No doubt- we are born at the right time to be good cooks! Now, to be more specific about my liquid soap. Any unscented liquid base will do. I use Dr. Bronners's unscented liquid soap, which I order, in quart bottles, from drugstore.com. I add 1.5 tablespoons spearmint Essential oil to a quart.(I also add a couple of glass marbles to the bottle, to help the oil to mix in.) I get my spearmint EO from Brambleberry.com. They also sell liquid soap base in gallon bottles. This may be better for you, since I imagine you will need larger quantities than I do. I hope this info is helpful.

DH was the implementer. He did the photos & draft instructions. I know he got the barb at Ace HW and the tubing from there and/or Home Depot & Lowes. All very, very cheap. I think the most expensive item was the Softsoap pump and you might have one of those hanging around the house, anyway. I didn't mind spending $10 for the commercial product, but I rebelled at the $7-8 for shipping. I knew, in theory, how it should work. We started out with tubing & a check valve for aquaria, but we just weren't sure that a check valve mean for water would work well for viscous dish washing liquid. DH really came through with the goods. What a guy!!!! Glad you like it. We've been using it for a month with no issues. We are deliberately not using it for a week to see if that has any effect. At worst, we might have to reprime it when we come back from a vacation.

I made a batch yesterday and this morning it has jelled up like the soap made with the Fels Naptha. I used half a bar for this batch. I have not washed any clothes with it yet but I imagine it will be fine. Thanks for your replies. Happy New Year. Sue

I come here from time to time. This forum hasn't had much traffic in the past number of years, but if you have some specific questions, I'd be happy to answer them.