I want to keep as much “natural” in my soap as possible, so in my first trial batch, I tried using actual blueberries – crushed and blended with my oils.  Well, I was less-than-thrilled with that.  The soap turned a brownish pinkish shade with flecks of dark-blue peel throughout.  Not a total disaster; the flecks were cool, but the brown was all wrong.

I wanted blue blueberry soap that smelled like blueberries.  The only way I found (well, the fastest way) so far to get blue is with colorants, so I succumbed to the lure of brilliant colors and perfumery and used ultramarines and fragrance oil.  The goat milk definitely has a diluting effect on the ultramarines – really pulls them into the pastel tone.  But with a little experimentation, I found a combination of colors that worked pretty well, I think.  The fragrance is wonderful, so that will probably stay.  Still, I think this soap recipe could use some tweaking.  I wonder if there are natural dyes (woad maybe?) that would hold up to the high pH and saponification process and offer a nice blue in the final product?    Has anybody tried this?  More research and experimentation.

So, TA-DA!  Here is my first batch of Blueberry soap!

Blueberry goat milk soap – freshly cut

Soap making is something I’m yet to try but is high on my list of things I want to do soon.  I found this great recipe with beautiful photos from Offbeat and Inspired.  Homemade soaps are not only good for your skin (since you know exactly what’s going into them) but they make great gifts too.  You can check out a tutorial for basic soap-making here.

The recipe for this one is as follows:

1. Put on your rubber gloves, goggles and mask. On the scale, measure 8.5 oz. of water into the measuring pitcher. Set the scale back to 0, and sprinkle 4 oz. of lye into the water. Stir the mixture for 30 seconds to 1 minute so that the lye is fully dissolved. Cover the pitcher with a lid or aluminium foil and put it in a safe place to cool. You want the solution to drop below 125 degrees F.

2. On the scale, add the Olive Oil, Canola Oil and Coconut Oil to your large bowl. Microwave the bowl of oils on high for 2 minutes. The Coconut Oil needs to melt fully. You can remove the bowl while there are still pieces of coconut oil, and stir to fully melt. Set your bowl of melted oils on a table and let the temperature drop below 125 degrees F.

3. While you’re waiting for your Lye Solution and Oils to come to temperature, line your soap mould with parchment paper and tape or clip the sides so the paper stays put. Once your Lye Solution and Oils have dropped below 125 degrees F (but are still over 100 degrees F), add the Lye Solution to the Oils and mix with your stick blender on a low setting. Make sure the stick blender stays near the bottom of the bowl to avoid splashing. You’ll be mixing for about 5 minutes and the soap mixture will be thickening. At this point, you are looking for “trace”. Trace is when the mixture has thickened to a pudding-like consistency. If you lift the stick blender out of the mixture, it should leave light marks on the surface.

4. Once you reach trace, add your Essential Oils and Dried Herbs. Continue mixing with the stick blender until the Oils and Herbs are fully incorporated into the soap mixture.

5. Pour your soap mixture into your mould and tap the mould on the counter a few times to let any air bubbles escape. Even out the surface of the soap with the back of a spoon like you would with brownies. Cover the mould with aluminium foil and let it sit in a cool, dry place for 24 hours.

6. De-mould your soap loaf and cut it into whatever shapes and sizes you prefer. Once they’re cut, I like to place them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet with a label specifying the date and scent so I can keep track of cure times. You should wait 4 weeks before gifting or using the soap in the shower, but after 2 days the bars should be set enough to test them out in the sink.

All photos and this recipe are from Offbeat and Inspired.

Now, I have a recipe I have used in the past that I love that I was going to post.  This is a pretty basic cold process recipe and anyone familiar with this technique won’t have any problems with it I’m sure!  Please don’t try this recipe if you are unfamiliar with the cold process technique of making handcrafted soap or if you are unfamiliar with working with sodium hydroxide (lye).

