I knew absolutely nothing about castile soap until I was researching online about how to make a cloth baby wipe solution. I found a recipe on Zany Zebra Designs' website that listed castile soap as an ingredient. My local health food store (Vitamins Plus inside Drug Emporium) carries Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap liquid & bars in many different scents. I chose the liquid version in lavender for my baby wipes. Since discovering the product, I have found several different uses for it!
Castile soap is a vegetable oil based "soap." Most traditional soaps can strip the skin of natural moisture. Castile soap is made from organic extra virgin coconut, olive, jojoba and hemp oils with pure essential oils. There are other brands of castile soap on the market, but Dr. Bronner's is the only brand I have tried out to date.
So far I have made four different products out of castile soap. The first thing I made was the solution for my baby wipes. You can read one of my previous posts to get the recipe.
My next recipe was for foaming hand soap. My mom told me that I could probably use the liquid castile soap in an empty foaming hand soap pump to make my own soap. I rinsed out an old foaming hand soap pump and then filled it about 3/4ths to 4/5ths of the way up with water. Then I filled the rest of the bottle up with the soap. Make sure to add your soap to the water to prevent major sudsing. You just made hand soap that costs pennies!
The third recipe I recently mixed up was for powdered laundry detergent. I didn't come up this recipe by any means! I found it a million different places online in different variations. I finely grated one bar of castile soap and mixed it with 1.5 cups of washing soda. That's it! Two ingredients is all it takes. Make sure and store it in an air tight container. I use about 2-3 tablespoons per load of clothes. I even use it on my cloth diapers with no problems. You can also use vinegar as fabric softener if you'd like. Just make sure and add it to the fabric softener compartment of your washing machine.
Since the laundry detergent turned out so well, I decided to try out some liquid automatic dish washing detergent. I found a great recipe from Practical-Stewardship. The recipe calls for four ingredients. Mix 1/2 cup of water with 2 cups of castile soap and add a few drops of essential oil (I used tea tree oil). She has lemon juice listed as well, but I didn't have any on hand. I poured the solution into two small bottles with squirt tops. I squirted about 2 tablespoons worth into the bottom of my dishwasher last night. I didn't have a single dirty cup or dish this morning!
The third recipe I recently mixed up was for powdered laundry detergent. I didn't come up this recipe by any means! I found it a million different places online in different variations. I finely grated one bar of castile soap and mixed it with 1.5 cups of washing soda. That's it! Two ingredients is all it takes. Make sure and store it in an air tight container. I use about 2-3 tablespoons per load of clothes. I even use it on my cloth diapers with no problems. You can also use vinegar as fabric softener if you'd like. Just make sure and add it to the fabric softener compartment of your washing machine.
Since the laundry detergent turned out so well, I decided to try out some liquid automatic dish washing detergent. I found a great recipe from Practical-Stewardship. The recipe calls for four ingredients. Mix 1/2 cup of water with 2 cups of castile soap and add a few drops of essential oil (I used tea tree oil). She has lemon juice listed as well, but I didn't have any on hand. I poured the solution into two small bottles with squirt tops. I squirted about 2 tablespoons worth into the bottom of my dishwasher last night. I didn't have a single dirty cup or dish this morning!
I hope you decide to make some of these recipes! You will save money and be using environment-friendly products!
