Purex provided me with a sample of Purex Fels-Naptha Landry Bar in exchange for a product review. However, all the opinions expressed here are my own.
I find it amazing that Fels Naptha Laundry Bar has been around for over a hundred years and yet I’ve only just heard about it in the last few years. With so many people trying to go green, the emergence of people making their own laundry detergent has been almost overwhelming. My mom tried to give me a recipe for this home made laundry detergent and I was scared away when I saw the list of ingredients I’d never heard of before.
Well, here I am just a couple years down the road, and I received a free bar of Fels Naptha as a Purex Insider. I suppose that the time has come to try a half batch of home made laundry detergent and to use the other half of the Purex Fels Naptha Laundry Bar as a stain remover, just to test this thing out. I haven’t many excuses now that I’ve had to buy Borax for other reasons and figured out previously where to find the Super Washing Soda.
So, 3 easy-to-find ingredients to make this homemade laundry detergent which were all found in the laundry aisle at my local Publix supermarket (prices in parenthesis were in my store):
Bar Fels-Naptha ($1.19)
Washing Soda (1 box $3.19)
Borax (1 box for $4.39)
The recipe calls for 1 bar Fels-Naptha grated, 1 cup super washing soda, and 1 cup Borax. As this was my first try, I made only a 1/4 of the recipe. Grating a fourth of the bar and mixing up a quarter of the recipe didn’t take but a few minutes.
The real test for me is how this was going to work in my top-load HE washer. I couldn’t find a powdered detergent dispenser in my washer, so I dissolved 1 TBS of the mixture into a little water, then poured it in the detergent dispenser. I won’t fully be able to attest to the scent of the detergent, as I also used about a tablespoon of vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser to help deodorize and cut soap scum (if there were any).
My first major trial was oil-stained sheets (my husband has oily skin and discolored our sheets we received in June). Pictured here is his pillow case … the dark spot you’re seeing is not a shadow!
The results weren’t stellar, but the sheets didn’t come out of the dryer reeking of oil, so I’d say that’s a point for my soap.
I had two other tests to put Fels-Naptha against. 1 old set in ring around the collar. The second was to use the homemade laundry soap to un-stink some clothes that had been stored for a long time that our regular laundry detergent wasn’t cutting. The ring-around-the-collar seemed to have lightened up, but didn’t disappear. What I can attest to is that the old stored clothes did actually come out smelling fresh.
The bonus to all this was that, for about 2 hours after making my laundry soap in the kitchen, the kitchen smelled clean and fresh (something I need to think about when I want to pass it off as if I’ve slaved over cleaning a room, haha).
I’m glad I was given the opportunity to review Fels-Naptha, as a Purex Insider! Without this push, I probably would still be cowering from the chance to make my own laundry soap. As it is, now I’m looking forward to making more and finding other uses for it!
Have you used Fels-Naptha before? What’s your favorite use?
Now, on to the giveaway! 2 winners will receive one coupon for a FREE bar of Fels-Naptha. Use the rafflecopter form, below, to enter for your chance to win! Giveaway will run 11/27/13 to 12/11/13. Please see the official rules in the rafflecopter.