Lemongrass Poppy Seed

Olive oil                                  11 oz

coconut oil                               6 oz

palm oil                                    6 oz  (I use palm oil from a sustainable supplier)

sunflower oil                           5 oz

castor oil                                    1 oz

beeswax                                    .7 oz

set for a 5% superfat

sodium hydroxide (lye)      4.0 oz

distilled water                       9.8 oz

lemongrass essential oil       1.5 oz

poppy seeds

Remember to double check the amount of sodium hydroxide needed using a soap calculator. ( I like this one http://www.brambleberry.com/Pages/Lye-Calculator.aspx )

Step 1: Make sure you are wearing gloves, long-sleeves, and eye protection.  I measure out my lye using a kitchen scale set to oz.  Then in a separate container, I measure out my water using oz as well (weight not volume measurements are more accurate and the best to use when making soap).  Adding the lye to the water causes an exothermic reaction (it gets hot fast!) so to keep temperatures down, keep the water chilled in the fridge prior to using it.  So, after measuring the water and lye, carefully add the lye to the water, stirring continuously.  A noxious vapor is created and it is great to do this under the vent in the kitchen. If you can’t use the stove’s vent, open some windows or doors to ventilate the space.  Carefully stir the mixture until all of the lye has dissolved into the water and the water is clear.  Store in a safe place until oils have been mixed.

Step 2: Using a separate bowl, prepare the oils and beeswax.   I start with the solid oils like the coconut oil, palm oil, and the beeswax.  I put the solids in microwave safe bowl and carefully melt them in 30sec to 45 sec bursts in the microwave, stirring between each burst.  Eventually everything will mix (the beeswax will melt last).  Then add the remaining oils to the bowl being as accurate as you can in the measurements.

Step 3:  Once all the oils are well mixed, check the temps on the oil and lye water mixtures.  I like my solutions to be between 110 to 120 degrees F. Usually no more than that and when I work with milk, I like the temps even lower.  If the temps are still too high you can wait til they cool on the counter, or put them in the fridge (make sure lye water is well marked and labelled as poison so no one mistakes it as a drinkable product).

Step 4: When the desired temperatures are reached, carefully add the lye water to the oils.  At this point, I use a hand mixer to blend the mixtures together and encourage saponification (the process from which soap is made!).  I blend until the mixture reaches trace (the raw soap leaves light trails on the top) then I add my essential oil.  I love the smell of lemongrass essential oil!  So bright, citrusy and lemony!  I add around 1.5 oz of the essential oil since that amount works for me.  If you like a stronger smell, make a little more, it you like less, use less!  I blend the oil in with the hand mixer to make sure it’s fully incorporated.

Step 5: Add the poppy seeds!  I usually add about 2 tablespoons to my raw soap, but once again, this is up to the soapmaker!  If you want more exfoliation, add more seeds and vise versa.

Step 6: Place into mold.  I used a freezer paper lined wooden mold for my soaps usually.  Silicone loaf molds, and individual molds could also work.  My mold measures about 8″ x 2.5″x 3.5″. I pour the soap into the lined mold and scrape all of the soap I can out of the bowl using a spatula reserved only for soap making.  Once all of the raw soap is in the mold, I tap the mold several times on the countertop to remove any bubbles that may have formed.

Step 7: I sprinkle some poppy seeds on top of the loaf for a decorative element.  I also give the top a quick spritz with 91% rubbing alcohol to prevent soda ash formation or you could use a layer of plastic wrap on top.  I then cover the top with cardboard and wrap the entire mold in a towel to encourage the soap to go into the gel phase.  This is not necessary.  If you do not want your soap to enter gel phase, leave it unwrapped.  You could even put it in a refrigerator overnight.

Step 8:  Leave soap in mold for about 24 hours.  Remove and then cut to desired size.  Find a good location to let the soap then cure for 4-6 weeks.

There! A soap recipe!  This recipe smells great and is nice and bubbly.  My kids like it too.  Hope you enjoy the soap and don’t forget to double check all soap recipes on line with a soap calculator to make sure the  lye amounts are correct.

This is what my batch looks like! Smells yummy!

Enjoy!

This is how it feels to use MNM’s Golden Bodywash!

soon.  I am currently in Ocean City, Md., in a small condo for a whole week with the rest of my three family members, all of whom I am actively trying to convince of the good merits of MNM bodywash.  Few of them are buying it.

I honestly have no idea why they are so reluctant to give it a shot.  No, I do not exactly have a good history with bodywash, considering that my first attempt at a liquid cleanser ended with dog slobber snot soup.  And yes, at one point I did speculate that one of my liquid soap recipes left me with a terrible bumpy, itching rash that I affectionately named the Chicken Pox Incarnate after dealing with it for more than a week.  But honestly, I gave up on the dog slobber soap, and I have found my second bodywash recipe to be completely innocent in the matter of the Chicken Pox.  (After the initial breakout, I stopped using my soap for a time and then began slowly re-introducing it.  I have had no further breakouts and now believe it was the heat that caused the rash.)

