Homemade Soap

[gmmcnair]

Good morning,

I've been experimenting with one of the homemade laundry soap recipes online lately (they call it homemade laundry detergent but it is natural soap), basically the recipes that use the natural soap, borax and washing soda.

I'm finding that it works very well in Portland's soft water, especially since I've been playing with the soap concentration, dilution, etc. Has anyone else experiemented with these recipes? What were your results? My own concoction is (much) more effective than the Xtra, but less effective than the high end liquids such as Tide. It's producing lovely whites in our soft water on hot with a scoop of oxy cleaner.

Anyone want to trade recipes?

 

[panthera]

Mike

Very interesting. Do you have any useful links?
There was a fascinating program on on of the last of the "true" French soap makers on ARTE a while back.
Once I stopped watching this absolutely beautiful man - 14th or 15 generation of soap maker - and started listening to the film, it was fascinating to hear just how difficult it is to produce really high grade soap in consistent quality. This firm has specialised not only in the high-end beauty market, but also in "standard" soaps for technical applications.
To a lesser degree, they also make candles. Some of the processes are similar and some of the ingredients work both ways. An unusual case of "synergy" actually meaning more than just blah-blah.
Drat, wish I had thought to record it...
Didn't someone do a pretty long thread on soap and magnisium ions recently?

 

[gmmcnair]

Hey Keven,

I found the recipe on one of those frugal living sites. The link is below. If you want more to try, just Google "homemade laundry detergent"

Also, I modified the recipe in a couple of minor ways:

1) I stirred the borax and washing soda into the heated soap mixture so it would dissolve more completely and gel better.

2) I only used 1 1/2 gallons of water. That way, I could put the soap gel into a used Tide jug, and only use about 1/2 cup per load instead of their recommended cupful.

I really like it; I made it from Lavendar Scented Ivory and it works well in soft water (you might want to add some borax or washing soda to harder water before you add the soap). It also works very well as a pre-treater. DH got tomato sauce on one of his white shirts, and it took every last bit!

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/03/15/how-to-make-your-own-laundry-detergent-and-save-big-money/

 

[gmmcnair]

P.S.

I wish I would have seen that program on the soap and candle makers; they're both fascinating to me!

 

[launderess]

Just know even with soft water, soap never truly rinses out of laundry. That is what makes laundry done in soap feel so soft, it also means that after awhile items can take on a dingy/tattle-tale grey look. A build-up of soap residue can even cause clothing to become rancid after awhile.

Just remember soap works best in hot water, warm in a pinch and that the first one or two rinses should be hot or at least warm, otherwise one will cause soap and dirt to become trapped in the laundry. Some vinegar in the final rinse water won't go amiss as well.

L.

 

[exploder3211]

Why did i think this said soup?

 

[gmmcnair]

Thanks Laundress...

I will definitely keep your pointers in mind when experimenting, especially thank you for the vinegar rinse pointer. I used to use an ounce or two of white vinegar in my black clothes to make sure they rinsed clean; I will have to remember that while I'm experiementing.

And I remember that dingy, tattletale gray look; I had that problem when I used to wash with well water. I learned very quickly that soap and powdered detergent were out in those cases.

I'll keep everyone posted on what happens. Of course, if anything comes out rancid, the experiement is off!

Take care,
Mike

 

[maggie~hamilton]

When I was in Boy Scouts one of our projects was to make homemade soap. I don't remember how we did it but I do recall it involved using lye and the scoutmaster warned us to be very careful with it. When it cooked, it stunk to high heavens - kinda like sulfur - and the finished product was only moderately successful. And it still had an unpleasant odor.

 

[gmmcnair]

You can....

...make soap using the cold method, where you just heat the fat to a specified temperature, stir the lye into water and let it cool until a specified temp, and then stir the mix together until it turns into soap (saponification).

I haven't been brave enough to try it yet, but I do know that unaged soap does stink to high heaven. My great granny used to make her own, even leached her own lye from wood ash! She never used it, but you can use essential oils to mask any unpleasant aromas.

My trials for the homemade laundry soap have been with grated Ivory soap, washing soda, borax, and water. Once I get my hands on some lye, and an old porcelain kettle, I will give it a try with some real homemade soap.

 

[xyz]

Does anyone remember the movie with Brad Pitt in it called "Fight Club?" Remember how he and his crew robbed the dumpsters at Liposuction clinics to get human fat from the biohazard dumpsters? that was pretty nasty eh? Just a lil' trivia hoping someone remembers. Well they made homemade soap from all that fat didnt they? Why you think Ivory soap floats? lol.

 

[gmmcnair]

No judgement here.....

.....but EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!

 

[launderess]

You be VERY careful with that lye! Use heavy duty elbow length gloves and make sure to wear eye googles. Lye is an extremely dangerous chemical and should be treated with the utmost respect.

