Soap nuts?

[special_kala]

Anyone use them?

 

[x Michelle x]

I had a free trial and they worked fine
OH chucked them out though, bloody men!
Look for a trial, I think I had to pay £2 in postage though

 

[Kate&Lucas]

I used to use them, they're good BUT they just didn't work for me, I kept forgetting and throwing them in the dryer
And idk why, but taking the used soapnuts out of the bag to replace always made me feel ill. They do a decent job though.

 

[lau86]

What are they? I thought it was going to be for people who liked watching soaps!!

 

[x Michelle x]

https://www.livingnaturallysoapnuts.com

 

[Rachel_C]

Yes, they're really good. They don't quite have the same 'oomph' for heavily soiled clothes but they do fine for dirty nappies so must be pretty good. You can use some soda crystals to give a bit of a boost to whites or stained clothes, or do every third/fourth wash with detergent.

You can cut down on fabric softener too as they are naturally softening without leaving the greasy build up you can get with softener.

I have a washer dryer so the one bad thing was that I often forgot to take them out before drying things and they go brittle and disintegrate when you do that! What I found worked better for me was to make soap nut liquid from them. Every now and then, I put 50g of soap nuts in a litre of water on the hob and simmer for 15 minutes or until the water goes dark brown. Pour off the water (keep it!), add another litre of water and simmer again. Repeat until the water stops going properly brown. From 50g of soap nuts, I usually got 2.5 litres of liquid and I would use a small cup of it per wash load, like regular detergent. You can keep a bottle in the fridge so I did that but also froze most of it (in breast milk bags!) so I could defrost a week's worth at a time.

They don't smell of anything really so it can take a bit of getting used to clothes not smelling of detergent. A few drops of essential oils can be nice if you want a scent.

They're supposed to be really good for people with sensitive skin and for nappies as they rinse out thoroughly, unlike commercial detergents. They better for the environment than detergents as they don't poison waterways.

They have other uses around the house too - the liquid can be used as insecticide so you can spray it on tomato plants and stuff, they won't poison you. Once the shells have been used, you can throw them in the compost, but don't so that before they've been used a few times or the insecticide won't do your compost heap any favours! You can use the liquid as shampoo, body wash and handsoap, and the insecticide is supposed to help prevent catching nits.