After having searched blog after blog for a recipe for home made laundry detergent, I decided to go out on my own and formulate something for myself as an experiment.
I'm really pleased with the results!!
One of the things that prompted me to go out on a limb was the challenge of finding Fels Naptha laundry soap (I've never found it here in Canada) and my absolute dislike for grating soap!
I really, really don't like having to grate soap, either by hand, or with a food processor, and with this recipe, you don't need a grater!
Here's what the finished batch looks like, with the lovely Purification blend that I used in it.
To be perfectly honest, I'm not a fan of bar soap, and I rarely buy it. I had some Ivory soap though and I remembered the trick of putting it in the microwave and watching it 'blow up' that I'd found on pinterest ages ago.
(I'll say here that our microwave is almost never used, I really dislike microwaves, but for this purpose I thought it was worth a shot.)
You put your bar of Ivory soap in a glass dish in the microwave and turn it on. For a full bar of soap I had to open the microwave a few times, allow it to cool, pull off the fluffy stuff and then put it back in to keep going.
In the end you end up with fluffy white flakes of soap like this:
Add in all the remaining ingredients and mix well.
I put the whole batch in this plastic nut container from Costco. (It used to hold cashews)
I'll need to label it with a pretty label. I keep a small shot glass in the jar, and use that for measuring. For a small load, I use only half of the shot, and for a full load I fill it almost full.
I've done about a half dozen loads of laundry so far with excellent results!
The recipe:
One bar of Ivory soap (either grate it finely, or microwave until it expands and can easily be flaked by hand)
2 cups Epsom Salts
40 drops or more Purification blend Essential Oil
(blend together the epsom salts and essential oil before adding to the big batch)
2 cups Super Washing Soda
2 cups 20 Mule Team Borax
500 g box of Baking Soda
I really love this detergent so far, and I use it in my high effeciency front load washer.
You can totally mix up the essential oils. For a winter blend, I will use Thieves blend I think. In the spring I think maybe Citrus Fresh would be a winner!
The scent is really light, but the citrus oils are fantastic solvents for helping to get oil stains out of clothes. I've been known to put a few drops of lemon EO on oil stains to help get them out.
This is actually a really fun recipe to put together with the kids becuase of the Ivory soap in the microwave. They really enjoy fluffing up the mess in to tiny flakes.
I am a Young Living Independent Distributor, which means I buy my essential oils at the wholesale price rather than the retail price. I save 24% off retail, receive discounted shipping, and can earn free products through the Essential Rewards program as well as the ability to earn commissions.
If you would like to become an Independent Distributor, I would love to sponsor you! You can click HERE and enter 2066298 in the “Sponsor and Enroller ID” boxes.
I am always happy to answer any questions! Email me at thepureoil@gmail.com
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