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The Mother of All Soap Nuts Recipe Resources

crunched by on March 11, 2011
filed under Hair, Home Remedies, Household, Natural Beauty Recipes

One last look at soap nuts.

You know how it goes around here, right? I post great big giant resource pages of things to do with natural ingredients, and you read them all. (Thank you … thank you for being so voracious.)

So, as I mentioned, I’ve been doing just about everything I possibly could with soapnuts for the last two or three weeks, and (nearly) everything in this recipe list, I’ve tried.

Sadly, I am now out of soap nuts. I need a tree, and 9 years.

The good news is: THE HOUSE, MY FACE, AND MY HAIR IS SPARKLY CLEAN! Yay!

So without further ado, here’s how you can use soapnuts to clean your hair, your face, your laundry, your counters, your windows, your pet, and your life.

The Mother of All Soap Nuts Recipe Resources

We’ll do this in sections, so that once you HAVE your own soap nuts (especially exciting if you’re one of the winners of the drawing at the Crunchy Community … don’t forget to enter), you can come back and refer to all this good stuff. If you already have your own soap nuts, you’re pretty crunchy. Pat yourself on the back.

Three notes, though, on using soap nuts in liquid form:

  1. Soap nut liquid will sting your eyes if you’re not careful, so if you’re washing your face or hair with it, remember to keep the peepers closed. The stinging makes it perhaps not a viable option for washing your children’s hair, as well.
  2. Soap nut liquid does not taste good (and it could make your stomach hurt if you ingest too much), so keep your mouth closed while doing the aforementioned things, too.
  3. Soap nut liquid does spoil, unless you use a recipe that also includes a preservative (even then, it won’t last forever) or unless you can it. (For more information on canning to preserve your soap nuts liquid, see this link at Superior Soap Nuts.) Also, I’ve read in several places that adding 1 tsp citric acid to 4 cups of liquid will add weeks to your soap nuts liquid’s life.

Also, you can use soap nuts in four forms:

  • The whole nut/shell, which is good for laundry.
  • Liquid, which you can learn how to make in this post. It’s this form that’s handiest for most soap nut uses.
  • Paste, which is basically running the boiled soap nuts through a food processor. This is good for shaving cream and heavy-duty cleaning jobs.
  • Powder, which you can buy in powder form, or make yourself by grinding the shells VERY finely (in a coffee or spice grinder – the good news is, it cleans out really easily). This is good for laundry or adding to a homemade dishwasher detergent, which I’ll talk more about right now.

Household Recipes with Soap Nuts

Soap Nut Power Dishwasher Detergent

  • 1 c. Borax
  • 1 c. Washing Soda
  • 1/8 c. Finely Grated Castille Soap
  • 1/8 c. Finely Ground Soap Nut Shells

Stir everything together well, and use as you would a dry dishwasher detergent. (Don’t forget to put white vinegar in the rinse well, too!)

 

CrunchyBetty Says: I got to this recipe in a roundabout way. See, there are many resources that say you can just pour soap nuts liquid into your dishwasher detergent well and just use it like that. However, I did my dishes like that twice, and both times I still had some food on the dishes. (I’m not keen on completely washing off dishes before adding them to the dishwasher. As long as there’s no chunks of food on it, it goes in the machine.)

However, even though there was still some visible food on the dishes, they were audibly squeaky clean. And then the lightning bolt.

My homemade dishwasher detergent works really well at scrubbing the dishes, but it often leaves a thin white film on plastics and the bottoms of my pots and pans. Soapnuts were the missing ingredient! The thing that made the homemade dishwasher detergent absolutely and completely perfect.

If you’re the type of household that rinses all your dishes completely off before popping them in the dishwasher, though, you’ll probably be just fine using soap nuts liquid as a dishwasher detergent. Just pour the liquid in the well and go.

Soap Nut Glass Cleaner

  • 1 Tbsp Soap Nut Liquid
  • 2 Tbsp White Vinegar
  • 1/2 c. Water
  • 2 Tbsp c. Isopropyl Alcohol (optional)

Combine all ingredients in a spray bottle and shake well. Use as you would any glass cleaner. This doesn’t streak, and it’s also really great for windows/glass that are particularly messy (like toothpaste splatters or mud on the outside of windows).

