Unwanted Body Lotion as Fabric Conditioner. Would It Work?

Bronnie

Random thought...............

If you added hot water to unwanted body lotion until it was well-diluted , shook it up to emulsify and left it to cool, do you think it could be used as fabric conditioner, either for hand-washing or in the machine (bit worried about clogging?)

What do you think? ...... I have tried a little diluting-down and it did mix smoothly. Wondering about the oil element in it though? Wonder if it might be OK on woollies? Wonder if I should stop wondering about such things!!

Going to work soon, so any thoughts in the meantime!

Thanks
Bron

allydowd

Oil could leave oily marks on the clothes...and oils have been known to catch fire in tumble driers!

charliee_3

id say watered down hair conditioner would work, but body lotion is a differnet matter, its not really made to wash away IYKWIM... you could try adding it to your shower gel, but it might make the bath v slippery?

vinegar works so well as a fabric conditioner i wouldnt use anything else now!

pink_numbers

nooooo! Please don't do it! I know they both make things lovely and soft, but they work on totally different principles.

You are better off using vinegar instead - as fabric conditioner, not lotion

jfdi

Was reading this thread with great interest & was disappointed you all said no - coz I, too, have absolute hodges of unused body lotions!

Other than re-gifting is there anything they could be used for?

They smell lovely but my failure to use them means I end up throwing them away coz after 3 years or so they smell all 'plasticy'.

TIA!

ubamother

Could you mix them with liquid handsoap to make moisturising soap, or would the two just separate or curdle?

Bronnie

jfdi wrote: »

Was reading this thread with great interest & was disappointed you all said no - coz I, too, have absolute hodges of unused body lotions!

Other than re-gifting is there anything they could be used for?

They smell lovely but my failure to use them means I end up throwing them away coz after 3 years or so they smell all 'plasticy'.

TIA!

Right! thanks for your input so far! I don't actually ever bother with fabric softener, so wouldn't even be buying vinegar for the purpose nor do I use a tumble dryer!

jfdi...the random thoughts were inspired by the the " No new toiletries challenge........." on the Health and Beauty Board. I have already successfully been doing this for nearly a year, but one of the things, like you, that has been hanging round is body lotion/cheapish hand lotion, that is not really good enough to give away as gifts, it could of course be freecycled, but I was trying to find a way to use it, in place of something else that maybe I would have to buy.

I have already successfully used some of them as follows;
1. When shaving legs.
2. Mixed with liquid soap to make a creamy handwash (But now I'm using up my bars of soap and not buying liquid soap any more!)
3. My fave so far...with a handful of sugar/salt added as a body scrub in the shower or hand scrub
4. My new experiment ... diluted to a runny consistency, combed through hair as a pre-wash hair conditioner. Leftovers of cocoa butter type creams seem to be particularly recommended.

The othe ideas I have heard of are to use hand creams to clean shoes or dilute lotions down again, put in a trigger bottle and use to clean surfaces like the vinyl dashboard etc in the car.

On the other hand, I could just close my eyes, chuck it in the bin and save myself the angst!

esio_trot

Bronnie wrote: »

The othe ideas I have heard of are to use hand creams to clean shoes or dilute lotions down again, put in a trigger bottle and use to clean surfaces like the vinyl dashboard etc in the car.

Good ideas, though I'd maybe be a bit wary of using it in the car. I think moisturiser might do too good a job of polishing and make the surfaces a bit shiny - giving an annoying/distracting reflection when it's bright out. The only reason I say that is that some eejit who owned my car before me used a high gloss polish on my dash which hasn't become matte and it drives me daft on a sunny day.

Bronnie

esio_trot wrote: »

Good ideas, though I'd maybe be a bit wary of using it in the car. I think moisturiser might do too good a job of polishing and make the surfaces a bit shiny - giving an annoying/distracting reflection when it's bright out. The only reason I say that is that some eejit who owned my car before me used a high gloss polish on my dash which hasn't become matte and it drives me daft on a sunny day.

Cheers for that, but I'm all talk really, cos I can't remember the last time I polished the inside of my car ! I'm more interested in wasting time with my silly experiments!!

ceebeeby

Ha-ha, I'm with you Bronnie, I literally have about 20 bottles of body lotion lying around that I would love, love, love to do something useful with.

Could they be added to bath water maybe instead of bubble bath (which can be used as shower gel??)

Why do gift packs always include bloomin' body lotion - useless stuff tbh!

MarsdenCuckoo

What's wrong with using it on your body??? Great for massages!

Failing that, if you really don't have any use for it, package it up into gift boxes/packs and offer it to your local charity shop and/or donate it to the next friend/person you know, who is organising a raffle for a good cause.