, as DIY soap-makers and business owners alike realize the many benefits of crafting higher quality products.

Whether it’s a creamy soap that helps to moisturize the skin or an enriching body wash infused with the beautiful fragrances of essential oils, the secret to a truly worthwhile product rests in the components used to make them.

Useful All-Natural Soap Ingredients

One of the best parts about soap-making is that there is so much room for adaptation when it comes to recipes. There are literally thousands of different ingredients you can use to get the desired effects that you want or to make products come out specifically how you want them in terms of texture or look.

While certain chemical-based ingredients were often used and relied on for decades, many of these artificial substances are now recognized as being inferior to some of the substances that can easily be found in nature. There’s a push for more natural ingredients in bath products as well as in skincare products as well, because consumers want to avoid possible negative reactions and are also concerned about the environment.

It’s true, many artificial substances that are used in mass-market soaps and shampoos aren’t the best for the environment. When you wash that stuff down the drain, you never can quite tell where it will end up, and it’s not always going to decompose as a natural substance would. These chemicals can sit in waterways and even leech into the soil, harming wildlife and deteriorating ecosystems.

For the environmentally-conscious among us, it is important to take a look at the ingredients on the labels of the products we use and ask, “do I want this on my body, and is this safe for the environment?” This is why so many brands are switching over to natural ingredients wherever possible. It’s not just about whether or not an ingredient is able to provide any benefits, but if it aligns with a more sustainable way of life.

Below you will find helpful information on some of the hottest all-natural and vegan ingredients that are currently being used to make homemade soaps and other personal care products.

Coco Glucoside

The first ingredient we are highlighting here is coco glucoside, which is used as a new generation all-natural surfactant. Since it is completely vegan, it is popping up more in and more as a replacement for popular chemical surfactants like sodium lauryl sulfate.

The primary purpose of surfactants like this is to improve the viscosity of formulas and help promote cleansing. They reduce the surface tension between different substances, which tends to aid in producing a cleaning effect. With this coconut-based surfactant specifically, adding it to formulas improves foaming and also adds a nice moisturizing element as well.

Because coco glucoside is 100% natural (since it’s produced from coconuts), it is a reliable ingredient for vegan shampoos, natural liquid soaps and body washes, and numerous other bathroom staples.

We have a lengthy blog detailing some of the best uses for coco glucoside that you can check out here.

Vegetable Glycerin

There’s a lot that can be said about glycerin, also styled VG. This natural soap-making ingredient is created simply by heating fatty vegetable oils under certain conditions. Popular oils that are used in this process include coconut oil and palm oil.

It is used as a moisturizing agent, emollient, preserving agent, and has softening and cleansing properties as well. It is found in a wide variety of different products and can even be used alone to help moisturize the skin.

What people love about vegetable-derived glycerin is that it is very gentle and safe for all skin types. It works well in soap mixtures and in a variety of other products as well because it plays nice with plenty of other ingredients and can be adapted into a variety of recipes.

Essential Oils

Aromatic plant oils have been used for thousands of years in perfumes, skincare solutions, and even in medicinal treatments. For those who love homemade soap recipes, you may already be aware of how common it is to utilize high-quality essential oils, simply because they are so beneficial.

It’s easy to add a few drops of your favorite essential oil to a natural liquid soap recipe to help it come alive. What’s interesting is that these plant-based oils are most recognized for their fragrances, but they also carry with them a variety of therapeutic properties that are often used to help augment the benefits of personal care products. You will even find these oils in higher-end skincare formulas because of the potential benefits that they offer. Essential oils and fragrance oils in general are an easy and natural way to improve the quality of a soap recipe or other kind of DIY product.

Aloe Vera Gel

Most of us are well acquainted with the soothing feeling of aloe vera. This incredible ingredient is finding its way into everything, from facial lotions to vegan soaps, and everything in between. While it’s still mostly marketed for sunburn relief, aloe vera has amazing restorative properties and can be used for moisturizing purposes as well. For natural soaps and bath gels, it’s a perfect fit.

Mango Butter

Another ingredient that is seeing wide use as of late, mango butter is derived from the kernel of the mango fruit and is known as one of the best natural moisturizers around. You don’t even need to incorporate it into any formulas to really get a lot of use out of it as a personal care product.

However, the natural creaminess and moisturizing properties of this plant-based butter make it ideal for inclusion in various skincare recipes and even soaps. As it grows in popularity, it’s even making its way into shampoos and conditions, as well as body lotions and other bath time products.

Why is it Important to Use Natural Soap-Making Ingredients?

Natural ingredients are worth using for quite a few reasons. The biggest is perhaps knowing that what you are putting on your skin is healthy and good for you. It’s nice to be able to look on a label and understand where a certain ingredient comes from and that it wasn’t synthesized in a lab.

That’s not to say that all artificial ingredients are bad, but there is a good feeling that comes with knowing the soap or other product you are using is derived wholly from plants and that once it washes down the drain it won’t cause any harm to the environment.

For those with sensitive skin or those who simply prefer not to use animal-based products or ones that harm the environment, these ingredients are the future.

Where Can You Find Coco Glucoside and Other Vegan Soap Ingredients?

High-quality soap-making ingredients aren’t available everywhere. In fact, natural ingredients like this are still the exception to the industry standard, not the rule. Generally speaking, if you are crafting luxury-quality bath products such as soaps and shampoos, you should consider sourcing your ingredients from a location that prioritizes quality.

Here at Make Your Own Buzz, we have a huge selection of quality soap-making and lotion-crafting ingredients on hand to help you make soap at home that will come out just how you want it. From surfactants to fragrances and natural colors, as well as soap molds and other tools, you can trust us to have just what you need for your next project.

Take a look through our store to view our selection and get started creating your own soaps and other products today!