Finishing the soap

So, I pretty much ignored the laundry soap yesterday - it was hot, Ceana was a pain, and I didn't think that one day would make a difference in the scheme of things. Now, I have no idea whether that played a part or not, but when I went in the garage this morning to stir the soap and add the essential oils, it was a pain. Of course, using a metal bracket to stir probably complicated things...Anyway, after adding the oils, I tried to stir it all together so it wasn't lumpy and when it didn't work like I wanted - I cheated. I got out my handy dandy Cuisinart hand blender and proceeded to blend away. I now have wonderfully smooth laundry detergent!

You can see that the detergent has thickened considerably - holding up my "mixer". If you look close, you can also see that it's very chunky. This was when I added my essential oils - I used a mix of lemon, orange, tea tree and lavender. Comparatively speaking, I used significantly less of the tea tree and the lavender - those were mostly for their added anti-fungal properties. Of course, lemon and orange also have those properties, though maybe not as much. I think I used about 200 drops of oil total - and 3/4 of that would be the citrus. There is a slight smell when you pull of the lid, but certainly overwhelming. And you can add more (though be careful with that - it is oil and a little goes a LONG way), less, or even non at all.

This is my final mixture, after using my hand blender to mix the oils in and get all the chunks out. It is now all ready to be used - once I finish my current bottle of detergent, I will clean it out really well, then I will fill it halfway with the detergent and top it off with water and be all set. I've now got my neighbors interested in trying it...they asked for a copy of the recipe! I'll let you know how it goes when I was my first load.

Oh, and just for fun - here are a few pics of the car washing this weekend...Ceana's first! As you can see, she lost interest rather quickly...much more fun to color with chalk and romp around in her rubber boots!