Crunchy Betty Says: Because the soap nuts liquid doesn’t keep, I made mine in a smallish batch, like the above recipe. It was enough to clean all the windows and mirrors in my house, with some left over. I’m going to keep it under the sink for a while and test it, just to see how long it lasts. Vinegar is a fantastic preservative, so I’m betting it’ll go a good month or two before a new batch needs to be made.

General Household Soap Nut Cleaner

  • Straight Soap Nut Liquid

or

  • 1/2 c. Soap Nut Liquid
  • 2 Tbsp White Vinegar
  • 1/8 c. Water

Combine everything in a small bowl or spray bottle, and use as you would a kitchen or bathroom cleaner.

 

Crunchy Betty Says: When I used the soap nut liquid straight to clean my counters, it seemed like maybe there was a bit of a residue on my counter, so I filled up a bottle with the second recipe, and it works like a charm. I found it exceptionally helpful in cleaning off the hood over the stove (the part that gets all oddly dirty and sticky when the stove hood elves come out at night and party).

 

Soap Nut Bathroom Cleaner

  • 1/8 c. Baking soda
  • 1/8 c. Borax
  • 1/2 c. Soap Nut Liquid
  • 10 drops Eucalyptus Oil or Peppermint Oil (optional)

Stir everything together well, breaking up any clumps. You should have a thickish paste, which you can add more liquid to, if you’d like it thinner. Scoop out a bit of the paste with your sponge and clean your bathroom counters/tub/toilet with it. If you have any remaining, drop it in the toilet and use the toilet brush to clean the bowl well.

Crunchy Betty Says: This is similar to the homemade bathroom cleaner I usually use, but it definitely has more immediate scrubbing power. It doesn’t particularly whiten the toilet bowl, though, so if I were to do it over again, I might add a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice in the bowl as I scrubbed it. Smells so super fresh, though!

Soap Nut Hand Wash

  • 1/2 c. Liquid Castille Soap
  • 1/8 c. Soap Nut Liquid
  • 5 drops Essential Oil (Lavender, Tea Tree, or Rosemary would add extra antibacterial power)

Mix everything together in a small pump bottle and use as you would any hand soap. Alternatively, you could just wash your hands with a little bit of soap nut liquid, but adding this all together will give more cleansing power, and mixing the essential oils and castille soap in with the soap nut liquid will prolong the life of the liquid.

Soap Nut Laundry Detergent

There are so many ways to use soap nuts for laundry detergent, and none of them really require a recipe. Here are the three best ways:

  • Liquid: Add 1/8 c. soap nut liquid to the wash, in lieu of regular laundry detergent.
  • Nuts: Place 4-5 soapnuts in a muslin or spice bag. Place in the washing machine, and wash your clothes as usual. Replace the nuts after 4-5 washes, or when the flesh starts to lose its color and turn a bit gray.
  • Powder: Grind the shells (not the pits) into a fine powder. Add 1 tsp soap nut powder to a load of laundry.
  • Ice Cubes: Freeze soap nuts liquid in ice cube trays. Store in the freezer. Use 3 ice cubes per load of laundry.

For really grimy loads of laundry, add 3-4 Tbsp borax to the soap nut concoction of your choice, and wash clothes with the mixture.

Soap Nut Liquid Bug Spray (for Skin and Garden)

Pour some soap nuts liquid into a small spray bottle. Spray your skin (or plants) with the liquid. This should work as mosquito and pest repellent – and it’s SO eco-friendly. For extra bug-repelling power for your skin, add 2-3 drops citronella essential oil to the liquid before spraying.

 

Soap Nut Jewelry Cleaner

  • 3 Tbsp Soap Nut Liquid
  • 1/4 c. Distilled Water

Mix the two ingredients together and place jewelry into the liquid. Allow the jewelry to sit for 15-20 minutes. With a small toothbrush, gently scrub your jewelry clean. Sparkly!

