Home Experiments: Soap Nuts Phase Two

Last updated: Nov 11 2010

Phase Two: Home made soap nut liquid. Liquid testing will include; hand dish washing soap, all purpose cleaner, hair and body foam and how long does it keep anyway? This section will also include my adventures in canning to preserve large batches of soap nut liquid.

Step One: Making soap nut liquid/canning.*Done*

Results: Making up the soap nuts liquid was fun. I think I made a small mistake with this 4 liter batch but will do better next time. I have done lots of reading online while waiting for my first soap nut samples to come in and settled on the method of making soap nut liquid that seemed easiest to me:

"OVEN METHOD

* Place 7-10 soap nuts in a clean glass quart(liter) jar with a resealable lid. Fill with boiling water. Place lid on securely. Place in an oven preheated to 250* Watch until the liquid starts to bubble and then time it for half an hour. Turn off oven and let cool a little. Remove from oven.

* The jars should seal and will keep indefinitely until you need to use it.

* I make a canner load each time I make it and keep the jars with my canned goods. When you open the jar you can strain out the soap nuts if you want to, but I just leave them in the jar until the liquid is gone and then throw them in the compost or make them into paste.

* This is my favorite and most economical way to use soap nuts! Works out to about 10 cents to wash a load of laundry! (purchased in the 100g size bag)"

In my case I think the water wasn't quite boiling when I put it in the jars and they didn't bubble very quickly. The jars were in the oven a loonng time ... they did seal though so I feel the resulting liquid will keep just fine. I have 4 liter jars to test. I would like to add something that smells nice to the liquid as it doesn't smell pleasant - thankfully it leaves no scent behind it.*Success*

Step Two: Hand dish washing.*In Progress*

Results: Washing dishes with no bubbles is flat out weird! I've done 2 or 3 hand wash loads of dishes with just the soap nuts liquid - everything is coming out clean and my hands feel nice(although this may be wishful thinking as I can't recall what my hands felt like after hand washing with dish soap). Having no bubbles is more disturbing than I thought it would be - the bubbles hid just how dirty my wash water is. If I had a double sink I would take up rinsing but I don't and have always felt rinsing was a waste of perfectly good water so I won't start now. The dishes appear to be as clean as when I washed with dish soap.

Step Three: All purpose cleaning.

Step Four: Hair and body foam.*In Progress*

Results: I can make the foam from the soap nut liquid with my hand blender. I've been making it up for A & M for their nightly baths and made some up for myself yesterday. I was unimpressed by the job it did on my hair. I think a little extra scent wouldn't be a bad thing. I say "In Progress" because I feel that lengthy testing is required before I can say "Yeah, this is good" or "Nope, this sucks".

Step Five: How long does it keep?

Phase Two Summary: I continue to use soap nut liquid on the laundry and it is still getting everything clean - even pee bedding. everything smells fresh out of both the washer and dryer. The liquid smells a bit funky so I am thinking about adding a little essential oil to the liquid to make it smell better in the jar - it leaves no scent on the clothes though so I may not. Why spend money when I don't need to?

Hand washing dishes with the soap nut liquid is odder than I thought it would be but the dishes are coming out clean so I will adjust.

Soap nuts, my overall thoughts so far: I love that this is a natural cleaner but without washing dishes in nothing but hot water and clothes in nothing but cold water I can't be sure that it's really doing anything ... it must be doing something, right? After all if all I was using was water on my clothes wouldn't they stink after a while? So far everything is coming out smelling nice except for the odd thing(like smelly dish towels) that would sometimes come out of the washer/dryer smelling funky when I used traditional detergent. I was unimpressed with it as a hair wash but the kids love washing with the foam and they smell all right.

What I'm trying to say is that I don't see any difference(other than the lack of bubbles when I'm washing dishes) with the soap nuts liquid than with the traditional detergents I was using before. It doesn't clean worse but I don't see that it cleans better or that my clothes are any softer than when I used detergents(I never used fabric softener). Will I keep using it? Yes, because it cheaper and I get to "make" my own soap. I will however keep using traditional shampoo to wash my hair and the kids hair. If at any point I feel it is failing at the job I'll quit using it just like I would any product that doesn't live up to it's claims.