Homemade Laundry Powder Concentrate Recipe
How to make your own laundry powder concentrate at home.
You may have noticed that we are no longer making our Oriwa Naturals Laundry Powder. The product was fantastic, a natural laundry powder that was fabulous for sensitive skin and babies’ clothes and got everything clean and white. We are still using it ourselves as it keeps our laundry perfectly clean, but we are no longer selling it. It just wasn’t a bestseller and we had to make a business decision to concentrate on the products that are more successful.
Is it good for sensitive skin?
I am one of those people that break out in contact dermatitis on my hands if I use anything with a chemical or toxic substance in it. Soap dispensers at hotels and airports are notorious, as are some commercial laundry powders. I remember one time while overseas I used a laundry powder bought at the local supermarket and ended up with red itchy welts for a week afterwards on my hands and lower arms. This was the kick start I needed to start making my own laundry powder, so I knew what ingredients were in there, how they worked, and how safe they were for my skin.
Why this laundry powder?
- 1. Borax Free
Many homemade laundry powders include borax in the recipe. This is not an ingredient I would touch. It’s highly toxic and high in alkalinity and may cause rashes and itchiness, especially for those with sensitive skin. Even though borax is a naturally occurring mineral, it’s not one that I would pick for a homemade recipe where you are looking for something kinder on the clothes and skin.
- 2. Palm Oil Free
Most homemade laundry powder recipes call for grated soap bars. We use our own Oriwa Naturals Soap Shampoo Conditioner Bars which we know are 100% natural and use good quality ingredients. Importantly, we don’t use palm oil in our soap/shampoo/Conditioner bars. If you don’t use our soap bars for your laundry powder, please make sure you use one that is palm oil free. Palm oil plantations have caused and are still causing huge devastation in Asian countries by deforesting large swathes of rainforests that act as important wildlife habitat. Some plantations say they are sustainable, meaning they don’t cut down any more rainforests. However, please remember that to become a plantation they had to cut/burn down a rainforest in the first place.
Palm oil is cheap because it yields a lot of oil from one plant, but it’s slowly creeping into other ingredients. Labels hide it by using any of the following labelling: Cetyl Alcohol, Stearic Acid, Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides, Polysorbate-20, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS).
We use top quality ingredients which includes Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Robinsons Bay Olives in Akaroa, Coconut Oil and Sweet Almond Oil.
Recipe:
Oriwa Naturals Laundry Powder Concentrate
120gms Oriwa Naturals Soap Shampoo Conditioner Bars
1 Cup Baking Soda
1 Cup Washing Soda or Soda Ash (or a mix half and half)
½ Cup Salt
¼ Cup Citric Acid*
30 Drops Essential Oil – We used Eucalyptus, but lavender is another nice one to use.
Method
Pulse food processor to break up the Oriwa Naturals Soap/Shampoo/Conditioner bars until you have a coarse powder.
Add the rest of the ingredients to the food processor.
While the food processor is going add the essential oil.
Place in a bag/box/reusable plastic container. Use 1 Tablespoon per wash.
We have a number of Laundry Powder bags available if you would like to purchase some from us. These are recyclable at the soft plastics recycling at supermarkets. They keep the laundry powder dry and fresh. If you would like some please contact us on robyn@oriwanaturals.co.nz
*Citric Acid
Our recipe calls for Citric Acid. This is the most expensive ingredient but one that cannot be missed if you want your clothes coming out clean and sparling. It also lowers the PH of the water so yorur clothes come out soft. It also reduces soap scum build up in your washing machine. It’s a natural compound found in citrus fruits