What’s more, I have found my second bodywash recipe to be completely heavenly!  I don’t know how anyone could turn down the opportunity to use it on their person!  It is the color of golden sand, lathers like bubble bath, moisturizes like a nice body lotion, doubles as a shave cream and leaves a lovely scent wherever it goes.  It works just as well as anything I have ever bought in a store, and I plan to add it to MNM’s hall of fame, which consists (so far) of only my homemade chapstick.

But don’t take my word for it!  At the moment, I have managed to attain one family endorsement from my dad, and he now describes my concoction with words like “great” and “moisturizing” and “just like the real thing.”  Honestly, don’t be nervous to give this recipe a try – with dog slobber and Chicken Pox Incarnate out of the ring, how bad could it really be?

View the Timeline of my challenge

What is the Challenge?

Frequently Asked Questions

Contact Mother Nature’s Maid

Who is Mother Nature’s Maid?

This is what my kitchen would have sounded like the first time I tried to make bodywash:

#1: She’s looking great out there, isn’t she guys?

#2: You bet!  She is not looking confident grating that soap, and that glycerin spill will cost her a tenth of a point.

#3: Well this recipe has a level of difficulty of just 15.25.  Just three ingredients?  I guess that’s all MNM can handle.  She’s adding glycerin, but it can’t save this soap.

#2: You bet!  My guess is she’s overcompensating for the initial wateriness of her bodwash, but she’s going the way of dog slobber here.

#1: I think it looks great!

Last night, when I tried a new recipe, it sounded like this:

#1: Am I seeing things or is this a whole new MNM out there?  Seriously – someone’s cooking for her – is this allowed?

#3: No one’s cooking for her, and you should go back to elementary school for a good year.

#2: You bet!  All we can say is – she looks great out there!  Measuring those ingredients with a sharp eye and pouring with a steady hand.  Just look how she’s handling that Guar Gum!

#3: She is looking sharp, but she could screw it up here by missing the “immediately” in Step 4.  Let’s keep in mind all those past failures she’s had.

#2: She’ll get a medal this time – you bet!

I did get a medal – a gold medal.  A pearly liquid-gold medal, and it’s sitting in my shower in a recycled Dr. Bronner’s container.  Seriously, people – I won this time.  I love this bodywash.  I slightly tweaked a recipe from Little Seed Farm to get this:

• 1 Tbs steel cut oats
• 1 tea bag (I used Chamomile)
• 1 c. distilled water
• 10 drops lavender or tea tree essential oil
• 1 Tbs coconut oil
• 1tbsp grapeseed oil
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1-1/4c liquid castile soap (I used Dr Bronner’s)
• 1/4c aloe vera gel
• 1 tsp guar gum

Sometimes I miss the dog slobber, and maybe I’ll go back one day…if I can make it in gold.

Meadowfly Gardener Goat Milk Soap is made from our basic, mild recipe.  Then, we add rosemary and cut oats to scrub off the dirt from a day’s work in the garden or around the farm.  A mix of garden goodies such as lavender buds and sage create its subtle scent and its earthy color.

These bars will be cured in a few weeks and will be for sale through this website or at Waldo County Craft Co-op in Searsport, Maine.   They weigh at least 5.5 oz. and cost $6.10 + shipping per bar.  If purchased by phone, email, or Facebook,  you can purchase 3 bars for $17.50!

(207) 223-5115  —  meadowflyfarm@zoho.com  —  www.facebook.com/meadowflyfarm

My belief is this: If I acknowledge those malicious words with comments or remarks, then it would have been acceptable for the person to say them in the first place. So, rather than “Race Hook-ing” them back, I am choosing to take the “clean” and somewhat G-rated road and write something more productive like “Scrubbing Dirt” on my Blog…and un-friending them.

I bought this book for the amazing soap recipes.

Spring brings wonderful opportunities like planting, raking and biking. Spring also brings dirt. Now, although I am not opposed to dirt (the entrance way of my house is proof of that), I am opposed to it being tracked all through the rest of the house.

A wonderful friend enlightened me to the very thought that I could actually do something about that…make soap!

