Homemade Laundry Soap - UK Style!

This blog entry isn't food related, well, I guess technically it could be because you might need to wash food stains out of your clothes or something? Anyway, I've become increasingly annoyed by everyone pinning the ''Cheap Homemade Laundry Detergent!'' business on pinterest.

The recipe(s) on pinterest calls for American products which I just CANNOT get here in Wales so I did a little bit of research and finally found a simple recipe* requiring no grating or cooking and more importantly, using products one can easily find in the UK.

It basically breaks down to around £3.60 a kilo and that covers about 40 washes. I just checked the Tesco website and a box of 38 wash laundry detergent will set you back anywhere from £6 to £12. Word.

I've already used it to wash my kitchen towels and they look and feel great. I'm currently running a load of denim jeans and so far, so good. Also, it smells awesome in my house right now. I am seriously so thrilled with this. I love saving money!!

So here's the recipe:

500 grams of soda crystals (1kg bag can be bought at Tesco for 90p) 
500 grams of Borax substitute (I bought mine through Amazon for £3.40 but next time I'll buy actual Borax through Amazon for cheaper. It's still on the shelves at Walmart, so it can't be that harmful!! Right?)
2 tablespoons of soap flakes (425g box for £1.89 at Tesco)
4 tablespoons of OxiClean (I bought a knock off brand. 450g tub for £1.99)
As many drops of essential oil that you want (I bought a bottle of tea tree oil and a bottle of lavender oil packaged together for £5 here)

Mix all of that business together. That's it. Oh, I think I used about 15 drops of tea tree and 15 drops of lavender. Then dump it in a container with a lid. I used an empty plastic ice cream tub. You only need to use 2 tablespoons per load of laundry.

Sophie Approved!

* Original recipe found here (I doubled it)