# Laundry soap



## biarine (Jul 20, 2017)

I read one blog about homemade laundry detergent she stated that our homemade laundry detergent can cause damage in our washing machine and leave residue in our clothes and she said that it won't clean the clothes. She recommend the young living laundry detergent. About 32 fluid ounces for $35.


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## Kittish (Jul 20, 2017)

Gosh, what a deal! And I bet she made it easy to buy, too, just click on this handy link here. 

Far as her statements go, did she provide any sort of evidence to back them up? 'Cause frankly, it sounds like a sales pitch for that overpriced detergent.


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## Susie (Jul 20, 2017)

I copied their ingredient list to make it easier for our more sciencey types.  I do know that sodium oleate is nothing more than olive oil that has been converted to soap by NaOH.  You know what glycerin is.  Sodium chloride is table salt.  Alpha-amylase, Protease and Lipase are enzymes.

_Ingredients
Water, Decyl glucoside, Sodium oleate, Glycerin, Caprylyl glucoside, Lauryl glucoside, Sodium chloride, Sodium gluconate, Carboxymethyl cellulose, Alpha-amylase, Protease, Lipase, Citrus Limon† (Jade lemon) peel oil, Citrus aurantium bergamia† (Bergamot) peel oil (Furocoumarin-free), Syzygium aromaticum† (Clove) bud oil, Citrus limon† (Lemon) peel oil, Cinnamomum zeylanicum† (Cinnamon) bark oil, Eucalyptus radiata† oil, Rosmarinus officinalis† (Rosemary) leaf oil

†100% pure, therapeutic-grade essential oil_

Now, onto the ones I have to look up:

Decyl glucoside is a mild non-ionic surfactant used in cosmetic formularies including baby shampoo and in products for individuals with a sensitive skin.
Decyl glucoside - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/decyl_glucoside

Caprylyl/Capryl Glucoside is a very gentle vegetable based cleanser and emulsifier that is made from natural renewable natural materials. Made from the dried pulp of the coconut fruit and sugar, this gentle cleanser is biodegradable, non-toxic, residue free and suitable for even the most sensitive skin. 

Lauryl Glucoside is very gentle surfactant made from coconut oil (lauryl) and sugar (glucose), the result of the reaction between them. It has virtually nil level of skin irritability which is why it's so requested by those with sensitive skin. Lauryl Glucoside is closely related so Polyglucoside, so both work well in the one formulation.

Sodium gluconate is the sodium salt of gluconic acid, produced by fermentation of glucose. It is a white to tan, granular to fine, crystalline powder, very soluble in water. Non corrosive, non toxic and readily biodegradable (98% after 2 days), sodium gluconate is an always more appreciated chelating agent.

Carboxymethyl cellulose-is a thickener

The rest are essential oils. 

This sounds to me like it won't hurt anything, but neither will good old laundry soap if you use a bit of vinegar in your rinse water. And laundry soap costs pennies per load.


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## artemis (Jul 20, 2017)

I think the effectiveness of the homemade detergent depends a lot on your water. I can use it without trouble, but my mother, who has hard water, can't.

Any Young Living recommendation I have seen online ends up being on a blog written by a Young Living rep. And some are a little sneaky; blog post about some health issue with an invitation to click through for the rest of the story. Surprise! The rest of the story is Young Living EO saved the day and she can sell it to you. 

I have heard that they are encouraged to do these things.  However, I have a friend who sells, and she believes in the product, but I have never seen her do any of these sort of sneaky, high pressure things to get people to buy.


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## BattleGnome (Jul 20, 2017)

A few months ago there was a similar thread with the point being that homemade laundry soap doesn't clean your clothes. The blogger gave a handy "test" to tell if your clothes are being cleaned but warned that you might not see the results but it's still there! Her handy product was basically a castille with a certain EO blend.

