I'm talking about good, handmade soap! Tallow-free, rich, moisturizing lather and deliciously scented with essential oils and herbs. Who makes a good one that I could purchase online? Any of you ladies? And for not too steep of a price. I'm in love with this Zum goat's milk soap bar but its too damn expensive. I've seen some yummy soap on a few people's Etsy shops but it would be nice if I could have some firsthand testimony.
I prefer to buy soaps made locally. What will work for you depends on your water conditions and skin type, and may not necessarily be what I like to use! Seems the price tends to be about the same, regardless of where you buy it. I'm currently using soap from http://www.soapsbyjan.com/ that I bought at the county fair last fall. I really like her citrus blend and unscented castille soap, kids like her oatmeal and honey soap, and I use her old-fashioned lye soap (made with lard) for household cleaning, it works great on bathtubs and linoleum floors, and even washed away the purple hair dye in the bottom of my shower that nothing else would touch!
i'll be making a batch for myself soon, send me a pm if you want some, i'd be happy to send you a bar or two.
I've been trying to find a good recipe for honey and oatmeal as I LOVE the smell of honey and need the oatmeal for some mild eczema. Anyone have any tried and true recipes for this?
As far as I know from a friend, the oatmeal and honey smell doesn't come through the saponification process. So she puts artificial fragrances in it, which are a nono for soaps used on damaged skin...
Oh dear. I have a shampoo where the honey extracts come through pretty well, and was thinking it might with soaps also. I suppose not. Thanks, Kastenfrosch.
shampoos are not made with lye, unless they are soaps. And lye is pretty agressive stuff, so it eats a lot of scents. Then again, I had a lot of natural -non essential oil- scents, like the scent of the oliveoil and walnut oil I used, the lavenderflowers I put into oil before using it, come through soap. So I might try it. But with your eczema, wouldn't the oatmeal be a little scratchy?Or do you want it like pureed?
Probably pureed. It's not really eczema, just a type of heat rash I suppose, that comes and goes and is very mild - no open abrasions or any of the sort. I hear that honey and oatmeal is good for that (relieving some itch etc). Thanks for the tips and info.
But if the healing properties of oatmeal and honey is more important then the frargance, making a lyesoap would probably work. If you want want more frangrance from the natural ingredients, then a washing detergent, containing a tenside, destilled water and other stuff plus oatmeal and honey would probably work better, but I have no idea how to mix that, and no recipies. But your idea inspired me, and I am definately going to make an oatmeal and honey soap, without artificial fragrance, to see what it's like
we have a couple bars of oatmeal and honey home-made soap, without added fragrances and it smells great! My kids love it, but it still irritates their super sensitive skin (probably from the wheat gluten contamination in the oats from the processing plant).
melting unrefined beeswax into your base fats is an easy way to make the soap smell inherintly like honey with out adding artifical fragrances. i always use a coconut,hemp,olive and beeswaax base mixture and it holds the sweetness in. Adding honey at trace will enhance it even more but it does increase temp so practice with a small batch as it may get gritty on ya the 2st time around-must stick blend with this method I find! Also the best way to put oatmeal into soap is to grind it into a powder then adding at trace. Hint as to not burn up you scents: do not worry with bring lye and fats to correct temps-throw all your fats together, make lye and water mixture and pour together, the lye will melt the fats and mixture will cool faster you will trace faster and have a lower over all temp for adding fragrance if you want. Fragrance oils also increase fat temps so waiting longer into a trace to add those is a good trick.
Once in a while I add honey directly into the lye water mixture when it gets to about 110 degrees to get a nice deep honey color. Then I melt shea butter and add raw honey to that and add that at trace with nice results also.