Soap Nut Beauty Recipes

Soap Nut Shampoo

  • 3-4 Tbsp Soap Nut Liquid

In the shower, carefully pour the soap nut liquid over your hair and scrub in. Let it sit for 10 minutes and then rinse out well. Soap nuts leave your hair clean, but really incredibly soft and bouncy!

Attention No ‘Pooers: If you have dry or wiry hair issues from going no ‘poo, soap nuts could be your answer. Before your final water rinse, try pouring a bit of soap nuts liquid into your hair and letting it sit for a few minutes. Rinse well. Softness and manageability ensues.

Soap Nut Dandruff Treatment

  • Pre-Wash: Mix together 1 Tbsp soap nuts liquid with 3 Tbsp coconut oil. Massage into scalp for a few minutes. Let sit for 15-20 minutes.

Then wash with:

  • 3 Tbsp soap nuts liquid
  • 3 drops tea tree essential oil
  • 1 Tbsp Liquid Castille Soap

Mix the above ingredients together, and use as you would shampoo. If you do the coconut oil scalp treatment beforehand, there should be no reason to use conditioner after shampooing. Repeat three times a week until dandruff is gone.

Soap Nut Facial Cleanser

  • Soap Nut Liquid

Rinse your face with warm water. On a clean, damp washcloth, pour a tablespoon or so of soapnuts liquid. Gently scrub your face with the washcloth and rinse well.

Alternatively: And this is the way I’m really enjoying the soap nuts liquid at the moment.

Mix the two things together in a small bowl. Rinse your face well with warm water, and then gently scrub the mixture onto your face for 2-3 minutes. Rinse well with warm water and finish up with moisturizer.

Crunchy Betty Says: Soap nuts have a decently sturdy reputation at treating acne. Try it out and let me know if it helps!

Soap Nuts Body Wash

  • Soap Nuts Liquid

Wherein, you just pour the liquid on your washcloth and wash yourself with it. As a reminder, soapnuts are both cleansing AND softening, so your skin’ll be super soft after doing this.

OR: Drop 3-4 soap nuts in a fabric soap holder (I have a couple of cute knitted ones I found on Etsy last year that work really well). Run the contained soap nuts through the shower water for a few seconds, and then scrub your body with them. Easy, simple, and so naturally effective!

Soap Nuts for Athlete’s Foot

  • 3 Tbsp Soap Nut Liquid or 1 tsp Soap Nut Powder
  • 3 Tbsp Coconut Oil
  • 3 drops Tea Tree Oil

Stir everything together well and massage into freshly washed feet, concentrating on the effective area. Apply socks. Do not rinse off.

 

 

Soap Nut Shaving Cream

  • Flesh from 15 Soap Nuts, leftover after boiling them for liquid
  • 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
  • 3 tsp Soap Nuts Liquid

After pitting and removing the hulls around the pits (as well as any “harder” chunks of the boiled soap nuts flesh), put the flesh into your food processor and turn it on. After the flesh has become a paste, dribble in the olive oil and liquid. Watch out! The paste starts to foam A LOT. Shave immediately after making.

Crunchy Betty Says: THIS IS AWESOME. Legs are super smooth after shaving with this cream. However, there are two downfalls: First of all, I still had a little bit of chunky soapnut flesh in my mixture, so I had to shave around it. That really wasn’t a huge issue; it was just different than normal shaving cream.

Secondly, the cream doesn’t stay foamy overnight, so this might be a one-time use situation. I left the jar in the fridge overnight, and the soap nuts and oil separated. I stirred them together, which got rid of the air, so it’s more of a paste at this point. I’m still going to shave with it – it’s just not the same fun foam that it once was.

Want to see a picture of it?

Foamy Soap Nuts Shaving Cream

More With Leftover Soap Nut Flesh

My favorite part about soap nuts is that you can use every last piece of them for something. (I LOVE the necklace idea using soap nuts pits, by the way. Thank you guys!)

The best part is the flesh. After eking out as much saponin from the flesh by boiling soapnuts (again, here’s how you make the soap nuts liquid), you can use the flesh for the shaving cream above.

Or, you can get down to brass tacks and make a paste out of it for heavy-duty bathroom cleaning. Just toss the flesh in the food processor and let it go for a few minutes. Then add a little baking soda to the soapnuts paste and stir. This is great to use on grimy shower doors or for cleaning grout.

