FAQs ~ Frequently Asked Questions

Maybe you don't need a cabinet full of confusion to keep your life clean. WARHORSE is made for people who want something simple that works without the confusion, the chemicals, the lengthy caution statements.

• for people who have to wash their hands A LOT.

• for parents and grandparents who need the kids to clean

• for people who travel light and need one multi use clean—vacation house, boat, coolers, clothes, kids

I make a one soap recipe with these features:

• Safer with 6 core ingredients that you have probably eaten, and probably your dog or horse too.

• One bottle for everything. No cabinet full of confusion. No reading dozens of labels.

• Your WARHORSE, Your Water. Use it straight from the bottle or dilute it as you need. Find your sweet spot. You can't mess this up.

• Spray and Walk Away. Dilute it in a spray bottle. Spray surface. If it’s a lot of grime. add more soap to the water. Walk away for 10 minutes or the next day, whenever you fit it in your schedule. Let it work. Come back. Wipe or maybe even just Rinse. Some people clean the shower while they are taking a shower.

There’s not a lot of clinical studies or science about essential oils that are “safe” for human, dog, horse.

My essential oil amounts are low, and even lower when the soap is diluted with water.

I suggest you do your own research about essential oils.

I strongly advise “Unscented” for the following:

• scent free choice

• dogs and horses don’t want scents

• essential oils are not good for creeks, lakes, ocean. Citrus oils are actually toxic to aquatic life. So please wash boats and coolers in appropriate places.

• Essential oils and true soap sting eyes—I recommend cleaning mammal faces with just water or spot clean with a wet, soft cloth.

• I don’t find any science that eucalyptus spearmint or cinnamon, orange clove are safer for dogs and horses.

• Any human, dog, or horse can be allergic to any ingredient, so if desired, test a spot on skin.

• People ask if the lavender essential oil will repel fleas and ticks on dogs. I don’t know. But I know any soap or detergent—including UNSCENTED—will “smother” and kill fleas.

True soap (as opposed to a detergent) is naturally alkaline—closer to ocean water and baking soda than to neutral water. That alkaline chemistry is what makes soap soap, but it is also why real soap can sting eyes.

Here are typical pH ranges (they can vary by source, concentration, and conditions):

Substance and Typical pH

Ocean water 8.0–8.3 Slightly alkaline

White vinegar 2.0–3.0 Acidic

Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate solution) 8.3–8.5 Slightly alkaline

Tomatoes 4.0–4.6 Acidic

Human tears/eye surface 7.0–7.4 Nearly neutral/slightly alkaline

True soap (typical liquid soap) 9–10 Alkaline

1. I have a 20 year history of Lemon Lavender Essential Oil blend (lemongrass, lemon, lavender) usage on human, dog, horse. This includes veterinarians using it and selling it, dog groomers using it, and more than a thousand uses of pet owners using it. I have NEVER had a call or email about any issue of this essential oil blend bothering a mammal. However, maybe it did and my customer didn’t take the time to call me. There’s some “science” the suggests Rose Geranium is “safe” for dogs and horses. And I have some horse farms and grooms that have washed lots of horses with this essential oil. Also, Lavender essential oil has been banned by US Equestrian Federation for horses during competition because there is now evidence that lavender essential oil scent can “calm” horses—maybe making them perform better as less nervous….

2. Some of my customers just want a hand soap bottle beside the sink.

3. Some people just don’t believe one soap can clean hands, body, dishes, boat, and the goat. It’s just tooo wild—can’t be true.

4. Some people want a pump and some want a big refill bottle.

Yes, you can add your own essential oils to the Unscented soap. Here’s a few suggestions:

• Make sure the soap and essential oils are “warm.” This means about 70 F to 100 F, and be prepared to stir, stir, stir the essential oil in the soap.

• I use 1 fl oz of essential oil to 128 fl. oz of soap. You can adjust as desired.

Read the ingredients, wash your hands, decide what else you want to clean.

I want one soap recipe that packs a fierce clean and does not leave my skin dry and tight. I have a BIG tribe on my little WARHORSE farm—grandchildren, house, barn—and all the dirty stuff to take care of them.

My soap recipe strikes a balance of a fierce clean with a soft side. Here’s how I do it:

Coconut oil lauric acid fights the grime. But lots of lauric acid dries the skin.

So I balance the recipe with glycerin, sunflower, castor, flaxseed and pumpkin seed oils that guard the skin from all the coconut oil.

1. coconut oil has an abundance of LAURIC ACID, about 50%.

   This gives WARHORSE Rapid Cleansing Action

   When I cook (saponify) the oil with a lye, some of the coconut oil converts to monolaurin during saponification → supercharged cleaning soap.

   - Monolaurin is 10–100x more effective at washing off germs than lauric acid, provides a fast lather, cuts, grease, and washes off odors.

2. Glycerin. Every cell in your body (and your dog’s, and your horse’s) has a glycerin backbone to stay plump, flexible, and protected. All my plant oils have glycerin, but I add lots of extra. Research how glycerin in used for skin applications.

3. Extra virgin, cold pressed sunflower oil. This high-oleic ingredient is super charged with carotene and micro ingredients that provide the gentle care of WARHORSE. I get it from Oliver Farm in Pitts, GA.