I was given a list of suggested readings and websites and Blogs, so immediately Piper and I left for the library.  Armed with about 7 soap making books (which incidentally led to other educational crafting projects, but I will Blog about that in the future), we then went to a bookstore and purchased one more soap making book. We came home and poured over them all.

Piper and I were so excited to get started, but we were missing a few key ingredients like shea butter and lye. Lye? Lye as in sodium hydroxide? Oh, my gravy!!! The last time I had ever seen or worked with lye was when I was in second year Organic Chemistry in university. That stuff is not easy to come by. Nor is it easily and cost effectively shipped.

So, what does a Homeschooling Waldorf mummy do? She sends her husband out on a mission to Calgary in search of it. There is nothing like passing the sudsy-buck.

I borrowed this book from the library. It came with a very informative and useful DVD.

True to his word, my wonderful husband found a great store called Soap and More. He informed me that this store was extremely helpful and that serious hoops and hurdles were taken before he was able to purchase the necessary lye. He had to sign a waver indicating he was not a lunatic. I told him, “You should have shown them your police badge.” He looked at me with an unimpressed grin and said, “Ha, ha. Very funny.”

Now, the other missing ingredient was shea butter. For that little dittie, I enlisted the help of another friend. Did I ever mention that I love all of my wonderful friends? My friend enlisted her husband to make a trek to Calgary and get shea butter from a natural food store. The sudsy-buck continues. In the future, I should probably write a Blog about wonderful husbands.

Now that I had all the ingredients, I was eager to begin making soap. I watched the Soap Maker’s Workshop DVD with Piper at least three times. Incidentally, Piper lost interest after the first time and left to play with her wooden blocks and playsilks. Apparently, building a fort to ward off dragons was far more appealing than watching a DVD chemist pour dangerous and caustic chemicals together.

My second and third batch of soap. It was not pretty, but perfectly useable.

I prepped my kitchen similar to a chemistry lab. The recipe was taped to the kitchen cupboard above my head, I was wearing safety goggles and gloves, the ingredients were weighed, the fume hut was on, and PIPER WAS WELL AWAY FROM THE CHEMISTRY SITE!!! She was far too young to be learning about this project yet. Besides, dragons were storming her fort and she was dealing with them.

Here is the recipe I used:

750 grams (26.46 oz) coconut oil
700 grams (26.69) olive oil
900 grams (31.75 oz) shortening
342 grams (12 oz) lye dissolved in
650 grams (22.93 oz) distilled or deionized water

For the instructions on how to make soap, I recommend taking out books from the library before one purchases their chosen book(s). I found it extremely helpful to watch the soap making DVD because it had been a million years since I entered foot in a chemistry lab. Just be sure to follow them directly…hence the reason why I did not write down MY instructions.

With gusto, I proceded to make soap. Insert Life here. My first batch flopped miserably and was completely unsalvageable. Into the bin it went. It was not even fit for a photograph.

I re-read the instructions of two books just to make sure I was doing it right. I most certainly was. I heated the oils to the appropriate temperature and the lye solution cooled. My second batch was a teensy bit better, but not by much. It was not pretty, but useable and ready for a photograph.

This third batch of soap was puffing like a raised loaf of banana bread.

I re-re-read the instructions of seven books. Making soap should not be this hard!!! Life was indeed laughing at me.

For my third attempt, I was going rogue. I chose to select and weigh different ingredients. Life probably tore a vein or peed its pants from laughing at this point. I did not care and I was not going to be beaten.

The third batch performed like it was alive. It puffed and grew. It behaved like the baby alien growing in the stomach of John Hurt’s character, Kane, from the movie Alien!! Defeated, I cleaned my kitchen/lab and returned to the real world…I assisted Piper with defending her fort from the evil dragons. At least THAT was doable.

Several days later, I decided to investigate this nagging issue with my flopped batches of soap. I was not a novice when it came to chemistry, for crying in the rain!!! I was only on the computer a few minutes when I had discovered that the lye and oil solution must be within 10 degrees of each other. I re-read over the books and I found the variance in temperatures were indeed a big deal. Some of the books had higher oil melting points and some of them had higher lye cooling temperatures.

What did I learn? I am a super keener and I just conglomerated all the recipes together and made three (less than perfect) batches of soap. Soap making does indeed take some skill…more than fighting dragons.

What else did I learn? I also learned that a true friend is clean and true to friendship, whereas, a dirty one should be un-friended.

