Washing powder finale

This week I came to a conclusion, I could keep hunting for the “perfect” washing powder recipe or I could stick with one I have. Really what was so wrong with it? It gets most of my things clean and smelling fresh… just spray the stains. I am happy that I am getting our clothes and linen clean with less chemicals and go with that. Then I discovered a recipe for homemade stain-remover spray (which I have not tried yet) and this… Australian Botanical Soap, you can find there website here.

So I made some up into washing powder, the lavender smell is so strong that I did not need to add any essential oil. It actually looks and smells exactly like regular washing powder (the nice kind). It cleans the clothes and makes them fresh. I also liked that they used sustainable palm oil. This is important as it gives the communities who would destroy orangutan  forest, an alternative way to survive; allowing them an income for now and setting up for future generations. This soap also feels closer to the castile soap in texture, so I have hope that I may (after a few washes) need the pre-wash spray less.

I used the 2nd washing powder recipe and after the 3rd recipe I have become accustomed to the freshness that comes with the addition of acid so now I add a small cap-full of vinegar to each wash instead of powdered citric acid. When grated, this soap makes about 1.5 cups I used a “1 cup” ratio and then made the second part with my 1 cup a quarter cup… this saved me a maths equation.

Update

I have not found the Natural New-Age Mum’s pre-wash stain remover that I found here to be particularly effective, however it might work for you, and it does make the wash smell nice. I have read that Lemon essential oil is an effective stain remover as is tea-tree oil. I also read that coconut-oil based soaps are more effective for laundry soap powder, I may experiment with adding the above oils and coconut oil soap to my powder. If you are still searching for your “goldilocks” laundry powder recipe you may find this helpful.