Cans of lye which used to be found so easily around here for unclogging drains (and IIRC had instructions on the can for making soap), is very hard to find these days. Even hardware stores keep it under lock and key or at least behind the counter.

L.

 

[maggie~hamilton]

"Here's Lye in Your Eye"

Back in the summer of 2005 while I was doing housework, getting the place ready for the VCCC Club Meeting, I had to tend to a clogged shower drain. I got out a bottle of crystal "Red Devil" drain opener (lye) and poured some into the drain. However, instead of fizzling down into the drain as it usually does, there was about a half-second of fizzle and then a huge "SPLAT" as the stuff belched up from the drain and all over my face, arms and neck.

Screaming in terror, I ran to the sink and flushed the stuff off with cold water for several minutes, feeling its fiery sting eat into my flesh. I finally got it off and the burning stopped, then I had to rinse out the shower stall. I took a cold shower and washed off with mild soap and conditioner.

When I got out of the shower and saw my face in the mirror, I just about died. When you see the photo below, you'll see why. Of ALL weekends for something like this to happen ....... I can only that "Somebody Up There" was looking out for me, because none of the stuff got into my eyes. There were several small burns on both sides of my eyes, less than a half-inch away from them. I guess that's just how close I came to getting blinded. Even though I looked like the Phantom of the Opera, it could have been a lot worse.

The only thing I can figure out is that whatever had clogged the drain was sitting close to the surface instead of down inside and was obviously saturated with water --- so when the lye crystals hit it, they reacted with such great force. I can't even begin to describe the sick feeling I got when that stuff splashed onto my face.

(And before I start getting a bunch of hand-smacks about not using the stuff properly, let me hasten to note that I did explicitly follow the label directions -- I know how dangerous the stuff is -- and also that I have used it in the past without incident. It was just one of those freak accidents that happen from time to time.)

 

[gmmcnair]

OWWWWW!

Such a good thing that you got under the water so quickly.

I had a similar incident with some drain cleaner. It didn't splash into my face, thank God, but it was the sulfuric acid kind, and it burbled just a little bit and sprayed onto my hands, arms and shirt.

Thankfully, there was no major lasting damage since I hit the water quickly, but the shirt I was wearing looks like Swiss cheese, and I have a nasty little scar on my wrist.

Chemical burns are nothing to mess with.....one reason why I'm still hedging a bit on making my own bar soap. I have a healthy respect for lye.

 

[sudsmaster]

A good antidote to accidental skin contact with lye is to use diluted vinegar in the rinse water. The acid in the vinegar will more quickly neutralize the alkaline in the lye than just rinsing with plain water.

However, you do not want to mix vinegar with lye, the result could be violent. I wonder if there could have been something acidic (like Tilex or any number of hard water mineral removers that contain hydrochloric or other acid) in that drain before you added the lye?

When I was in college I took an organic chemistry course and our first assignment was to make soap. I wish I had kept that procedure, because the result was a very nice little round white cake of soap that looked a lot like Ivory soap. But of course we also had primo ingredients and good lab equipment.

 

[rolltideroll]

Bless your heart Maggie, yes Jesus was looking after you sweetie. You gotta always be careful and sometimes being careful ain't enough.

 

[rolltideroll]

I remember years ago spreading some dry chemical stuff(in the summer) under my house where my sewer had backed up and had the whole place stinking to high heaven. I can't remember what it was, i'm wanting to say it was Lime but anyways I got some of the powder on my sweaty forearms and let me tell ya people, I came out from under that house and hit the waterhouse with a quickness. then my crazy ass reads the warning label and finds out that I should have had goggles and ductaped sleeves before use. What a dummy I was back then. And to think I made straight A's in high school advanced chemistry class. Thank Jesus and God that I didn't get any of the mess in my eyes.

 

[sudsmaster]

My laundry soap recipe is simple: I grate a plain bar soap like Ivory. Lately I've been crumbling the gratings by hand so that they fit through the soap dispenser screen on the Neptune better. First I add about 1 oz of STPP to the wash, then the grated/crumbled soap bits. Result: brilliant whites with no sign of graying. MOreover, colors don't fade as much as with conventional laundry detergents with optical brighteners or oxygen bleaches.

 

[gizmo]

I used to make up my own blend: grate up four bars of generic yellow laundry bar soap, one bar of white "stain removing" laundry soap (Sard Wonder Soap). about 1 dessertspoon per wash in a front loader. (1 dsp is about 2/3 a US tablespoon.)

It washes well, foams up at the beginning of the wash but soon settles down. I found it rinsed out easier than most detergent products, by the final rinse/spin the water was clear, which it never is with detergents. The only thing it was no good for was my partner's deodorant stains on white shirts. The Eucalyptus product I use now, a commercial product not a home brew, works well for that.

Chris.