Fels Naphtha safety

[rathbone]

Surely FelsNaptha not any worse than something like Tide or Cheer. Plus it's about a zillion times less expensive, which is a point in it's favor.

Someone earlier posted that they made liquid from Dr. Bronners Castille soap. I might give that a try. It's a vegetable based soap as opposed to petroleum. My son has really bad eczema, so we've been using BioKleen powder for years. It's not expensive and it cleans fairly well. But it looks to me like the homemade recipe is still significantly more economical.

For severe eczema - be sure to extra rinse. It is so simple and it really helps. If things get really bad, you can wash his clothes in powdered milk. (yes I have severe eczema too) Glad for your son's sake you are aware because wearing clothing that has been washed and still has detergent residue in it felt like wearing clothing that had been dusted in acid. It literally feels like something is eating away at your skin.

 

[TanksHill]

I'm still using Zote in my laundry. You can't beat 59 cents per bar.


Im thinking since it has citronella smell it might keep the bugs away aswell

 

[valmom]

I love the smell of citronella- sort of wish I could find Zote around here.

 

[TanksHill]

I have told everyone before I would ship some if they need it. I can get the small bars for 59cents at my dollar store. It would be worth filling up a priority box. You would never have to buy any again. Sometimes I find the jumbo bars for a buck.

let me know.

g

 

[freemotion]

I take it no one here has tried homemade bar soap as a substitute for the Fels?

I haven't made my own laundry soap yet, I can't find anything but the borax. I read somewhere that the washing soda, sodium carbonate, is also pool ph balancer, but haven't looked, as it is not pool season here for a while. Any opinions on this?

I see no reason to make my own if it is not better for me and for the environment. Even if it washes out of my clothing, it is going to ultimately end up in our water supply. That is something I think about more and more.

I know a lot of people make their own laundry soap to save money (and believe me I like saving money) but my point was more to help the environment and safeguard my health. The bar of fels naptha I bought in anticipation of making my own laundry soap is still sitting there next to the borax and washing soda because...it smells too strongly. I am waiting to find out if I can make laundry soap without fels naptha in it...I don't know if the borax and washing soda would be enough to clean the clothes.

Wow, that was around two and a half years ago! I've been using the laundry soap with the fels for a long time. I was not happy with the results of the batch of laundry soap made with homemade soap since we have very hard water and I have a lot of oil stains in my laundry (two LMT's in the house, after all!) and the fels just works better. The scent does NOT cling to the clothes at all. It is like using unscented, and I am fairly sensitive to scents.

 

[Henrietta23]

I am still using the homemade gel with Fels too. I doesn't bother my skin or anyone else's. I like the way it smells, much better than scented commercial detergents, and it's lots cheaper than the Seventh Generation type stuff I can get at the co-op near me. I am not always happy with the results on badly stained clothing. I occasionally have to resort to commercial stain removers. Maybe one day I will take Tanks up on her offer and have her ship me some Zote!

 

[sunsaver]

I'm still using Zote in my laundry. You can't beat 59 cents per bar.


Im thinking since it has citronella smell it might keep the bugs away aswell

I use Zote too. Love the smell and cant beat the price!

 

[Britesea]

I have used both Fels Naptha AND Zote, I really like the smell of Zote more, but that's just a personal bias. As far as hard water problems, what our grandmothers did if they had hard water was add a handful of salt to the wash water. I bought a bag of potassium chloride water softener pellets and I throw about 1/2-1 cup in with my soap.

 

[rathbone]

Wow, that was around two and a half years ago! I've been using the laundry soap with the fels for a long time. I was not happy with the results of the batch of laundry soap made with homemade soap since we have very hard water and I have a lot of oil stains in my laundry (two LMT's in the house, after all!) and the fels just works better. The scent does NOT cling to the clothes at all. It is like using unscented, and I am fairly sensitive to scents.

Sorry about that...I made sure I read the entire thread since this is my current self sufficiency project I am working on. Glad you let me know the homemade soap didn't work as well. Saved me working hard and figuring it out on my own.

 

[PamsPride]

I smell the mineral spirits in the Fels as well. We do not use it as a body wash...only DH does for poison ivy when necessary. We mix Ivory bars, Fels, and baking soda for our laundry detergent.

I will be on the look out for the ZOTE bars though!!