Laundry Soap bar--too soft to make powder -help

[teresa]

Hello,
I made a 2 lb laundry soap bar for making powdered laundry detergent. Well it was made hp with coconut oil, veg shortening and i have made it before... everything looks the same. so when i go to put my soap in the food process to grate it is completely soft balls and they have a wet texture. do you think this has to dry out for a long time/? I don't remember this happening with my last loaf.
THanks.

 

[lsg]

Why not just use it to make soap gel? There are lots of recipes using grated soap, water, washing soda and Borax for a laundry product.

 

[cp chick]

I had a 2 lb batch of CP that turned out to be lye heavy to a mis-calculation. I tried rebatching it, but it still was an ugly useless lump... until I made laundry gel out of it.

I added about 8 cups of water and let it sit overnight, hoping it would soak in, which it didn't. So I took my stick blender and mashed it up to a consistency of smooth peanut butter. I've mixed some with water in an old Tide laundry bottle and shake vigorously before using. Works for me!

 

[teresa]

Thanks so much. great suggestion-i did get it to finally turn into a powder. I think I will try the gel the next time.

 

[Beatty]

Hello,
I made a 2 lb laundry soap bar for making powdered laundry detergent. Well it was made hp with coconut oil, veg shortening and i have made it before... everything looks the same. so when i go to put my soap in the food process to grate it is completely soft balls and they have a wet texture. do you think this has to dry out for a long time/? I don't remember this happening with my last loaf.
THanks.

When I want to create a harder bar of laundry soap I add in a little beewax to my recipe.
I also do the same when I want to make my work soap bars with pumice just so they last longer

My neighbour keeps honey bees for a living so I get all my beeswax from him after he cleans and strains it but the nice thing about it is that it still has a very small amount of honey in it that makes my soaps smell so nice if I'm not adding an EO to it.

 

[Traceyann]

I put all my ends and left over bits into a pot and added 2 litres of water , then heated it till it was all melted , then I poured it into 4 bottles and added another 1 1/2 litres of water ( saw this on TV ) and let it sit for a few days....its now like a gel ......is this what you were talking about when u said laundry gel ???

The Tv show said that if I add Bi carb od soda it can also be used as a dish washing liquid !!!!

Any thoughts on this one ???

 

[teresa]

Wow thanks so much. Never knew that and I have a bunch of beeswax!
I am going to give it a try.

 

[kelleyaynn]

Grating soap to make laundry detergent is such a pain, I think I'll try the gel next time...

 

[Beatty]

I put all my ends and left over bits into a pot and added 2 litres of water , then heated it till it was all melted , then I poured it into 4 bottles and added another 1 1/2 litres of water ( saw this on TV ) and let it sit for a few days....its now like a gel ......is this what you were talking about when u said laundry gel ???

The Tv show said that if I add Bi carb od soda it can also be used as a dish washing liquid !!!!

Any thoughts on this one ???

Of course Bi-carb is a very good natural de-odourant but I've never used it for dishwashing purposes, just whenever I want to make my fridge smell fresh or in a stick of de-odourant for human use etc.

 

[Beatty]

Grating soap to make laundry detergent is such a pain, I think I'll try the gel next time...

I was very lucky some years ago to find a deli that was closing down and selling all sorts of machines off second hand, so I bought the big digital scales there I use all the time now and while I was at it I also bought one of the two meat slicing machines they had that they used to slice the hams and other things up with so thinly.
I would be telling lies if I said the meat slicer was my idea because it wasn't, it was my dear late husband's idea.

Now all I need to do if I want to create soap flakes from my blocks of soap is put them on the machine while the soap is still reasonably soft (But not too soft) and start the thing up and it does all the hard work of slicing it all up for me almost paper thin.
I just spread it out on racks to dry out fully after that and then it just crumbles into little flakes for me to pack into containers to use myself or sell in 1kilo tubs
Because the soap is so thinly sliced it cures in no time at all too.
I make non scented soap flakes this way as well as Eucy, T tree lemon and lavender as they all smell so nice

 

[krissy]

you could always try this.... http://www.soapmakingforum.com/forum/vi ... undry+soap

 

[kelleyaynn]

Meat slicer? Hmmmm.....I wonder if my mandolin slicer would work.

 

[DottieF.]

I've used this recipe several times to make laundry gel out of scraps.

http://www.aquasapone.com.au/soapmaking/laundrygel_soap.html

 

[Beatty]

Meat slicer? Hmmmm.....I wonder if my mandolin slicer would work.

You need one that can slice very thinly, what we called "Shaved" here in Australia

 

[tryanything]

I have a general laundry soap question: Is homemade laundry soap anti-bacterial? I cloth diaper my daughter and we recently had an issue with bad diaper rash. i ended up bleaching the diapers because someone told me that laundry detergent I'm using (a natural product that many cloth diapering moms like) isn't antibacterial and may be causing her rash to reoccur. If I were to make my own laundry soap to wash her diapers in, would it be antibacterial?

 

[MikeInPdx]

I have a general laundry soap question: Is homemade laundry soap anti-bacterial? I cloth diaper my daughter and we recently had an issue with bad diaper rash. i ended up bleaching the diapers because someone told me that laundry detergent I'm using (a natural product that many cloth diapering moms like) isn't antibacterial and may be causing her rash to reoccur. If I were to make my own laundry soap to wash her diapers in, would it be antibacterial?

Is it antibacterial? No...not really, since it doesn't have an antibacterial agent like triclocarban or triclosan. Does it wash bacteria away with the dirt? Yes...like any other soap or detergent.

Are you using hot water for her diapers? Hot water (140F) and a good hot dry or dry in the sun is usually all you need to make them sanitary enough for re-use. If that isn't working, you might want to use the chlorine bleach as a disinfectant, followed by vinegar (sour) in the final rinse.

It may also be similar to my case; I am sensitive to many of the ingredients in laundry detergent "natural" product or no. Using soap (Ivory Flakes back then) as a child stopped the rashes, as it does now that I'm 43.