I was given a bag of soap nuts a few months back and because I had a good stash of laundry soap on hand, I didn't try them right away. I've been cleaning out cupboards and closets like crazy over the past few weeks and found these little nuggets languishing at the back of the laundry shelf. Time to use them!
I had heard of making liquid soap with soap nuts and since I was running low on that, I thought I'd give it a try. After a bit of internet surfing, I plopped 1 cup of soap nuts into a small pot with water and simmered them until the colour had leached from the soap nuts. I was surprised at the saponin - there was quite a lot of bubbles with some agitation! The smell was "interesting" - not my favourite smell in the world (but not the worst, either). It sort of reminded me of apples, but wasn't nearly as nice (which is why I added essential oil to the mix).
The verdict? Definitely not for hand or dish soap, but great for laundry! The soap nut liquid was surprisingly very drying to my skin, so that meant it was not going to work for hand soap or dish soap. In the end, I used it all for laundry, but that seemed a bit of waste as I needn't have boiled it all to get laundry soap when I could have simply put the soap nuts into the washer as is! Oh well - all in the name of experimentation and learning, right?
Have you used soap nuts? If so, in what way did you use them?
Hmmm that's a shame.
ReplyDeleteI had a nice sized bag of soap nuts that a friend gifted me. I have used them for a few months. Was very happy initially but after a while Brian complained that he didn't like the lack of scent.
Plus over the summer months he found that his clothes would stink by the end of the day. Maybe a combo of the soap nuts and sweat?
I also found that it wasn't cutting it on the boys sheets (still night wetting).
So we have gone back to making washing powder.
I was hoping to use the last of the soap nuts to make some hand soap or something similar but it seems that's not such a good idea.
Yes, Becci - I have that same problem with homemade laundry liquid. Once the clothes warm up on the body, the smell is horrifying! I am using a homemade powder recipe and I've got a really good sig of peppermint essential oil in the powder which seems to be helping. That and not leaving washing in the machine for ANY length of time. It seems it's vital to get it out and on the line PRONTO to avoid odours from forming.
DeleteI have seen soap nuts around but have never used them. My hubby gets really grubby at work and I am not sure they would do a good enough job as even the home made laundry liquid struggles.
ReplyDeleteFiona, I was really surprised how well they cleaned. Given how hard the soap nut liquid was on my hands, it makes sense. I think that when it was concentrated (as in boiled down to a liquid concentrate) it packs a pretty good cleaning punch. Not sure how economical it was though as it simmered on my stove for hours.
DeleteThank you for your wonderful blog. I have enjoyed peeking into your beautiful world. I have recently joined the DTE forum as Emeline and enjoy your posts there too. Warmest good wishes to you and your family!
ReplyDeleteHi Wendy! Thank you for your kind words :) It's great to have you visit here and participate on the forum.
DeleteSoap nuts are great, I love using them for my laundry, and I'm having fun using all different essential oils to get the different scents in my wash. They're great!
ReplyDelete