Castile Soap Dilemma

9 years ago

This has probably been gone over, but I would like to ask anyway. In an effort to be more green, and remove harmful chemicals from my home due to the health issues, I have started using Castile soap. Namely Dr bronners. I know Castile is olive oil soap and bronners have really stretched their definition of Castile, but they call it Castile soap, so I am too.

I have a good amount of it, as well as their Sal Suds. And when I mean good mount I mean like a lot of it. I dilute it with distilled water and put it in a foaming dispenser. But I have noticed, being it is REAL soap, and I have hard water it leaves a residue on hands and a ton of scum and mineral deposits on my sinks, counters, faucets, tubs, etc. I don't know if I can put up with this anymore, keeping up with all the cleaning, wiping, and scrubbing. Its too much. I have tried the sal suds and it leaves zero resides. I mean it is a detergent, so it has no soap, so that is so be expected. But I feel like the amazing Castile soap that works for so many isn't working for me. I feel deflated. I love Savon de Marseille liquid as well, but that leaves a residue too. And its not just that I'm lazy, I have joint issues and over scrubbing leads to massive pain and I have to take serious pain meds, which I hate.

I would never use Castile or real soap to clean or do laundry, that just leaves a residue. So what do I do with all my Castile and what should I use for hand soap now?

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Comments (4)

grainlady_ks
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The bottom line, if you want to use Castile soap in laundry, you should also treat the hard water issue by adding a water softener product to the wash AND the rinse, AND use the hottest water possible for the fabric type for it to clean efficiently. It's not a cold water product. If your water temperature is below 60°F, neither soap or detergent performs well. If you don't treat the rinse water with a water softener product, an alternative is to add vinegar (an acid) to the rinse water to help minimize mineral staining. It is also the reason people used rain water (which is soft water) to rinse their hair and often used rain water for the rinse water for their laundry before detergents were developed.

There is a lot of science about soap/detergent and hard water. If you are interested in more details, you might want to do some more research on the subject, but be warned, it's pretty unexciting reading. ;-) You can also add water softener to the water in a sink full of water you will use on your body with "soap" to change how it reacts in the water and feels on your skin.

There is some confusion about detergent and soap. Even a debate as to whether soaps are synthetic or natural products. Soaps (sodium oleate) derived from naturally-occurring fats and oils (palm oil, olive oil, etc.) are only a couple of steps away from the original natural products. But to chemists, that step of producing the soap molecule from these oils is still a synthesis step, so they consider soaps synthetic products as well. Detergents evolved from petrochemicals (synthetic chemical cleaning agents) when natural fats and oils were being used to manufacture nitro-glycerine for explosives for the war effort, rather than for soap.

The principal difference between a soap and a detergent, after all the science mumbo-jumbo about long hydrocarbon chains, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, or saturated and carbohydrate group, protonated soap molecule, etc., is how it acts in hard water. Soaps tend to "complex" with the metal ions in hard water forming a scum, while detergents do not. The protonated soap molecule doesn't have a "charged head", so it is no longer soluble in water. The soap molecules precipitate out forming a cloudy mixture, which leads to the formation of scum. We've lived in a "detergent" world since WWII, so we are accustomed to the befits of detergents. When we switch to soaps, we fail to follow the protocol that makes them "work".

Not sure if that helps answer your questions....

-Grainlady
violetwest
9 years ago
I have used Dr. Bronner's Castile soap on my face and body exclusively for over 40 years. We have very hard water around here and the water itself leave mineral deposits behind. I have never noticed a residue on my body when using the soap, though. You have to dilute!dilute!dilute! as the bottle says.

I don't use it much for household cleaning, though.
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carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b
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I use Dr. Bronners in a foaming pump bottle for hand soap & I dilute it 1:3 or 1:4 w/ distilled water. Works great for us - no 'residue' that I've noticed. Our water is very hard too. Are you certain your water is hard, not soft, or do you use water softener? I find soft (or softened) water is the worst for trying to rinse out soaps - it always feels so slimy.
Harlow
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks for the replies, I've just been very busy as of late, so I haven't had time to post.

Yes, I'm positive I have hard water, not soft. I can feel a film on my hands after using bronners, I can't use bronners for my hair it feels waxy and gross if I do. So I guess I am delegating bronners for shower use, and I can spritz a vinegar spray in the shower and squeegee or dry it down after I'm done. Quick clean ups will cut down on big chores like scrubbing.