The Homemade Series: Laundry Soap

There is so much satisfaction in making something from scratch;

whether it's a pie crust or homemade laundry soap!

I get together with a friend to do these projects; somehow, it isn't as daunting

and it's a whole lot of fun!

We tackled homemade shampoo the first time,

and this time, we decided to try making laundry soap. 

We found all the ingredients at Walmart, except the essential oils. Since we were splitting it between the two of us, we made 4 times the amounts shown on the following recipe.

// Homemade Laundry Soap //

3 cups Borax

3 cups washing soda 

(note the box; it looks similar to the baking soda but is labeled differently)

3 cups baking soda

1 bar Fels-Naptha soap

1 bar castile soap

1 1/2 cups Zote soap

30 drops essential oils

My friend did all the shopping [see why I like this?!] and bought some cheap graters to use for grating the soap. This step takes the most time!

But it's good for the biceps, and it makes you feel a little like a pioneer woman. 

The Zote soap came in flakes, which meant less grating. 

Get those if possible; who needs nice biceps?!

[Note to self: Let your toddler photo bomb - messy hair, fake jewelry and all; it makes wonderful memories!]

Mix the dry ingredients together, and then add the shaved soap.

Stir everything together in a large bowl. 

If you want a finer consistency, put it in your food processor or blend it for a little.

Add your essential oils last!

We used a combination of orange and lavender oils. It would be fun to try experimenting 

with different scents! 

30 drops seemed like a lot, because it smelled heavenly with about 20.

But we agreed that it would have been best to use the full amount.

You can't go wrong with essential oils!

Add 2-3 scoops of soap to your laundry, depending on size of load.

I use a baby formula scoop, which is about 1.5 tablespoons.

With a soap that has a scent like this one,

 doing the laundry might become your favorite job after all!

The Home-made Series: Shampoo

I've been intrigued by all the homemade soaps, cleaning products and beauty products 

that people are coming up with as an alternative 

to the chemically-laden options that most stores carry.

There seems to be no lack of recipes; all anyone needs is a little time to dive in!

Winter is my project time.

We can't do much outdoors, so my to-do list becomes quite lengthy.

My friend, Edith & I decided to start making some of those recipes

and I wanted to blog about the results.

Obviously, it's a trial-and-error process, and not everything turns out the way you wish. Ahem.

But, it's still fun trying!

And hopefully, I'm learning some things as I go too.

Our first project was homemade shampoo.

The recipe used castile soap as the main ingredient, with honey, coconut milk and essential oils.

Here are the amounts:

• 1/2 cup liquid castile soap
• 1/4 cup canned coconut milk
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 Tbsp. fractionated coconut oil
• 1 Tbsp. Vitamin E oil
• 40-50 drops essential oils [we used lavendar & orange]

We didn't find these items in our local stores, although a natural food store would probably have some things.

Vitacost is my favorite place to shop for these ingredients,

and they carried everything but the coconut oil.

That can be purchased on Amazon.

You also need 1 cute little girl with curly hair and a big red bowl.

And a whisk.

Well, you can make it minus the cute little girl, 

but it won't be as...

cute.

Just dump the ingredients in a big bowl and stir,

or put on a lid and shake to combine.

Dispense into bottles and shake before using.

Edith loves this shampoo, and my husband has been very happy with it too!

My hair is more greasy and I wasn't happy with how it cleaned it, 

even though it's supposed to work well for more oily hair.

So...I'm sticking with a really basic routine,

which is to wash my hair with baking soda

and rinse with vinegar.

Works beautifully!

Do you have a favorite home made shampoo?