Karen Pugh writes:
I whipped up a batch of your home-made liquid laundry soap awhile ago, and it doesn’t work very well!! It didn’t gel, it doesn’t suds up very much, and my husband isn’t very impressed with his un-white whites! Have you had any of these problems?
Queen of Green, Lindsay Coulter, responds:
The foundation recipe is:
- 50% soap (called soap flakes, soap granules or you can grate bar soap)
- 25% Borax
- 25% washing soda
Boil a pot of water on the stove and add soap flakes (1 cup). Boil them until they’re diluted. Add this soap mixture to about a 7 L pail with ½ cup washing soda and ½ cup Borax. Add 20 drops of an essential oil. The mixture will partially gelatinize once cooled. This makes a huge batch so you may want to cut the whole thing in half.
Purpose of ingredients:
- Borax- kills germs and whitens
- Washing Soda- cuts grease and softens water
- Soap Flakes (granules or bar soap)- forces out dirt
Common problems:
- Adding soap dry to pail of water (you need to dilute it in the boiling water first).
- Not boiling it enough. You don’t want to see any granules.
- Your water hardness may have something to do with it. If you have hard water add more washing soda.
Whites not white enough?
- Make sure you wash like colors together.
- I add ½ cup of baking soda to my white loads and wash in warm
- Buy oxygen bleach or eco-bleach (which is really hydrogen peroxide)
As for suds, you won’t see much because this mixture is devoid of chemicals. Conventional stuff has chemicals that make the suds so you and I think it’s getting clean. Kind of like sodium lauryl sulfate in your shampoo and toothpaste. The new laundry soaps for HE machines have less suds actually because it’s not necessary.
Hope that helps!
Tags: bleach, borax, chemicals, HE machines, laundry, Lindsay, Queen of Green, soap, washing soda
I’ve made the laundry detergent and it’s gelled perfectly and smells wonderfully. I couldn’t find the soap flakes in Calgary for love or money so I grated a sunlight bar of soap (1 cup) in 2 cups of water and boiled it. You don’t need the essential oils if you do it this way as the lemon smell from the sunlight bar of soap is wonderful. I’ve also made the Queen of Green’s peppermint shampoo, body wash, scour power and countertop cleaner and they are incredible. I’m committed and it was so easy and an incredibly saving of money & environment if you do 30+ loads of laundry every week such as I. You can find these receipes on her U-Tube and the body washes leave your skin feeling silky smooth. I am so impressed.
Diane
Diane,
That’s amazing. I use all of those recipes weekly.
Another hint for soap flakes or granules is go to the host of natural food stores in Calgary, you may have luck. You could also call Earth’s General Store in Edmonton and see if they know about a Calgary equivalent! The brand I use is called V.I.P and it’s made here in BC. Good luck and enjoy, Lindsay Coulter, Suzuki’s Queen of Green
Take a look at the foundation receipe, asking for 50% soap, 25% Borax and then 25% Washing Soda. Below it you indicate it should be 1 cup of soap flakes boiled in 2 C of Water adding 1/2 cup of Borax and 1/2 cup of Washing Soda - I think this is a misprint. I made two different batches. The first one being the right ratio I believe of 1/2 cup of soap flakes, 1/4 cup of Borax and 1/4 cup of Washing Soda. This turned out very, very well. Pourable, gelled nicely and washed great. Tonight, I followed the receipe breakdown you suggested of 1 cup of flakes with the 1/2 of cup of each of soda and borax and it was very thick, couldn’t pour it into jugs once it cooled. Is this a misprint? I’ll continue to use the 50/25/25% ratio,
Love it,
diane
Ah ha. Yes, pour in into jugs BEFORE it cools. Sorry, I could have saved you that mishap!
Lindsay
I really appreciate that tip on keeping whites white. I had not realized that those types of bleach are like hydrogen peroxide, which is also great for whitening teeth (I prefer to use food grade).
We have a HE washing machine which states HE soap must be used for warranty. HELP I want to use this soap.