Liquid Clothes Wash

This is for anyone interested in a less-toxic clothes washing solution and also good for those who want to move away highly scented formulas.  A friend of mine’s daughter still suffers from croup and this is made worse by highly scented powders and conditioners.

Due to lack of emulsifying agents, this mixture isn’t uniform in appearance and needs a good shake before pouring.  I put it in an ‘in the drum’ jug that I sent away from one of the big soap corporations.   (Can’t remember which one now.)  I’ve been making this mixture for over a year now.  It’s really the reason I want to make my own version of Dr Bronner’s liquid soap to use as part of this recipe.  But I will do it… just not now.

Ingredients

• 1 mug of soda crystals (generally £1) in most supermarkets
• 2 mugs, just boiled hot water
• 1 mug of bicarbonate of soda
• 100ml castile soap, scented (Your favourite Dr Bronner’s.  It is the only one I have found that works.)

Method

Get a large plastic jug and put the soda crystals and hot water and whisk with a whisk.  Dissolving as much as possible.  Then add the bicarbonate of soda and whisk vigorously.  Once combined, add the castile soap and whisk again.  Done.

I then pour into an empty, plastic milk carton, 2L in size.  It will only come up about halfway up the bottle, but when left alone this mixture really thickens, so one needs to shake it vigorously again.  However, if too thick add a little warm water.  I add about 100ml per load.

Liquid Soap – My Struggle

 

So, I have made two (yes, count them) failed batches.  I followed a recipe on soaping101.com and recently made contact with soapmakingforum.com confirmed what I kind of knew from these, shall we call them, experiments.  The glycerin element was too low.  Now, if you are not into soap-making, I thought I’d found an easy-peasy way to make liquid soap akin to a famous doctor’s brand (Dr. Bronner).  Dr Bronner’s soaps are lacking the normal shedload of chemical rubbish that most high street brands contain.  BUT, and as you can see it’s a big one, it is expensive.   So I set about making my own.  These failures have set  me back, as I hate waste but as you can see from my latest version is completely unusable.

My motivation is to make my own liquid soap for all household and personal hygiene purposes with as little unnecessary chemicals added to it, as possible.  I will not need to use preservatives as I will be just mainly be producing for myself.  But I’m also hoping to make it a little cottage industry, if I can get the hang of it, who knows?

I will carry on and when, I’m not going to say if, I do,

I will post my success story and recipe.  Wish me luck.

Simple clothes conditioner

This post won’t take long.

Ingredients

Distilled white vinegar

Method

Pour approximately 60ml of the vinegar into the softener section of your washing machine drawer per wash.  And that’s it!

Distilled vinegar has a long history of being great for softening and conditioning clothes.  You cannot smell the vinegar smell at all after the clothes have dried especially good for those who react to high, octane commercial conditioner smells.  I’ve recommended this for my friend as her daughter suffers from croup which seems to be exacerbated by her overly perfumed clothes.  It also has a deodorising effect.