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hi all, i just ordered a 1 kilo bag of soapnuts yesterday which should arrive by tuesday because they were shipped out today. karen gave me a little bag to try and now i am sold on them. here is the problem that i am running into though. i need to know how to make soap nuts liquid out of my used nuts, which by the time they get soft, are not whole shells anymore. also, i am going to make shampoo and body wash wit the liquid by adding some essential oils to the liquid as well and i am most likely going to put the liquid in a foaming pump bottle. i have no idea about essential oils, what fragrences i should use, what oils to put in the liquid so that i can keep the liquid on my bathtub ledge without it spoiling, how many drops of oil to use. also, i need to know where to purchase the foaming pump ottle and EO online, preferably from one website so that i am not paying seperat shipping for the products. i need a site that will accept paypal.
ETA
i am also debating on weather to grind some of the nuts up or not and use that as a shampoo. i am not sure about that though as according to alot of people, that is the most uneconomical way to use soap nuts.
also, when i do make the liquid from used nuts, since i haven't any sight, how will i know when all of the saponin has been extracted? i am here alone with my son all day as my dh is out of the house working and i want to make the liquid before he comes home. any ideas? should i go ahead and use new nuts for this? or should i just go ahead and go with my first idea and use the used ones? instead of straining the liquid after it is finished, can i just go ahead and boil them in the muslin laundry bags? 3 of them come with the 1 kilo bag and i ordered an extra one as well.
pitty my son is only 16 months, otherwise he would be able to tell me when the liquid was finished because unlike mommy and daddy, he has perfect eyesight. |
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| just to give everyone an update. i just decided to wing it and made my first batch of soapnuts shampoo. it is a tiny bit messy without a funnel to siphen the liquid into a shampoo bottle, but i improvised and used a 2 cup beaker, along with a breast pump flange as a makeshift funnel. a tiny bit of liquid managed to make it out of the flange as the tunnel is the same diameter as the mouth of the shampoo bottle, but i caught the excess liquid in a pot and repeated the same process. i will have to use it unscented as i do not have any essential oils, only fragrence oil which i really do not like the smell of that much for shampoo at least. i think there is still some saponin left in the nuts, so once this batch of shampoo is used up, i will boil the same set again and see if i can get the rest of the saponin extracted. |
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I don't have any website suggestions for what you're looking for but I can't wait to hear about your experiments!
I don't have much advice about how to know when the nuts are totally used up. Honestly I think that's the kind of thing that even a sighted person would be guessing at a bit. I know that the one time I boiled mine (they were used nuts, I'd already used them all at least 2-4 times) I was able to boil them 2-3 times and still get some saponin out of them. The first time the liquid was fairly dark but the consecutive times the liquid was quite a bit lighter. After 2-3 times I just figured they were pretty used up and just stopped but there was no obvious telltales signs that 'ok, this is it, they're really done now'. One tip, once the nuts are softened up in the water you can squeeze them to get more of the saponin out.
I don't see why you couldn't boil them in the little bag they give you, that's a good idea actually. I don't use mine in the wash because I find it comes undone all the time (I asked dh to tie it up real tight for me one time and then I couldn't get it undone!!) but it would probably work well for boiling!
Karen. |
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| hey karen. i washed my hair with the shampoo yesterday after it cooled a bit. it was really strange feeling, like i was washing my hair with plain water with no substance. i could not even rub the stuff around in my hair very well. i did put some jasmin oil but i think i used a tad much. despite the factthat i felt like i was washing my hair with water, it came out clean. my scalp, which is usually itchy, has really calmed down after using that liquid. there were quite alot of suds in the bottle though an afterboiling the nuts. wonder why it did not suds like that in my hair. |
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I can`t wait to experiment more with the nuts as well. I just have such a stock of shampoo and other cleaners to get through first. I might give it away to a women`s shelter or the foodbank, it`s just my frugal side is having trouble with that, LOL!
Karen. |
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