Making homemade Aleppo soap flake laundry detergent: the simple recipe

Making your own homemade laundry detergent is a simple, economical, and ecological act. With Aleppo soap flakes, you get a 100% natural liquid laundry detergent, effective in both machine and hand washing, without synthetic fragrance or preservatives. Here is the traditional recipe, passed down from the soap makers of Aleppo.

Why make your own laundry detergent with soap flakes?

Commercial laundry detergents often contain petrochemical surfactants, synthetic fragrances, and brighteners. Aleppo soap flakes, on the other hand, are composed solely of saponified olive oil, according to the original recipe for pure olive Aleppo soap. The result: clean, soft, and delicately scented laundry, a biodegradable detergent, and a much lower cost per wash. A 1 kg bag can prepare several liters of liquid laundry detergent.

The recipe for liquid laundry detergent with Aleppo soap flakes

Ingredients

For approximately 3 liters of detergent: 130 g of Aleppo soap flakes, 3 tablespoons of baking soda, 3 liters of water. That's all.

Steps

1. Heat 1 liter of water and add 130 g of flakes, stirring until completely dissolved.
2. Add 3 tablespoons of baking soda and mix.
3. Let it rest for an hour: the mixture will naturally thicken.
4. Lengthen with 2 liters of water, mix, and pour into a container. Your homemade liquid laundry detergent is ready.

Shake the container before each use and dose like a classic laundry detergent. For white laundry, you can add a spoonful of sodium percarbonate directly into the drum.

Variant: powder detergent (approximately 30 washes)

Mix 200 g of Aleppo soap flakes, 200 g of washing soda crystals, and 100 g of baking soda, then store in an airtight jar. Dose 2 to 3 tablespoons per machine. For cold programs, pre-dissolve the dose in a glass of hot water before pouring it in.

The natural anti-limescale solution

Pour 100 ml of white vinegar into the softener compartment: it prevents limescale deposits and softens laundry, without leaving an odor after drying. Be careful, never mix vinegar directly with washing soda crystals — they neutralize each other; use the machine's separate compartments.

Aleppo soap flakes or Marseille soap shavings?

Both work on the same principle: a true soap made from vegetable oils, reduced to flakes or shavings. Aleppo soap is also the ancestor of Marseille soap, inheriting the same olive oil saponification process. Aleppo flakes dissolve very well in hot water and are particularly suitable for sensitive skin, as they contain no added glycerin or additives.

Hand washing and delicate laundry

For wool, silk, or baby clothes, dissolve a small handful of flakes in a basin of lukewarm water and hand wash: Aleppo soap cleans without damaging fibers or skin. It's also the ideal solution for textiles that cannot be machine washed.

The tip from Aleppo: carpets that smell clean, without moths

In Aleppo, grandparents already used soap flakes to maintain carpets and laundry. Before storing a carpet for the season, they would slip a few handfuls of flakes into it: a natural moth repellent that protected the fibers throughout storage. When taken out, the fabric remained fresh, clean, preserved from moths, and the house filled with an authentic soap scent.

Where to start?

Al Bara Aleppo soap flakes are available in a 1 kg bag and in a 2 kg bulk format, which is the most economical. Find all our household products in the natural laundry detergent collection, and to understand everything about this ancient soap, discover the benefits of Aleppo soap.