vegetable detergents

[sybaritical]

I'm getting keyed up to wash my jeans, and while I've got my recipe worked out just fine thanks to the collective knowledge everyone's offered up , can anyone in the UK recommend a decent mild - vegetable?- based detergent that's either readily available in stores or online?

[ringring]

I'm fond of Dr Bronner's, which is pretty easy to find in the UK and USA.

But any pure vegetable soap will do, bars or liquid. Try searching for Castile/Castille or pure vegetable soap on google. They are usually soaps made with one or a blend of Olive, Coconut and Palm oil. You're likely to find them in organic produce shops.

[sybaritical]

Once again, cheers Ringring.

what with all the preparation, it feels like I'm preparing for some sort of weird religious ceremony ....

[cheapmuthafukr]

id go with dr bronners liquid soap. i try to wash anything i can with it. and when youre done washing your jeans you can wash those indigo stains off your legs with it

[RedFoxxworth]

Dr. Bronner's is amazing... plus the dude drops maaaaad knowledge on the lable.

Actin' bad like a kid at Six Flags...

Edited by RedFoxxworth on Oct 28, 2005 at 07:18 AM

[cheapmuthafukr]

true... ive spent an hour in the shower reading that shit... its like KRS one on mushrooms and a essene jewish kick... get it

[frideswide]

In the UK, you can get Boot's Soap Flakes, which are pure soap, nothing added. Just be sure to dissolve the flakes (in a cup with little hot water from the kettle) first before you add it to the wash tub.

It doesn't have the mad acid-trip label of Dr Bronner's, it's true.. but is more readily available.

[sybaritical]

Ok. So I picked up the soap flakes, and Dr Bronner's on his way over. But I'm reading the instructions and suddenly it strikes me that I'm NOT hand washing - I'm using a front loading automatic washing machine. Can I still use what I've bought, or do I have to start again with something else? and what about the measures of vinegar and salt I was planning on using?

Thanks in advance and sorry for my Muppetry ...

[ringring]

Sure you can use soap flakes & Bronner's in your machine. Just use a quarter-to-half cup of detergent. Depending on how grubby your jeans are.

Although as you've gone to so much trouble in getting the detergents, why not handwash? (hand wash them like you'd do a cashmere knit or quilt - ie. soak them in soapy water and rinse. Don't wring them).

Machine is OK though.

Save the salt n vinegar for your fish and chips.

The advice to set the dye with vinegar or salt is commonly heard and seems to make sense from the standpoint that indigo is mildly soluble in a reducing solution, insoluble in an oxidized state. But these approaches cannot be an issue at the point that you have an actual bleeding hakama -- the acid of the vinegar does not glue the indigo to the fabric by making it less soluble. Possibly the tradition of "vinegar to set the dye" is a holdover from dying wool, a final rinse that would be better for the wool than leaving it with any amount of alkaline soap residue.

Saltwater also has nothing to do with the chemistry of indigo dye.

From: http://www.aikiweb.com/misc/shifflett3.html

[haptronic]

Has anyone used this

[sybaritical]

Quote: Save the salt n vinegar for your fish and chips.

lol! LOL!!

That thought had crossed my mind once or twice. But if my Girlfriend ever finds out that you said that Ringring, well. I'll never hear the last of it.

Hang on though. Without getting the slightest bit defensive, this has set me off.

It's always been at the front of my mind that all my denim has turned out beautifully in the past without me bothering to get this obsessive over it - I've just spent time with it and then washed it out regularly with normal bio powder and didn't think about it too much. But now it's all stepped up a bit in the last few years as people get more and more inquisitive and demanding, so hanging out here and then watching what people say on the more 'directional' websites when they discuss or advertise possible methods that might allow personal garments to become even more personal has become quite interesting.

But.

I guess that no matter what you do in your strive for artfully faded authenticity, ultimately you're still treating someone else's products a way they've already anticipated you would, so how personal can it be? We make all this noise about dry denim and the contrasts and honeycombs we achieve in it here in the

anonymity of the interweb, but, ummm, why? Personal expression? If you physically lined up half the chimps who post on this site and inspected their Regular Ralfs or APC's or Sugarcanes or whatever, we'd all look roughly the same ...

Anyhow. My starch has dried now, so I can get up again.

[Stewie]

Ringring: What is your opinion on the Carbolic soap and washboard recipe?

[ringring]

Quote:

Ringring: What is your opinion on the Carbolic soap and washboard recipe?

--- Original message by Stewie on Nov 2, 2005 07:59 AM

There's a denim washing recipe with carbolic soap & a washboard?

Are you in a skiffle band? er, I think you'll get lots a fading, nice clean jeans and an old fashioned hospital style smell. You need a mangle and dolly peg too get that truly authenic early-mid 20th Century look.

sybaritical: "It's always been at the front of my mind that all my denim has turned out beautifully in the past without me bothering to get this obsessive over it"

I agree. - and DenimChimp has a good ring to it.

[sybaritical]

Quote: Quote:

Ringring: What is your opinion on the Carbolic soap and washboard recipe?

--- Original message by Stewie on Nov 2, 2005 07:59 AM

There's a denim washing recipe with carbolic soap & a washboard?

Are you in a skiffle band?

Haha!! Gotta say I had the exact same thought!

Think I'm going to start a " most extreme washing recipe" thread. Would be fabulous. Imagine -

DenimChimp#1: " Wow awesome jeans, DenimChimp. How did you wash them??"

DenimChimp#2: " Well, I never took them off once for 18 months, and then I had them airlifted to a small

community of headshrinkers deep in the uncharted amazon basin, who wash their jeans in the

same iron pot that their forefathers once boiled missionaries in. Yeah. They trample the denim

with their feet for three days and nights at the culmination of a maaaad psychedelic

ceremony, where they add rare jungle herbs and a potent enzyme derived from the love juice

of the mudskipping ponyfish that really brings out the fade"

DenimChimp#1: Woh! sick!

Edited by sybaritical on Nov 3, 2005 at 04:26 AM

[xcoldricex]

anyone have any experience with the sugarcane detergent? they sell it here so i was thinking about picking some up..

[swyche]

i bought some sugarcane shower gel for my 6 month old baby Ralf, and asked about the instructions. Will post separate on my RRDS later and talk about detergent. My tub is being filled up slowly right now... *drum roll*