That detergent looks to have the same EO blend (thrives oil I think it was)


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## Dahila (Jul 20, 2017)

I am using homemade detergent for the last 5 or 6 years and vinegar as fabric softener and my front loader sophisticated washer is ok. :None of the residue you scared off .
I have very hard water, but would never add Essential oils to laundry, mine is unscented and the clothes smells wonderful, smells like clean clothes without commercial stink.  It took over 6 months to get rid of Tide stink


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## KristaY (Jul 20, 2017)

I think homemade laundry soap could eventually cause a problem in the machine and clothing if it's superfatted. The residue of unsaponified oils will most likely build up in your machine and your fabrics.

I've made my own laundry soap and stain sticks for about 4 years and have NO problems, in fact, fabrics and machine appear cleaner to me. My recipe is 100% CO with a -2% SF. Vinegar in the rinse and all is good!

Unfortunately certain large companies like to use scare tactics to promote their products. If you use anything other than their brand, life will be a misery for you, and so on. They make claims that are not within FDA regulations and have been called on the carpet for it. But people will buy into their claims which is why they're still in business.


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## HowieRoll (Jul 20, 2017)

I've only been using my homemade 100% coconut oil (and washing soda) laundry soap for about 15 months, but it is still going strong and works great.  This is embarrassing to admit, but only about 2 months ago did I take apart the fabric softener compartment (it's a top loader) and that's when I saw some horrors - there was a thick, blue, nasty sludge that had been built up, but it was clearly from a very long time ago because it was Downy fabric softener (distinctive scent) and we have not used Downy for 15 months.  

But my investigation turned up no other build-up issues from the laundry soap, but, of course, I didn't exactly disassemble the whole machine.  Regardless, I will continue to use it, along with a fabric softener rinse of a citric acid solution (which, after a lot of experimenting, seems to work better for our water than vinegar).  Between working outside and my work with wildlife, that machine sees a lot of especially dirty clothing but I'm pleased to report it comes out clean and fit for public viewing.


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## biarine (Jul 20, 2017)

Kittish said:


> Gosh, what a deal! And I bet she made it easy to buy, too, just click on this handy link here.
> 
> 
> 
> Far as her statements go, did she provide any sort of evidence to back them up? 'Cause frankly, it sounds like a sales pitch for that overpriced detergent.




Yes she has some link but I don't remembered what is it. I been using my homemade laundry detergent for 3 years now and has no problem.


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## SunRiseArts (Jul 20, 2017)

artemis said:


> I think the effectiveness of the homemade detergent depends a lot on your water. I can use it without trouble, but my mother, who has hard water, can't.
> 
> Any Young Living recommendation I have seen online ends up being on a blog written by a Young Living rep. And some are a little sneaky; blog post about some health issue with an invitation to click through for the rest of the story. Surprise! The rest of the story is Young Living EO saved the day and she can sell it to you.
> 
> I have heard that they are encouraged to do these things. However, I have a friend who sells, and she believes in the product, but I have never seen her do any of these sort of sneaky, high pressure things to get people to buy.


 
This is so true.  I live in the Dallas Fort worth metroplex area, and we have hard water.  

One time I put my tools in the dishwasher (empty of course) and they left a really yucky film on the bottom.  I have to run it empty twice on the long cycle to get rid of it.  Never will I do it again ....  I imagine the same thing would happen with the washer.
:shark:


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## burnandgroom (Jul 20, 2017)

I tried a basic powdered detergent recipe a while back. Shaved, unscented cp soap, baking soda, borax I believe, washing powder.... Pretty basic and easily googled recipe. (Think it was Wellness Mama?) My main problem is that it turned into a rock in the container after a few days and I was chipping pieces off with a screwdriver to do laundry! I may try a liquid LS now that I'm making liquid soap...


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## artemis (Jul 20, 2017)

burnandgroom said:


> I tried a basic powdered detergent recipe a while back. Shaved, unscented cp soap, baking soda, borax I believe, washing powder.... Pretty basic and easily googled recipe. (Think it was Wellness Mama?) My main problem is that it turned into a rock in the container after a few days and I was chipping pieces off with a screwdriver to do laundry! I may try a liquid LS now that I'm making liquid soap...



