Making a mason jar soap and lotion dispenser is a quick and easy project that I figured out how to do a few years ago. This DIY project is something you can easily make at home to spruce up your bathroom or kitchen decor or give as a gift. I love the look of a mason jar soap dispenser sitting next to my bathroom and kitchen sinks. They have so much more charm than a plastic dispenser! Plus these dispensers are reusable so no more throwing out the store bought plastic soap or lotion dispensers. These are great to use when buying bulk soaps and lotions or if you make your own.
How to make a mason jar soap and lotion dispenser
The total time to make this is probably less than half an hour if you have all the materials handy. When I first made these for our family, the pump part was the trickiest piece of this project to round up. I pulled one soap pump from an empty lotion container and reused it for a mason jar dispenser. You can also buy the pump part in singles or sets in a variety of colors and styles, you can find them here
Materials:
- Mason jar with lid and ring
- Soap pump
- Permanent marker
- Tape measure
- Drill press or hand held power drill
- rubber gasket or epoxy (optional)
Directions:
Step 1: Measure the width of the base of your pump where it will fit through the canning jar lid. This needs to be an accurate measurement since you want to drill the hole so the pump fits snugly through the hole and not be loose and flopping around.
Step 2: With a permanent marker, mark the center of the canning jar lid. This will be where you will drill the hole.
Step 3: If you have access to a drill press, this is the easiest way to drill the hole smoothly through the center of the canning jar lid. If you do not have a drill press, use a hand held power drill. Use a drill bit that is the closest measurement to the width of the pump base that you measured in step 1. If you are using a hand held drill, clamp the canning jar lid or press it down firmly to the surface you are drilling on since the rotation of the drill bit will want to spin the canning jar lid. This can make for a flying canning jar lid, crooked hole or an ugly misshapen hole. Believe me, I’m speaking from experience here!
Step 4: Once the hole is drilled, fit the the long tube of the pump through the hole and push the canning jar lid snugly up against the base of the pump. You can leave the pump as is or find a rubber gasket that fits the width of the base of the soap pump (we easily found one for a few cents in the plumbing section at the local hardware store). We like to add the rubber gasket to ours just to ensure a snug fit since we have a busy family with a toddler grabbing for the soap pump and the rubber gasket helps make sure the pump always stays in place. You could also spread a ring of epoxy around the seam where the soap pump and canning jar lid meet underneath.
Step 5: Fill the canning jar with your desired soap or lotion, put the pump lid on and twist the canning ring on. You’re all done!
You can make the soap and lotion dispensers with clear glass jars or with colored glass canning jars. I personally love to make them out of the vintage blue glass jars although the new heritage edition purple glass jars might be my next splurge! You can find beautiful colored glass mason jars here
Making your own mason jar soap and lotion dispenser is so easy you can make one in just five easy steps! We’ve had folks tell us they use these for cooking oils, body oils, shampoo, conditioner, and of course soap and lotion. We use them all around our house and love how versatile they are. Plus we’re not throwing out store bought disposable plastic soap pumps so these are helping us to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle!
Neat idea! Although not as pretty, I refill store bought plastic soap dispensers with homemade liquid soap made from soap bars. You can refill the same bottle many many times (I’ve used the same ones for years) and then recycle it when it gets too worn. It’s really handy for narrow sinks or if you’re prone to knocking them off and onto a tiled floor.
A glass jar falling on a hard tiled floor does sound like a disaster! That’s a great idea to keep reusing your plastic one and recycling it when it’s too worn