Nutty for Soapnuts!

OKAY. THERE. If you’re not convinced enough to pick up soap nuts yet, let me just remind you one. last. time. that there’s an awesome giveaway going on over at the Crunchy Community.

It ENDS TONIGHT.

So don’t forget to enter now.

And don’t forget to check out the soap nuts at Mountain Rose Herbs (along with all their other magnificent homemade beauty items)*.

*Reminder: That is an affiliate link. Love it. Use it.


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    • http://lulalola.com Lula Lola

      I am fascinated! What do they smell like? This sounds like a dumb question(especially from someone who likes making soap)but what is washing soda?

      • Crunchy Betty

        They smell kinda like fruity soapy vinegar (the vinegar smell is VERY light, though). I’m pretty neutral on the way they smell – it’s not good, per se, but it’s not horrible. Just … there.

        And! Ugh! I know you asked me about washing soda before. I’m SO sorry I forgot to answer.

        Washing soda is kinda like baking soda (sodium carbonate vs. sodium bicarbonate), but it’s a little more potent than baking soda, so it does a more hearty job at washing things. It’s also nice and softening, too.

        So far, every local regular grocery store I’ve been in sells it. It’s in the laundry aisle, and it’s always located next to the Borax. Usually high up, where people don’t tend to look as much.

        It’s very handy to have around!

    • http://thesimplepoppy.typepad.com TheSimplePoppy

      I have been using powdered soap nuts (aritha) bought from my local Indian store for a few months now to wash my hair. I make a paste, scrub it in, and rinse. Awesome, awesome hair. More than anything else I have used. I will say that in powdered form it smells like…well, salty barf. I don’t sniff too closely, and my hair never smells like it, not while it’s wet or dry, so I’m alright with it.

      Thanks you so much for compiling a list of other great soap nut recipes, I’m going to have to try all these out!

    • http://www.makeitbakeitbuyitfakeit.blogspot.com Stephanie

      Thank you for all this awesome info on the soap nuts! You’ve done all the dirty work so we can just waltz over here and say “hmm, I think I’ll use them this way”… you rock, pure and simple.

      A couple of days ago I saw a soap nut-based laundry soap on another site that contained liquified soap nuts plus a few other ingredients. It was packaged in cute little single-use vials and two of these vials were then packaged inside a cute little plastic clam-shell container with a handy chain so you could clip it onto… a belt loop? a laundry basket? dunno. The two-load pack cost $2.00… I was stunned. Over-complicating something so simple.

    • Charlene

      Thank you for all of the info on soap nuts! I do have a question about the dishwasher detergent – how much of the mixture do you use for one load? How much white vinegar do you add per load? Thanks ahead of time!

    • Shannon

      I am so excited to try out all of these! <3!

    • http://www.hildablue.com Hilda

      Love the tip about the shaving cream! I should try that when I have proper soap nuts (at the moment I’m using a soap nut powder that dissolves when combined with hot water.. Dunno how that works).
      Did you try shaking the jar when reusing it? When I washed my hair with soapnuts I made one big batch that lasted for about a week, and just shook it each time to get a foam.
      Oh, speaking of which, I had a different way of washing my hair with soap nuts. I found that just pouring a liquid over my head was kinda messy and I would always get it in my eyes and mouth (which as you know hurts/tastes foul). So this is how I did it:

      Boil about 10-15 nuts with two cups of water. Store in a separate jar in the fridge. When washing your hair pour a few tbs of the mixture into a big plastic bottle bottle (you’ll need space as it’s going to foam), add around i teaspoon of lemon or lime juice and shake very well. You will get a foam that you can spread over your head. Rinse and repeat if necessary.

    • Sassy Stephanie

      Soap Nuts made their debut in our house today in the washer! Next up…dishwasher!

    • Shruti

      Can we use soapnut instead of soap? I mean can we use it daily on skin?

    • http://www.naturallynuts.ca Deborah Naugler

      Deborah here from Nova Scotia Canada. I love your site.I have been selling and using Soapnuts for over 2 years now. Most natural amazing cleaning product on the market today.I experiment and use them for just about all cleaning. Let’s get more people using this wonderful product–if you don’t use them you don’t know what your missing.I think this is the best 100% natural product I have ever come across–I love my soapnuts!!!!