That's strange to me. I have never had that happen. My hear has a rubber seal, though. Maybe that's the difference?


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## biarine (Jul 20, 2017)

artemis said:


> That's strange to me. I have never had that happen. My hear has a rubber seal, though. Maybe that's the difference?




I been using powder before in our old washing machine but in our new HE the powder won't dissolve properly so I use liquid soap now using koh. I been using the liquid For a year now without any problem.


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## jewels621 (Jul 20, 2017)

I just made my first batch of liquid laundry soap a few days ago and used it for the first time today to wash our sheets and blankets. I can't wait to go to bed! They feel so clean and smell so good! I scented it with Afternoon Tea from Nurture, and I couldn't be more thrilled with the faint, clean scent of my bed. Ooooh.....now I hear my pajamas calling my name! :yawn:


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## earlene (Jul 20, 2017)

Approximately 15 - 20 years or so experience making and using my own laundry soap, first in a traditional top-loading machine, then for the past 12 or so years in an HE front loader.  No damage to either machines to report. 

My first laundry soap was with Fels Naptha, washing soda and borax.  Easy to find recipes all over the internet.  Later I added oxiclean to the mix and started using a mixture of hotel soaps to use them up (I travel a lot so have what seems to be a never-ending access to them); so part Fels-Naptha and part whatever syndet bar any random hotel or motel might be providing, along with the other aforementioned powders.

I used the powdered version because I preferred powder to liquid.  I never even tried the liquid version.  But my SIL and niece have been using the liquid version for a good 5 or so years, without any issues with their machines.

About a year ago, I started using laundry butter, a sort of a hybrid of the powder and the liquid versions.  It's more the consistency of a whipped soap.   My husband likes to use the powder.  I like to use the laundry butter.  So I still make both so he can use the one he prefers when I am gone on my singular travels.  For the laundry butter, I use 100% CO soap at 0% SF plus borax and washing soda.  For the laundry powder I still use a mixture of grated hotel soaps and Fels Naptha, borax, washing soda and Oxiclean.

I used to use vinegar as a fabric softener, but don't anymore.  I really did not notice any difference.  I do not use anything for softening the laundry.  I do a double rinse with every load of laundry and have done for at least 20 years, because of what I learned from a professional laundry manager that using too much detergent builds up in towels making them stiff, so using the less detergent and double rinsing was more important in maintaining softness in towels than adding any kind of fabric softener. 

Just as a point of interest, if anyone is interested in how hotel soaps work for cleaning laundry:  Whenever I travel and find myself needing to remove makeup stains or tea stains from hotel wash cloths (my granddaughter was the make-up culprit; I was the tea culprit) - plain white hotel soap gets the stain out immediately.  Of course this is before it has had a chance for the stain to set, but I found it amazing and feel even better about using hotel soaps in my laundry soap.  Maybe my own homemade soap would do the same, but I've never had to try because at home I always have laundry soap or whatever I need for stain removal.

ETA: We have a water softener as we live in the midwest where most houses do have them.  Otherwise maybe there would be more of a problem.  But when I lived in California, no water softener and no problems with the washing machine.


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## Steve85569 (Jul 21, 2017)

I make laundry soap from either 100% coconut oil or a 50:50 blend of CO and Lard. Hard water so I add citric at 2% by weight of oils - reacted with lye of course.
I let the soap cure for 3 or 4 days before grating it, them let that cure for at least two weeks before adding the borax. We haven't been adding the cleaning soda yet. It goes into a cleaned out lard pail with a lid. Stays dry until needed.
When we need to bleach something we use some white vinegar in the first rinse.

I'm amazed at what this takes out in the way of stains, pine pitch etc. Gets the clothes clean and leaves no residue behind.


