I went in for allergy testing because I’d been experiencing increasing amounts of sneezing and congestion. I live in Oregon’s Willamette Valley—the land of pollen—so I assumed I was developing the typical pollen-based misery that some of my friends suffer through every year. However, it turned out I wasn't allergic to anything natural, including pollens and my pets (good news!). I discovered, however, that my symptoms were being caused by a chemical sensitivity (bad news!), and the allergist immediately pointed to my skin care, hair care, and laundry detergent as likely culprits.
The over-the-counter, scent-free, “natural” products I was using, weren’t “natural” enough. With this newly gathered enlightenment in hand, I started looking at botanically based, DIY body care products, and found some great ways that I can be pickier about what I’m putting on my skin. I had a harder time, though, finding a laundry soap replacement that did a good job. Hence my excitement about organic soap nuts!
Soap nuts actually aren’t a nut, they’re a berry that is harvested from trees that grow in the Himalayas. They are in the Sapindaceae, or soapberry, family, and they are related to lychee. However, when they dry, they form a hard shell that resembles a nut, thus the name.
Happily for us humans, the berries contain saponin, a natural surfactant that is released when the shell absorbs water. So when you throw soap nut shells into a load of laundry, the surfactant nature of the saponin breaks the surface tension of the water and penetrates the fibers of the material, lifting dirt, oils, and stains from your clothing to be rinsed away.
Soap nuts are very gentle and an ideal laundry solution for:
Only use deseeded soap nut shells, because the seed itself can stain fabric.
The wash water will smell a bit like apple cider, which makes my chemically-sensitive nose happy, but if you want a burst of fragrance, add a few drops of organic essential oils to the bag.
A bag of soap nuts can be reused several times before it “wears out.” If the soap nuts are mushy and gray, it’s time to compost the bag and start fresh.
You’ll notice that the soap nuts don’t produce the foam and soapy bubbles that you see with commercial cleansers. This doesn’t detract from their cleaning power. Those suds you’re used to seeing in your washing machine are generally produced by artificial foaming agents that don’t actually contribute to the cleaning ability of the product.
Not only do soap nuts work well in your laundry, the lack of artificially added foaming agents means this natural detergent is also easier on your septic and grey-water systems than traditional detergents.
Pro Tips:
You may also be interested in:
Topics: Herbalism, Green Living
Heidi is an award winning freelance writer with a passion for urban homesteading. She has been honored to receive a number of literary prizes including the esteemed Pushcart Prize and an Individual Artists Award in Creative Writing from the Oregon Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts. She is proud to have earned a certificate of completion for the Herbal Medicine Making Course at the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine. When she isn’t working in the garden, cleaning the henhouse, preserving food, crafting herbal formulations, or writing and editing content for really fantastic small businesses, you’ll likely find her with her nose in a book.
I went in for allergy testing because I’d been experiencing increasing amounts of sneezing and congestion. I live in Oregon’s Willamette Valley—the land of pollen—so I assumed I was developing the typical pollen-based misery that some of my friends suffer through every year. However, it turned out I wasn't allergic to anything natural, including pollens and my pets (good news!). I discovered, however, that my symptoms were being caused by a chemical sensitivity (bad news!), and the allergist immediately pointed to my skin care, hair care, and laundry detergent as likely culprits.
The over-the-counter, scent-free, “natural” products I was using, weren’t “natural” enough. With this newly gathered enlightenment in hand, I started looking at botanically based, DIY body care products, and found some great ways that I can be pickier about what I’m putting on my skin. I had a harder time, though, finding a laundry soap replacement that did a good job. Hence my excitement about organic soap nuts!
Soap nuts actually aren’t a nut, they’re a berry that is harvested from trees that grow in the Himalayas. They are in the Sapindaceae, or soapberry, family, and they are related to lychee. However, when they dry, they form a hard shell that resembles a nut, thus the name.
Happily for us humans, the berries contain saponin, a natural surfactant that is released when the shell absorbs water. So when you throw soap nut shells into a load of laundry, the surfactant nature of the saponin breaks the surface tension of the water and penetrates the fibers of the material, lifting dirt, oils, and stains from your clothing to be rinsed away.
Soap nuts are very gentle and an ideal laundry solution for:
Only use deseeded soap nut shells, because the seed itself can stain fabric.
The wash water will smell a bit like apple cider, which makes my chemically-sensitive nose happy, but if you want a burst of fragrance, add a few drops of organic essential oils to the bag.
A bag of soap nuts can be reused several times before it “wears out.” If the soap nuts are mushy and gray, it’s time to compost the bag and start fresh.
You’ll notice that the soap nuts don’t produce the foam and soapy bubbles that you see with commercial cleansers. This doesn’t detract from their cleaning power. Those suds you’re used to seeing in your washing machine are generally produced by artificial foaming agents that don’t actually contribute to the cleaning ability of the product.
Not only do soap nuts work well in your laundry, the lack of artificially added foaming agents means this natural detergent is also easier on your septic and grey-water systems than traditional detergents.
Pro Tips:
You may also be interested in:
Topics: Herbalism, Green Living
Heidi is an award winning freelance writer with a passion for urban homesteading. She has been honored to receive a number of literary prizes including the esteemed Pushcart Prize and an Individual Artists Award in Creative Writing from the Oregon Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts. She is proud to have earned a certificate of completion for the Herbal Medicine Making Course at the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine. When she isn’t working in the garden, cleaning the henhouse, preserving food, crafting herbal formulations, or writing and editing content for really fantastic small businesses, you’ll likely find her with her nose in a book.