    • http://www.blog.moderngreengirl.com Brandie

      This is all such GREAT information! Thank you so much for sharing this, and for all of the recipes. I am new to using soap nuts, and I have been scouring the internet trying to find more info so I can put these babies to good use. Thank god I found you! And my readers will be thanking you too once I share this info with them as well.

    • Margie

      Here’s a question, can you use soapnuts to make bar soap? I want to start making my own but buying lye is apparently tricky, and making my own lye is trickier (although I am intrigued by what the neighbors might think of seeing a giant wine barrel in the back yard. “that wannabe hippie’s making moonshine now!”)
      I don’t want to just use a glycerine melt and pour. I’m all about doing it from scratch and thought that perhaps soapnuts would be a good alternative to a lye and oil or glycerine base.

      • Dayna Carlson

        did you ever find out? I’m trying to find out the same thing.

      • nmsht

        I posted the exact same question in many places and I was told that soapnuts aren’t used as the soap base in these soap bars, but as one of the ingredients and that the soap itself is made from the reaction lye/oil. I hope there is a successful way to make soap bars out of soapnuts without the use of lye.

      • http://www.facebook.com/erica.lind.7 Erica Lind

        I recently started making my own soap and had no problem buying lye – I picked some up at Home Hardware. Lye is necessary in order to make soap, since it saponifies the oils. I doubt that soap nuts could be used to make bar soap, but I could be wrong.

    • Shilpy

      Hi, I really like the idea of using soapnut dishwasher detergent. I do have a question though. I have really hard water where I live, will this detergent leave any white spots on the dishes? Everything else I have tried, has left the spots, even the store bought detergent…
      Thanks

    • agrosuramerica

      What is the recipe for the Soap Nuts Liquid?

    • Alli

      I know I’m late to the game on this post, but I’ve been using soap nuts as a cleaner and laundry detergent for months and LOVE it. I do the water/vingear/soapnut liquid/essential oil cleaner for ALL my cleaning and I would never use anything else. I started thinking about other ways I could use them and I’ve been wanting to get rid of shampoo, so I googled soap nuts for shampoo. And here you are. This is the third time in 2 days that I’ve googled something on your blog came up. And I’ve never read your blog before! I love it! Thanks for sharing this! I can’t wait to scour the rest of your posts!

    • Hermine

      Please tell me what the c. stands for in the recepies?

    • nmsht

      Hello

      I have been experimenting with my own shampoo for a while now. I started with castile soap and herbal tea but noticed the start of a dandruff problem and an itchy scalp, which I didn’t have before using my own homemade shampoo. I tried all kinds of natural anti dandruff treatments, (Rosemary essential oil, coconut oil, lemon juice, etc.) nothing really worked.
      Then I decided to switch to soapnuts, as it is a natural cleaning agent and an anti-dandruff. The recipe I am using right now is: soapnuts + green tea + Rosemary + sage I boiled them together, then I added two capsules of vit E. I wasn’t satisfied with the consistency of the end product, so I added about 2 Tbsp of Castile soap and some Gwar gum to make it less watery. The resulting shampoo was not easy to use, as it didn’t foam or produce suds and it didn’t feel like I was really cleaning my hair. I thought that it was a matter of habit and that the important was the result. The result was: itchy scalp, dandruff and no feeling of clean hair.
      I use all these recipes on my child’s hair and they produce the same results. She doesn’t complain of itchiness but she has dandruff in her hair.
      I really hate to go back using the harmful commercial shampoos and still hopeful that one of these recipes will work out for us. Can you please help me find where I went wrong?Thank you

    • Tipsywitch

      Margie – without lye you can’t produce bar soap. Soapnuts can be added in addition to the other ingredients, but you still need lye as it’s the chemical reaction between that and the oils which causes the saponification required to turn it into soap.

    • Anonymous

      I would like to see you become obsessed with soapwort. :) Soap nuts are exotic, and imported from far away. You can grow soapwort in your backyard. They do the same kind of thing.