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## Susie (Jul 21, 2017)

SunRiseArts said:


> This is so true.  I live in the Dallas Fort worth metroplex area, and we have hard water.
> 
> One time I put my tools in the dishwasher (empty of course) and they left a really yucky film on the bottom.  I have to run it empty twice on the long cycle to get rid of it.  Never will I do it again ....  I imagine the same thing would happen with the washer.
> :shark:



I live there, also, and this is the first time I have ever had hard water.  It is an experience.


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## Teapot (Jul 26, 2017)

Hope nobody minds but I have a quick question - this seems like a good thread to get the answer, or at least a better understanding.

A few times when reading about laundry soap, I've seen that people superfat with a negative figure, eg -2%. Does this mean it's lye-heavy? Wouldn't this destroy clothes?


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## momoha (May 31, 2019)

Teapot said:


> Hope nobody minds but I have a quick question - this seems like a good thread to get the answer, or at least a better understanding.
> 
> A few times when reading about laundry soap, I've seen that people superfat with a negative figure, eg -2%. Does this mean it's lye-heavy? Wouldn't this destroy clothes?



For what it is worth, on the soap queen website, they say that a lye heavy soap that reaches a ph of 11-12 will clean better, but too heavy (ph of 13-14), would be dangerous for delicates.



HowieRoll said:


> I've only been using my homemade 100% coconut oil (and washing soda) laundry soap for about 15 months, but it is still going strong and works great.  This is embarrassing to admit, but only about 2 months ago did I take apart the fabric softener compartment (it's a top loader) and that's when I saw some horrors - there was a thick, blue, nasty sludge that had been built up, but it was clearly from a very long time ago because it was Downy fabric softener (distinctive scent) and we have not used Downy for 15 months.



Which ratio of soap/washing soda do you use? 

I am planning to try this for the first time very soon... I’m thinking to go with a pure coconut oil soap with -2% superfat and 1% citric acid, grated and mixed  50/50 with washing soda, without borax as I want to be as ecofriendly as possible.


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## HowieRoll (May 31, 2019)

momoha said:


> Which ratio of soap/washing soda do you use?
> 
> I am planning to try this for the first time very soon... I’m thinking to go with a pure coconut oil soap with -2% superfat and 1% citric acid, grated and mixed  50/50 with washing soda, without borax as I want to be as ecofriendly as possible.



I use a 1:1 ratio of soap:washing soda (no borax).  The soap I make also has a -2% superfat, and I use vinegar in its production to get 3% sodium acetate (I feel this makes it a little more crumbly and easier to grind; more info about using it *here*).

The citric acid comes into play for me during the rinse cycle, where I use a 10% citric acid solution in place of fabric softener.


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## momoha (May 31, 2019)

HowieRoll said:


> I use a 1:1 ratio of soap:washing soda (no borax).  The soap I make also has a -2% superfat, and I use vinegar in its production to get 3% sodium acetate (I feel this makes it a little more crumbly and easier to grind; more info about using it *here*).
> 
> The citric acid comes into play for me during the rinse cycle, where I use a 10% citric acid solution in place of fabric softener.



Ok, great! and how much of it do you use per load?


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## shunt2011 (May 31, 2019)

momoha said:


> For what it is worth, on the soap queen website, they say that a lye heavy soap that reaches a ph of 11-12 will clean better, but too heavy (ph of 13-14), would be dangerous for delicates.


This post is from 2017.  The OP hasn't posted since 2018.   Please try not to pull up old threads.  You are welcome to start a new one and link to an old one if there is pertinent information.   Thank you!


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## HowieRoll (May 31, 2019)

momoha said:


> Ok, great! and how much of it do you use per load?



Just to close the loop on this, I have a small scoop that I estimate holds about 2 tablespoons, and I just measured the it with the laundry soap and it's about 25g/load.  It's enough to generate some suds when I put it in (dissolves better if I start the load on warm water) and it also makes the water feel slick.


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## DeeAnna (May 31, 2019)

I also prefer a 1:1 blend of soap and washing soda and use about 25 g per load if the clothes are not very dirty. 

We're having a related discussion on a newer thread, so c'mon over and participate. https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/laundry-soap-and-hard-water-questions.75237


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