The other day a good friend of mine and I were talking.  She revealed to me that she had made laundry detergent from the recipe on my site.  She also was concerned by the minimal amount of suds in the washing machine and thought that perhaps she was not using enough soap.  We discussed several different possibilities to the lack of suds: the hardness of the water, the amount of soap per load, etc.  It was not until I returned home that the answer dawned on me.

Soap naturally creates bubbles, which becomes suds when they accumulate.  We have grown accustomed to luxuriously sudsy soap.  We like to soak in a bubble bath.  We like to feel the toothpaste foam in our mouths.  We enjoy seeing the suds build up on our hands as we scrub the dinner dishes.  We have erroneously equated sudsiness to cleaning power.

Why does our liquid soap, toothpaste, and laundry detergent get so sudsy?  Manufacturer’s add Sodium Laurel Sulfate (SLS) to the recipe.  SLS is a chemical that is used as “an anionic surfactant with a detergent, wetting, foaming, and emulsifying properties”(Smolinske 360).  Formaldehyde can be included with the SLS as a preservative (359).  I was not quite sure how to cite my findings without a bibliography page.  The above information is taken from The Handbook of Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Excipients by Susan Smolinske.  You can read her entire section on SLS and see her references by clicking here.

Jake swinging from the treetops.

Why is this bad or a cause for concern?  For me, my son, Jake, is allergic to formaldehyde, which is the main reason that I began making goat milk soap, laundry detergent, and purchasing SLS-free toothpaste.  Jake reacts to formaldehyde with a itchy rash over his body if his system is overloaded.  Otherwise Jake becomes uncontrollably hyper, almost crazy.  Since formaldehyde is in so many household items, it is almost impossible to completely remove the allergen from our lives.  However, we can almost tell immediately when something bothers him.  He goes from being his sweet self to out of control.  For years, my husband and I thought he was just hyperactive.  We knew that if we did not home-school Jake then the school would be pressuring us to put him on drugs.  This is why eradicating formaldehyde from my house is important to me.

It is also important for my other children who are not necessarily allergic.  SLS has also been linked to cancer.  The elderly and babies are at the most risk as they are with most things.  Recently formaldehyde has been found in several baby products.  Click here to read the article in its entirety as well as here to see the list of tested products with formaldehyde.

Another reason that it is important is because of the environmental effects of the high-foam cleaners.  Soap made the old-fashioned way, like my goat milk soap, uses lye, fat, and glycerin.  These items break down.  In 1962, Time magazine ran an article about the ill-effects of high-foaming soaps.   According to an article the foaming chemicals added to the most popular detergents and soaps unfortunately do not break down after being used.  Over forty years ago the environmental effects were being felt in big cities.  To read the entire article, click here.

Now back to the question about the cleanliness of the soap.  My recipe for laundry detergent does not include SLS or any preservatives.  I include tea tree oil to give antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral power to the detergent.  If it does not suds up like you are accustomed, I personally would be happy that it does not.  It is environmentally friendly as well as free of SLS.  If your clothes are coming out clean, what more could you ask for?

Having said that, I have hard water at my home, which cuts the sudsiness of store-bought soap.  I am always surprised when I visit someone’s home with soft water how little soap is required to make suds.  Even my homemade goat milk soap suds up more at their home than at mine.  So the type of water you have does play a role in the amount of foam a soap makes.

I researched the question, “what makes soap clean?”  It is an interesting study in chemistry.  It would be a great study to do with an older child, but I am not going to try to relay the information here.  In short, I learned that there are three types of energy needed to clean something.  Chemical energy provided by soap, thermal energy with warm to hot water, and mechanical energy by machine or hands all combine to successfully clean.

I am constantly learning more about what we use daily in our homes.  It sometimes amazes me what companies are allowed to put into their products.  In my opinion, the harmful ingredients like SLS and formaldehyde do not need to be added to our products regardless of the amount.  I am looking for more and better ways to accomodate my family’s needs without the use of these products.  It is completely your decision, too.  After reading up on the subject, ask yourself, “What is best for my family?”

Tags: formaldehyde, goat milk soap, homemade soaps, low-foam detergents, SLS, Sodium Laurel Sulfate, tea tree oil

This entry was posted on Monday, September 21st, 2009 at 6:33 am and is filed under Food Allergies, Green Living, Homesteading. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.