4. Castor oil is loaded with RICINOLEIC ACID. This 90% powerhouse adds velvety care to the fierce clean.

5. Extra virgin flaxseed and pumpkin seed oils supercharge the soap recipe with even more gentle care. These ingredients are well-known for humans, hounds and horses too.
   

Nope, you can wash your hands, body straight out of the bottle, but a little does a lot. Then you will be “diluting” the soap as you add water to your skin.

Caution: All true soap will sting eyes, so I would use water or wipe your face avoiding eyes.

If your hands are greasy from changing the oil in the tractor, well, might need a full strength dose. If you have grandchildren, you might want to dilute it in a foaming soap bottle—usually a 1 oz soap to 7 oz water ratio. My grandchildren seem to over use it so I have a foamer for them.

First, all liquid soap is diluted the same way—you decide how much soap and how much water for the cleaning job.

For general surface cleaning like tubs, countertops, walls, 1 oz to a 32 oz / a quart of water is a good place to start. Adjust with more or less soap as needed.

I advise to only dilute the amount you will use within a month or for completing a big cleaning job in a short time.

Adding water and storage temperature can affect the shelf life of any diluted soap so use the diluted soap within a month or so.

I offer some dilution tips, but as you know, there’s different types and levels of dirt and grime. Someone might clean the tub after every use—maybe 1 Tablespoon in a quart sprayer is plenty. Or maybe if you’re like me, I use a 1 gallon sprayer with 3 oz of WARHORSE and spray the shower about 1 time per week, leave it for a while, or a day, then wash and rinse. Your kitchen countertops might be layered with sticky grime or you’re just cleaning clean. So adjust as desired.

Your Kettle Number Matters

See that handwritten number on your bottle? Kettle #___.

That's your batch number. Here's what it means:

✓ 55-gallon batch - Actual small-scale production
✓ Hand-numbered - I write it on every bottle
✓ Fully traceable - I can tell you which oils, what day, any notes
✓ Accountable - Questions about your batch? I have records
✓ Quality control - Every kettle tracked from fire to bottle

Using old world soap chemistry (saponifying oils with heat and potash/lye) lets me use the whole plant oil with all its glory—micro nutrients, waxes, vitamin E, carotene retained. The whole plant oil is better than the refined parts of the plant where just a clear, stripped down part of the plant oil is left.

Most commercial detergents for human, dog, horse are made from refined parts of the coconut oil molecule—cocobetaine, cocamidopropyl betaine, decyl glucoside. Maybe the shampoo or hand wash has sodium lauryl sulfoacetate.

Not saying these are bad ingredients—research them . A coconut based detergent works well for many people.

However, I choose to use as many unrefined oils as possible. For example, Oliver Farm does not grow cocobetaine, but Clay does grow and cold press his glorious, nutrient-rich sunflower seeds. And I like buying it to help him keep farming.

Maybe you don’t need a separate bottle of leather cleaner.

If you have a lot of leather, horse tack, car seats, etc, you might use so much you want a bottle to keep in your barn or garage. Maybe you don’t want a helper having to read the Clean About Anything label to find the Leather application.

But, the Clean About Anything will clean leather. This recipe is a liquid glycerin saddle soap (same as Leather recipe) and is used by competitive horse farms, old tinkering gals like me who have a few leather products that I rarely clean, or a farm retail store that just wants one use on the label.

Absolutely. It’s the only way I have set up to heat and saponify the oils. I could be less primitive and buy a pre-made soap base from the big soap company, but what’s the challenge in that?

I must be outside if possible.

And a fire just stirs my soul—my hunter gatherer ancestors are in my bones.

Plus, I can stir the kettle and keep and eye out for the hawks and foxes that try to snatch up my lovely laying hens.

I have made bar soap.

But I can’t wash my chicken’s dirty behind with a bar of soap. I can’t wash a Charleston rental house with a bar of soap, and it’s tough to use a bar on the boat, kitchen, goats’ feed buckets, tub, barn mats, etc.

For 20 years, I have made a liquid soap that pivots and travels with me to clean my wonderful, dirty tribe.

And a sturdy bottle of WARHORSE can roll around in my husband’s work truck and knock against the generator and plywood without breaking, or get trampled and chewed on in the goat barn, or bounce around the boat while looking for big tuna.

You understand I am sure.

Castile soaps with extra virgin oils and essential plant oils turn cloudy or white in cold temperatures because unsaturated fats and natural waxes crystallize in cooler temps.

• Vitamin E (tocopherols) and waxes solidify first, forming tiny particles.

• Every harvest of sunflower might have a little more or less of wax and change color differently from one batch to the next. All good.

WARHORSE works in large pressure washers that have a solution compartment and is mixed in with the water during application.

It works in 1 gallon sprayers and small bottles as well.

TIP: I would make a small test batch with WARHORSE and water, apply and test to see how much soap you need to get the job done. Using less soap is always better—why waste it?

Then when you find the sweet spot, make a batch. Then Spray and Walk Away and let WARHORSE have some dwell time. Or you can wipe down immediately too. You decide when, where, and how to use it. It’s just soap.

The process of making soap from fats and lye (potassium hydroxide) is called saponification. During this chemical reaction, the triglycerides in the vegetable oils break down and rearrange to form soap molecules and glycerin. When the saponification process is complete, no lye remains in the final product. 

Here’s a VIDEO chemistry lesson‍ ‍if you want to dive deeper.