Craft time: HOMEMADE Stain Stick Recipe

 Here on the farm, and in a home with a toddler and a husband who works with greasy things, we know all about stains.  Back when I was young and had time to worry about such things, I used a stain stick.  Eventually, I got lazy and busy and old and just let stains happen.  Nice shirts turned to work shirts really fast.   Which was ok, because in 2020, we don't go places where other people are, right?  Even before Corona...only the sheep see me most days. 

But then...I happened upon a pin (thanks, Pinterest) for a home made stain stick recipe, and decided to give it a go.  I wanted to use the materials I already had available for soap making, so decided to create my own recipe using soapcalc.com.  LOVE THAT SITE.  And they don't pay me to say so.  But they should, because you'll hear about it in every soap making class I teach and probably lots of blog posts.  Superfat and chemical properties that lay the groundwork for a "cleansing" bar (as opposed to a conditioning one) is a topic for another day, but soap calc explains this nicely for you if you can't wait for me to get my act together and write about it.  Plug this recipe into the site, and you'll se what I mean.  This bar is beyond cleansing, not something you want to be using on your hands  regularly like a bar soap.

Anyway...
I am going to give you this creation of mine...a magical recipe for economical and eco-friendly stain removal wonderfulness.  And if you decide you'd rather just buy it from me, good on you.  It'll save you some time.  And I have plenty to share ;-) 
But first, a few tips on usage:

Step one: Wet your stain with hot water
Step two: scrub stain with bar, let set until next wash cycle.
Step three: Wash as usual. 

Wow.  Super complicated.

You'll be happy to know, this stain stick is THE BOMB for removing makeup from cloth masks.  You can make a pre-soak solution by shaving off a bit of the bar and dissolving in hot water, but I like to use this directly on the makeup smudges and then hand wash. 

Just so you know, this recipe uses lye.  And no, this stain stick does not contain lye per say because of the chemical change it undergoes when combined with coconut oil.  Again, topic for another day.)  All this to say, this concoction will be very alkaline when first created, and will need to sit and cure for a bit to let the pH come down.   So, get going on this sooner than later my friend, and try not to spill anything on yourself for a few weeks. :-)

80 oz coconut oil
27.5 oz water
13.9 oz lye

Treat this recipe just as you would a bar soap recipe and prepare yourself with all of the necessary protective gear and proper supplies such as rubber gloves, eye protection, long sleeves, vinegar in a spray bottle (to neutralize any spills) a stainless steel pot for mixing, stick blender, silicone spatula, molds, etc. 

Very carefully add the lye to your water, stir, and let cool until between 120-130 degrees.  Warm up coconut oil to between 120-130 degrees, and combine with lye mixture,  Stick blend until soap comes to a trace, pour into molds, and watch carefully for gelling/overheating.  It's not bad for this to happen, as long as it doesn't become a soap volcano and overflow your molds.  Do not insulate molds for this reason!   Once hardened, cut into sticks (use gloves while doing this)  and let cure for 3-4 weeks.  If you have questions, feel free to contact me!