Eucalyptus Milk Soap by Good Earth Spa

In soap making there are a lot of ways to put milk into a soap. Most often, soap makers will use part water with part milk in the liquids. Why not use full milk? The heat of the lye can scorch the milk (you’ll know this happens when you get a pot of deep orange lye milk). We want to avoid that in order to keep the beneficial nutrients of the milk in tact. It is easier to avoid scorching milk when part water is used; however, full milk soaps can be made. With a little extra attention to the lye mixing portion a full milk soap results in an extra creamy and silky feeling, nourishing bar soap.

Click Here to go to the recipe page.

What you’ll need:

• A bar of laundry soap (I used Sunlight, but Fels Naptha is pretty common too)

• 1/2 cup of Superwash (from Arm&Hammer)

• 1/2 cup of Borax
• a bucket (at least 2 gallon, preferably bigger)
• About 2 gallons of warm water

Start by grating about half a bar of your laundry soap. (If you’re into making your own soap, feel free to use that, it’s all good)

Add the grated soap to about 6 cups of warm water and put it on the stove to melt.

Once it’s completely melted and incorporated into the water, add the washing soda and borax, stir to dissolve.

While this dissolves, fill your bucket with a gallon plus 10 cups of warm water. I used a milk jug to measure, because it was easier than converting litres to gallons, and making all the proper measurements.

Next, pour your soap mixture into the bucket and stir to combine.

Once it’s thoroughly mixed, let it stand for 24 hours and it’s ready to use. We use about half a cup for a load. It’ll differ depending on your machine. If you use a bucket with a lid, just leave the soap in it, or you can pour it into smaller jugs.

It will get a bit viscous, but won’t turn into a solid mass. If it’s a bit too thick after 24 hours, add a bit more warm water and mix it up.

Have any other DIY’S you’d like to see a tutorial for? Let me know and if it passes testing, you may see it featured on this blog.

]]> http://sustainableutopia.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/diy-dish-soap/ Mon, 09 Jan 2012 02:15:34 +0000 Lesley http://sustainableutopia.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/diy-dish-soap/ We’ve always been the kind of family that never thought twice about running out to the store to pick up whatever we needed. Part of our sustainability challenge is to rely more on what we have.

This morning, my husband mentioned that we were nearly out of dish soap, and asked me to pick some up when I was out. I started to add it to my mental shopping list, and then stopped. I looked around the kitchen, and realized that we had everything there to make our own dish soap.

Good. I’d been looking for a new project, and this was perfect. I ushered Hubby and the kids off to Grandma and Grandpa’s and prepared to get my craft on.

Coffee Vanilla Soap Bars

Making your own dish soap is super easy. So easy it’s almost embarrassing to go to the store and purchase it. All you need is a bar of soap (I used one from a batch I made a few weeks ago), water and lemon juice. That’s it.

Step 1: Grate about a cup of Soap

Gratey Gratey

Step 2: Place grated soap into a pot with about two-two and a half cups of warm water.

Bubble Bubble Toil and Trouble

Step 3: Keep it over medium-low heat until all the grated soap has melted. Don’t boil it, just keep it warm.

Citron

Step 4: Allow the mixture to cool, and add about a teaspoon of lemon juice. I actually didn’t measure, I just put a good glug in. It seemed to turn out all right.

Allow the mixture to cool completely, and then pour into any container you like. I recycled an old dish soap bottle. Don’t mind the hideous colour, I used coffee vanilla bean soap to start with. Pretty or not, it’ll clean the dishes just the same.

Bar to Bottle

So that’s what I did today. Well, that and make up about a gallon of all purpose bathroom cleaner, tub scrub, and then proceeded to scrub a tub and clean a bathroom. And laundry. What can I say? It’s Sunday. That’s what we do around here on Sundays.

What was your Sustainable Sunday like?

• 1/3 cup dried oats
• 4 oz. MP base
• 15 drops raspberry fragrance oil
• 1 drop red food coloring (optional)

Start by finely mix the oats into a fine powder using a food processor. Melt the MP soap base. Remove from heat and add the raspberry fragrance oil, the red food coloring, and the oat powder, stir until well mixed. Pour into a soap mold and let set for three hours or until the handmade soap has hardened. yeah!

