Many DIY household recipes call for “Powdered Soap”, which used to be something that you could purchase in a box in the laundry detergent aisle of your favorite grocery store. Those times have passed and nowadays, if you want powdered soap, you must make your own. Here’s a super easy way to make powdered soap in about 2 minutes flat . . .
You’ll Need:
1 Bar of Ivory Soap
A Blender
Open the bar of soap and place it on a paper plate (or regular plate, do not use a paper towel).
Place the ivory soap in the microwave for 75 seconds, no more, no less.
(In my personal experience, You can heat Fels Naptha at full heat UP to 1 minute 40 seconds.)
Remove it from the microwave, be careful, it will be HOT and set it aside for a moment, it will cool to the touch VERY quickly.
Break it into pieces and then shove the bar into a pint size mason jar and attach the blade of your blender directly into the jar.
Of course, this step will vary depending on what type of blender that you have, but we keep a cheapie oster blender for making our own soaps, detergents, lotions, creams, salves and etc.
For complete directions on using a mason jar on your blender, Click Here.
Pulse on and off for a few seconds at a time, it takes only about 20 seconds.
A couple Notes to be aware of, YES, this will make your microwave smell like soap for about 2 hours. You can get rid of the smell immediately by heating half a mug of plain ol’ vinegar. Even better, this is a Perfect time to make the Amazing Scum cleaner recipe!
Do not try this with other brands of Soap as many of them contain Oils that will pop/splatter and REALLY stink up the house. This works fantastic with Ivory and it works well with Fels Naptha for making super fine powdered laundry soap without having to grate it.
several recipes here say to put your blender blade in a mason jar. i do not own a blender right now, but does the blade really come off? are you just removing the blender jar?
i did not know blenders could be taken apart like that. please advise…..benny
Hi Benny, Here’s a tutorial: Budget101.com – – How to Use Mason Jars on your Blender | Homemade Bullet Blender
Benny,
Some blenders do not come apart, but most do. Usually the cheap ones (like Oster) come apart and screw right on to the regular mouth Mason jars. Just keep in mind that the top of the jar must be clean and dry and the blender blades, rubber seal ring, and threaded ring that screws on to jar must also be clean and dry (make sure it’s seated properly before tightening) or you will end up with a mess.
The rubber seal slipped while blending on mine and dish soap exploded all over my kitchen, going as far as splattering the back of the couch in the living room. Good luck! Traci
benny, the blender blade piece unscrews from the blender jar, the piece with the handle, which is the container that stuff is put into to be blended. these two pieces come apart for easier cleaning so you do not cut your fingers and/or cloth to shreds trying to clean the blades. also, if you are looking for a blender for making soaps, lotions, etc., try goodwill or some place like that.
one with a glass container is best. if you get one from goodwill try it right away and take it back if it does not work or does not perform the way you want. their return policy, at least in my area (maine), is 7 days with the receipt. Hope this helps.
can you use this ivory in place of the washing soda used in the homemade laundry detergent recipe? that would basically make it fels naptha and ivory…
No. They’re completely different ingredients.
thank you for posting this, i assume it’s the same thing as “soap flakes” which is what ivory used to make and sell many years ago.i like the homemade myo body hair bleach recipe and it uses soap flakes/powdered soap in it.
love this site, budget101 is awesome!
yes, they are the soap flakes!!! i use them all the time in my laundrey!!! 🙂
if you do not have a blender, place pieces in a large ziploc bag and use a rolling pin to crush gently.
any one know where the recipe is to the powdered laundry soap
It is 1 cup grated soap, 1/2 cup borax and 1/2 cup washing soda. At least that is the recipe I haved used for years. You can increase according just keep the ratios the same.
thanks for posting your recipe for laundry soap, i was looking for that too.:bee:
if you use the vinegar to get rid of the ivory soap smell, it is a perfect time to clean the microwave. i heat vinegar and water in the microwave before cleaning it and it loosens the food for easy clean up.
ivory bar soap… like the kind i use in the shower? like this : Amazon.com: Ivory Original 16-Count: Bath Size Bars (4 Oz), 64 Ounce: Health & Personal Care ?
2 cups vinegar and 2 cups water in your microwave for 10 minutes, deodorizes and cleans it. Everything wipes out with little or no effort.
how much of this powder laundry powder are you recommended to use in a large load of laundry. i can not find where that is stated in the article. thanks in advance.
in oz here so do i still use sunlight soap in this as well and the laundry sauce or lux soap flakes?
i just use a sharp knife and cut my fels into small pieces and then put them in the food processor with the washing soda and borax. sometimes i add some zote which i cut the same way. i like the smell it adds to the soap.
i had a large plastic jug from dollar tree and use that to store the soap. i buy those mini murph’s from papa murphy’s for the grandson and use those little 3 ounce containers to scoop the soap out. It’s about 3 T, but we have a large capacity washer.
Also, the scoops from infant formula are 1 T and I have used one of those as well.
I use all Zote. Is that a problem?
so, if the soap isn’t all “puffy”, should i microwave it longer?
Tried this with fels naptha and realized how much I hate the smell of that soap, made me want to hurl. Perhaps better stick with ivory! ruined the gasket in my blender as well, be careful to seat it properly and don’t open midstream and then re-seat or you could be in trouble!
still smells the next day, ruined my appetite, so i proceeded to boil the white vinegar as directed, hope that clears it out.
We just made this and my son and I had a blast watching it puff up in the microwave. Then I blended it into the powder. It was pretty cool, but after blending it, keep your nose away from it.
The dust from the powder goes into the air and it will definitely make you sneeze and cough. If you have any breathing problems, I would recommend a mask.
I used it with Borax and Washing Soda to make some powdered laundry soap. I have a load in the washer right now to see how it works. I am not sure that I used enough in the load though.
It is a medium size load and I used about 3 tablespoons of the mix. I have seen that amount mentioned somewhere else on here. It just doesn’t seem like it will be enough.
I guess I will find out soon.
Thanks for the tutorial.
About 4 years late with this, but hey – I’m old and slow. My daughter makes her own laundry stuff with Fels-Naptha and uses a cheese grater. I tried it once and thought there has to be a better way and that’s how I found this site.
Whoever came up with that microwave idea is a genius or lucky. In any case, after nuking a bar of soap, I clamped my electric drill to the counter and chucked in what’s called a rotary rasp. I put a pie plate under the business end and fired it up.
Instant powder. I put it all in a plastic bag. Any large chunks were easily smashed with the side of my fist.
There was a little mess from what missed the pie tin, easily cleaned up with minimum sneezing (and everyone knows that sneezing is good for you, anyway). Be sure to label the bag because the ground up soap looks like corn meal and we wouldn’t want to ruin a Rachael Ray recipe.