Nearly all cleaning products by nature will contain an alkali ingredient, which means the pH > 7. Strong Alkali's are used to make soap through the process of saponification. The same principal applies when cleaning with them, as they turn the grease, grime & oils into a dissolvable ‘soap’ which can be cleaned away with water. 

By nature they have powerful degreasing & stain removing qualities as well as can soften water. 

Washing Soda, Borax & Bicarb are the alkali sodium cousins which range in pH levels & in power.  They can all be found naturally in ancient mineral deposits & in your Under Your Sink Starter Kits. 

Click on the tabs for a quick summary & the picture if you want even more detail about each ingredient

Oxygen bleaches are materials that release oxygen for cleaning, bleaching and dirt removal upon addition to water. They are a much safer alternative to chlorine bleach. This is the key ingredient in Napisan & other whitening products & also found in most commercial cleaners like dishwasher tablets, laundry powder.

Our Crystal Clear Percarbonate is a natural, powerful Oxybleach which is simply a combination of washing soda & hydrogen peroxide.

There are MANY surfactants on the market – chemical companies are falling over themselves to invent new more powerful & now ‘greener’ options, because this is the function of cleaning that is vital in lifting dirt & oil. Two of the mot common are Soap & Detergent. 

Soap is made with lye (strong alkali), oils (plant or animal) & water. During the process the lye is fully converted to soap & no traces should be left in the end product. Let’s face it, oils can be expensive & during the war there was limited access to it. So, companies came up with other synthetic methods to create surfactants, many of which don't even contain a single natural ingredient.

For your toolkit, we offer 2 beautiful true handmade soaps, Organic Liquid Castile Soap & Organic Coconut Soap Flakes made with only pure virgin oils, water & lye. 

No, not talking about having some LSD in your toolkit, just some good old Vinegar & Citric Acid will do the job! Acids are at the opposite end of the pH spectrum to the alkalis (which are bases). The thing with Acids & Bases is they neutralise each other when mixed together. That is why I cringe when I see recipes suggest mixing vinegar with Castile Soap, never do this! Yet when used one after the other they make a great team. 

The problem with soap is the dreaded soap scum, which is the soap reacting with the calcium & other ions in the water. This is not limited to the bathroom, this also happens to your clothes when you wash with, leaving them stiff. The answer is rinsing with an acid to neutralise & remove any of that leftover soap scum. 

Although not essential to your toolkit, the ability to emulsify your essential oils & thicken your liquid products can come in handy.  What makes them great, is they don't react with the pH of other ingredients when mixing.

We recommend Organic Vegetable Glycerine & Xanthan Gum as your thickener duo.