Any shampoo can leave a residue in your hair that weighs it down and dulls the shine.  Make your own rinse using 1 part apple cider vinegar, or lemon juice, to 1 part water, boiled and cooled.  Add 15-25 drops of your favorite essential oil and store in a spray bottle.  After shampoo and water rinse, spray and distribute the vinegar rinse through hair and scalp, then rinse well with water.

Ingredients

3 pounds cold water (distilled water optional)

510 grams sodium hydroxide

2 pounds 13 oz olive oil

2 pounds 4 oz castor oil (Make sure to purchase detoxified castor oil as the raw oil has a protein that is poisonous)

4 ounces jojoba oil

2 pounds 4 oz coconut oil

2 oz each of the following nutrients, (optional*):  shea butter, sweet almond oil, apricot kernal oil, avocado oil

30 grams grapefruit seed extract (natural preservative), optional

40-50 grams (approx 15-18 teaspoons) pure essential oil of your choice.

*If you do not use the nutratives listed above, increase the jojoba oil from 4 to 8 oz, and the olive oil to 3 pounds 1 oz.

Note:  The amount of sodium hydroxide has been increased to compensate for the use of castor oil.   

This recipe makes approximately 40 (4 ounce) bars.

This formula is for normal to oily hair type.

Preparation

Please refer to my soapmaking post for specific instructions on safety considerations, equipment and mold preparation.  Measure out essential oil, preservative, if used, and extra nutrients and set aside in separate tightly sealed containers.

Mixing Ingredients

1.  Put on goggles and gloves.

2.  Weigh out sodium hydroxide.

3. Put the 2 quart glass container or stainless pot on the scale (make note of weight) and add the required amount of water.

4.  Add sodium hydroxide slowly, mixing after each addition, until all the lye is dissolved.  Do this in a well ventilated room because there will be fumes!  Avoid breathing the fumes.  Set aside to cool.

5.  Set the soap making pan on the scale and weigh out olive oil, castor oil, jojoba oil, sweet almond oil, apricot kernel oil, and avocado oil.

6.  In a 3-qt sauce pan, set on scale, and weigh out the coconut oil.  Heat on low heat until most of the solids are melted.  Remove from heat and add shea butter.  Stir until all the solids are melted, and pour into the olive oil mixture.  If you are using a natural preservative, add at this time and stir to incorporate.

7. With both solutions at 80 degrees F, add the oil to the lye mixture slowly and stir after each addition. (Use an electric mixer on low/stir speed or a stainless steel wisk).  Continue to stir  to keep the solution in motion.  Do not scrape the sides of the pot.

8.  Trace occurs when a drizzle over the surface, sits briefly before melting into the solution.  Depending on the olive oil type used you can expect o stir for 10-40 minutes before trace occurs.

9.  Try to anticipate when you are getting  close to trace.  Add the nutratives and essential oils and incorporate entirely.  Essential oils frequently speed the trace, so work quickly to incorporate before it sets up too much to pour into molds.

10.  Quickly pour into mold.  Mixture should be smooth with no lumps, and a uniform texture.  If it begins to set use a spatula to spread over the mold in a uniform depth.

Cure & Cut

Cover the mold with plastic, heavy cardboard, or stiff board of some type, and top with a blanket to insulate.  Newspapers also help to insulate.  I usually place several inches of newspaper over the board and then top with a blanket.

Leave undisturbed for 18-24 hours!  During this time the soap will heat up to complete the saponification process.

After the required time, open the package and check for firmness.  If too soft, wait until they are firm enough to cut. These bars firm up quickly so don’t wait too long or they will be too hard to cut into nicely shaped bars.

I usually lift the soap from the mold with the freezer paper, then cut to desired size bars.  Trim the bars and then place on a screen frame to cure for 4 to 6 weeks. Cover with a towel to protect bars during the cure.

Wrap as desired in a breathable material.

*Recipe taken from The Natural Soap Book, Cavitch, 1995.

I hope this product enriches your appreciation of Life’s Simple Pleasures!  Please let me know what you think.

A commonly used anti-bacterial chemical is triclosan, a suspected immunotoxin and a suspected skin or sense organ toxin. Triclosan creates a carcinogen called dioxin, as a by-product. A Swedish study found high levels of this bactericide in human breast milk.

Not all bacteria make people sick. Some are beneficial. Anti-bacterial soaps and cleaners kill both beneficial and harmful bacteria. By doing this, they actually leave us more vulnerable to the harmful ones we encounter. Children especially need exposure to some germs, to develop their immune systems.

