Laundry soap help?

[Little_Irish_Hippie]

I made a laundry soap a few days ago, from hard vegetable fat (similar to American Crisco I imagine) and olive oil. My soap-making book says just to cut up the fats and pour the hot lye over them, and stir until melted. This didn't seem to work as there was still lumps of fat in there when the mixture started to trace. I then used the stick blender but it was so thick by this stage it was hard to blend well. I tried putting it in the slow cooker in the hope it would melt the fat, but I am not sure if it worked or not.

I've cut it into bars and there seems to be a bit of marbling going on, just a little, but I don't want free oils in a laundry soap for obvious reasons! Can I fix it in any way? Was thinking of grating it and putting in back in the slow cooker...would that melt the fat in it, or since it has already been cooked will no further saponification take place? Could I add a small amount of lye and water in the slow cooker or would that be silly?

The recipe was:
400g hard vegetable fat (no further oil info was given on the packet)
200g pomace oil (half of which is veg oil, I didn't realise until I got home but I tried to account for it in the soap calculator)
80g lye
210g water

Any help would be appreciated, I'll get a photo if it's useful. It only cost about £2 so I'll throw it out if I have to, but I'd rather not!

 

[roseb]

HP soap does have marbling throughout. One of the reasons I like it. Did you unmold it, is it hard or are there still soft spots? Pictures always help.

 

[Little_Irish_Hippie]

Thank you for your reply! It has hardened a bit, but still feels like cheddar cheese that's been sitting out at room temp for a few days! As a soap I am not impressed with it, perhaps the vegetable oils have just made a very soft bar. I might rebatch it to make a nicer handsoap.

I'd like to try again, this time using hard veg fat and coconut oil, to hopefully get a harder bar. My lard laundry soap seems perfect for its use, I'd love something similar that's veggie-friendly. Could I add a small amount of beeswax to harden further, or might this have an adverse affect on clothes?

 

[roseb]

You are probably right, there are too many soft oils. Did you run your numbers through Soapcalc? I would rebatch and add some lard or palm oil for hardening. I wouldn't add the wax since you don't want that on your clothes. Let us know what happens.

 

[Obsidian]

I would use 100% coconut for a laundry soap.

 

[MikeInPdx]

100% coconut, 0% superfat is a good choice for laundry soap. After the initial bubble burst it doesn't have a lot of extra suds to cause rinsing or spinning problems in the washer, and it does clean like the dickens, especially on oily soils.

 

[SugarandOats]

Love love love this post!

sugar & oats

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Really stupid question - you'll get a lot of them from me - how much do you use per wash? Cut it in to 'chunks' 1 per wash, or how does it work?

 

[JessieD]

This recipe seems to be a kind of castille soap, since there is no lard, tallow, palm, or coconut. That would mean that it should take about 6 months to harden up, right? Seems like an awfully long time to wait for laundry soap. I'm with the others…I would use a CO soap. CO is high on the cleansing scale too, whereas vegetable oil and olive oil are more conditioning. I'm not sure how well a conditioning soap is suited to laundry…although they do say oil removes oil…hmmm

Just thinking out loud I guess...

 

[houseofwool]

Really stupid question - you'll get a lot of them from me - how much do you use per wash? Cut it in to 'chunks' 1 per wash, or how does it work?

I shred my laundry soap and mix with borax and washing soda. Then I run it through a food processor to ensure a fine, even powder.

 

[shunt2011]

Jessie, no it's not a Castille or Bastille. Castille is 100% Olive Oil and Bastille is mostly Olive with others added. I too would do 100% Coconut with 0 superfat for laundry soap. On your current batch I would just let it sit. It may harden up. Did you superfat it? I would then check to see if it zaps. If not you should be fine. You can always rebatch it too if you are not happy with it.

 

[JessieD]

Jessie, no it's not a Castille or Bastille. Castille is 100% Olive Oil and Bastille is mostly Olive with others added. I too would do 100% Coconut with 0 superfat for laundry soap. On your current batch I would just let it sit. It may harden up. Did you superfat it? I would then check to see if it zaps. If not you should be fine. You can always rebatch it too if you are not happy with it.

Ok, thanks for clearing that up. So you can make a soft soap (as in - using soft oils) but it's the OO content that determines Castile or Bastille. Still learning all the time.

 

[kryse13]

Really stupid question - you'll get a lot of them from me - how much do you use per wash? Cut it in to 'chunks' 1 per wash, or how does it work?

http://www.diynatural.com/homemade-laundry-detergent-soap/

Use a bar of your own made soap (100% coconut, 0% superfat) instead of the bar they recommend.

Not a stupid question at all!

 

[Dahila]

Fantastic thread, thank you guys

 

[Lindy]

Castille (100% OO) is like a rock in just a few days...