DIY Vegan and Cruelty-Free Laundry Powder
Laundry powder is another one of those items I started looking into when I became vegan while working towards zero-waste. I was disappointed but not surprised at all the chemicals and harmful ingredients that were in most laundry detergents, especially the cheaper ones. I have been using Meliora laundry powder for years now and even talked all about them in my blog post here. I loved them and all their products but was starting to wonder what it would take for me to make it myself. When I looked into what makes a solid detergent, I found that people have been making this type of recipe for decades now. The recipe went viral on TikTok, and I knew I had to try making it myself. The original recipe calls for a bar of Fels-Naptha soap and Arm and Hammer’s Super Washing Soda, both which aren’t vegan or cruelty-free. The soap has the obvious tallow in it which is rendered fat from cattle or sheep so that’s a no-go. The washing soda isn’t cruelty-free because the brand tests on animals as well as its parent corporation Church and Dwight. I couldn’t find a cruelty-free brand of washing soda but found out it was easy to make. Did you know that baking soda is sodium bicarbonate and washing soda is sodium carbonate? If you heat up baking soda, water and carbon dioxide are removed, and you are left with washing soda. Isn’t science so cool? Now I can have washing soda whenever I want for a fraction of the cost and without guilt. To replace the tallow filled soap, Dr. Bronner’s is the easiest swap out and they have some great scents like the lavender and citrus ones I used. They can be pricey at around $5 a bar, but any vegan bar of soap will do. I went all in for this recipe but moving forward I will play around with soap brands to find the best price. I know there is some question on if borax brands test on animals as well. I had this box of borax and will finish using it so as not to be wasteful. After that I will try using Epson salts in place of borax and see if there is a difference.
Even with the more expensive bars, this laundry powder is still a fraction of the cost of your name brand all-natural laundry detergent. The Borax costs $6 for 65 ounces, baking soda costs $1 for 16 ounces, and a bar of Dr. Bronner’s is $5 a bar. Since I only use 8 ounces of the borax, it ends up only being about $0.87 per the recipe below. I am not counting the cost of the essential oil drops since you don’t use many and they can be left out if needed. Using Dr. Bronner’s soap, 24 ounces of laundry powder will run you about $6.37 a batch. Using the recommended one tablespoon for a load, one batch of laundry powder will get you about 48 loads. That’s about $0.13 a load and that’s with the higher priced soap. Dollar stores are great places to find vegan bars of soap for around $1. That would put your cost at $2.37 a batch, making each load only about $0.05 a load. I priced common brands like Meliora, (the brand I was using before deciding to make my own) Dropps, Mrs. Meyer’s, Purex, and Method and they all ranged from $10-$20 for the same amount.
If you find a good deal on vegan soap or baking soda, you can stock up since you have such a large box of Borax. This way you can make laundry powder any time you are getting low, and you know exactly what is in it. Have you heard of making your own laundry powder before? What do you think of it? The hardest part is grating the soap, past that everything is a breeze. Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Thanks for reading,
Jessica
DIY Vegan and Cruelty-Free Laundry Powder
Ingredients
- 1 cup cruelty-free baking soda (365 brand and Good and Gather brand are both cruelty-free)
- 1 bar Dr. Bronner’s pure-castile soap, grated (I used their Lavender and Citrus bars for double scent and batch size. I couldn’t decide between the two.)
- 1 cup Borax or CF Epson salts
- 10-15 drops essential oils
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
- Spread baking soda onto large cookie sheet and bake for one hour (Baking it will turn it from baking soda to washing soda. I lightly tossed it a couple times while baking with a wooden spoon, just to make sure it was evenly baked throughout)
- Grate the bar of soap and add shavings to food processor or blender. Blend for 10-20 seconds or until shavings are smaller. This gives more room for the other ingredients too.
- Add borax or Epson salts and cooled baking turned washing soda to soap shavings and blend for 10 seconds.
- Add essential oils to mixer and blend another 5-10 seconds.
- Store in a sealed container and use one tablespoon for a load. Two tablespoons for those tough loads.
- Makes 3 cups
Notes
- I wanted to use two scents for the soap, so I decided to grate both bars. You will see me make 6 cups in the pictures above, but the recipe yields less. This way it will last us longer and I don’t have to pull the food processor and grater out as often.