Scientists are concerned that the widespread use of anti-bacterials contributes to the development of resistant bacteria, ie bacterial that will only be killed by different or stronger doses of chemicals. So when we need to kill harmful bacteria, like strep, staph and e-coli, it will be more difficult.

Soap is one of those must-have items, but that doesn’t mean you have to buy it at the store. Learn how to make your own soap, and enjoy the savings!

The recipe for making your own liquid hand soap is super-simple—so simple, you’ll be surprised when you realize how much markup you pay for a slim tube of the stuff. The Tipnut blog shares a recipe pulled from a “country wisdom” tome that uses just bar soap, honey, glycerine, and boiling water to make a good vat of the stuff. You can add your own herbs or other scent enhancers—just don’t go tossing anything that will spoil in the mixture. Make a good amount of the stuff, store it away, and refill your pump containers instead of giving the smelly store in the mall another $4.

Ingredients

1 bar soap (6 oz)
1 TBS honey
1 tsp glycerin
water

Directions

• Grate bar of soap into small flakes, pour in blender.
• Add 1 cup boiling water and whip.
• Add 1/2 cup room temperature water and stir in blender.
• Add honey and glycerin, stir.
• Allow mix to cool (15 minutes) then whip again.
• Mixture should be 2 cups at this point. Top with cool water until mixture measures between 5 and 6 cups, whip.
• Pour into containers and allow to cool (do not put lids or caps on yet).
• After an hour, close containers. Soap mixture will thicken up.
• Shake before using as needed.

Optional: You can make this with herb infused water, just strain before using.

Source: Adapted from Pearls of Country Wisdom by Debora S. Tukua

As part of the Grow Your Own Drugs Series by James Wong, I found a recipe for a healing soap, which for us as gardeners is a Godsend. Between scrubbing the floor after our puppy, gardening and playing with our three year old, our hands take quite a battering every day, but we have found with regular use of this soap our hands were softer and less painful than before.

This is listed as an anti-fungal soap, meaning it is really useful for any kind of fungal skin conditions such as ringworm, athlete’s foot and thrush, but it is also a really good antiseptic hand wash.

The best part of this soap, however, is that it seems to speed the healing of cuts and grazes! It really works. We were both very surprised when we mentioned to each other that we’d noticed a difference, and I’d love to know whether others who have tried it have experienced the same effects.

I’ve tried to take pictures at each step, so that you can follow along, but it’s tricky as this recipe requires constant stirring once the soap is on the heat!

You will need:

300g White Soap (I use Simple, as it is gentler on the skin and contains no perfumes)
500ml Water
5 tbsp Almond Oil (or Olive, jojoba or avocado- all of these are great for the skin)
2 tsp Tea Tree Essential Oil (Available at supermarkets, chemists and health food shops)
4tbsp Dried Calendula (Marigold) Flowers (Although you can use fresh, just double the amount)
30 Drops Thyme Essential Oil (Which is a brilliant anti-fungal but as I wasn’t making the soap for a skin condition, I replaced this with  dried viola ‘heartsease’ flowers, which are great for the skin)

Place a saucepan of boiling water onto a low heat to keep it warm.

Grate the soap into a glass bowl. I have halved the quantities this time, as I only had 150g of soap! Be careful when grating. Today, I managed to grate the base of my thumb, one of my fingers, and the thumbnail of my right hand- not pleasant. Although, the soap will help it to heal!

Add the water to the bowl and place on top of the saucepan, ensuring a snug fit.

Stir continuously until the soap melts. The picture shows the soap in the process of melting.

Once the soap has melted, add the Almond Oil, Tea Tree Oil, Thyme Oil (if using) or Viola Flowers and the Marigold Flowers. Stir in with a metal spoon, mixing thoroughly.

Once you have thoroughly mixed it together, pour it into a loaf tin, or soap moulds if you have them, and spread out evenly. Decorate however you prefer. I have used a Marigold flower and Black and Blue Cornflowers. Leave it to cool.

Once the soap has set you can slice it into pieces to use, and store the extra in an airtight tub in the fridge, or give to friends as wonderful home made gifts! I wrap mine in brown greaseproof paper and tie with ribbons, and people seem to really like receiving them.

And easy as that, you’ve made your own healing soap!

There is something deeply satisfying about lathering up with soap that you have created. The process of cold process soap making requires patience and the ability to accept imperfection – two traits that I am attempting to cultivate.

Here I will show you how to make your own soap from scratch. I use organic ingredients whenever possible and this recipe has proven to be somewhat fool-proof, yielding roughly 10 lbs of rich lathering body and hair soap.

Supplies

• 8-12 quart stainless steel pot with lid – this will be the main soap making pot
• 3-4 quart saucepan
• 3 quart glass bowl
• a good heavy duty rubber spatula
• a scale that can weigh up to 8 lbs
• a thermometer (I use a candy thermometer)
• soap mold  – mine is homemade out of plywood with handles for ease when lifting but you can also buy them here. The mold should measure 25 1/2″ x 13 1/2″ x 4″ for this recipe.
• heavy duty wax paper for lining the mold
• masking tape
• paring knife
• safety goggles and heavy duty rubber gloves (these are a MUST)

Basic Soap Recipe

This is my favorite base for all of my soaps. You can add essential oils and herbs to customize this recipe to your liking. Again, I prefer to use organic oils, scents and herbs in all of my soap making.

• 3 lbs distilled water (room temperature)
• 16.69 oz of lye* (aka sodium hydroxide)
• 4 lbs olive oil
• 2 lbs 8 oz coconut oil
• 1 lb 8 oz palm oil (I use Spectrum shortening which comes in the exact size tub you need for this recipe)
• optional: 16 teaspoons pure essential oil (for this recipe I used eucalyptus oil but I also like lavender, lemon, orange, sandalwood…the options are endless)
• optional: dried herbs, oatmeal, flax meal…any natural ingredients to add texture, scent and even color (for this recipe I used dried crushed patchouli)

*Some people have questioned the use of lye because in it’s pure state it is highly toxic and corrosive. However, when mixed with the oils to make soap a chemical reaction called “saponification” occurs which transforms the lye-oil combo into soap. It is essential to soap making and is what makes soap…well, soap.

Step One – Preparation

Set out all of your equipment and line your mold with the wax paper, shiny side down. Secure the wax paper with masking tape and try to make the lining as smooth as possible.

Step Two – Measure Water and Lye

Put on your safety goggles and gloves and carefully weigh out the lye, setting it aside in a secure spot until you need it.

Set the glass bowl on the scale and reset the scale to zero with the bowl on it (simply press “tare” on electronic scales). Now pour the water into the glass bowl until you’ve measured out 3 lbs.

Step Three – Mix Water and Lye

Now this is the tricky part. I prefer to do this part outside or in a room with all of the windows open – you are going to add the lye to the water and the fumes can get pretty bad. Take a deep breath, hold it for as long as possible, and slowly add the lye to the water, stirring slowly until the lye is dissolved. The water will become cloudy and the mixture will get very very hot so be careful!

Set the bowl in a safe spot to cool down – it needs to cool to 80 degrees F. And, depending on how warm it is where you keep the mixture to cool, it can take a while.

Step Four – Mix Oils

Measure out your olive oil and pour it into the large soap making pot. Measure out the coconut and palm oils and place them in the smaller saucepan. Place the saucepan of coconut oil and palm oil over low heat and stir until most of the solid pieces have melted. Pour the heated oils into the large pot with the olive oil and set this pot aside to cool.

Once the lye mixture and the oils have cooled to 80 degrees F you can begin the soap making process.

Step Five – Making the Soap

If you’re wearing your goggles and gloves, you can begin to carefully and slowly pour the lye mixture into the oil mix. If you’re not wearing your safety equipment – go put it on, right now.

As you pour the lye into the oil stir briskly with your clean rubber spatula. I like to make a figure eight as I stir to ensure that everything gets mixed really well.

Once the lye has been added to the oils I switch to an electric stick hand mixer. I’ve found that this mixes really well and saves my arms the pain of stirring and stirring and stirring – but by hand is just as good, if not better.

DO NOT scrape the sides or the bottom of the pot. Just keep stirring in a figure eight pattern until a small amount of soap drizzled across the top of the mix leaves a slight pattern before disappearing. Note: I couldn’t get a clear picture of this but you will know it when you see it.

At this point you can mix in your essential oils followed by any herbs or extras. Give it one more good mix and then stop – over mixing can cause the soap to seize up and harden too soon.

Step Six – Pour the Soap Mixture Into the Mold

This is pretty self explanatory – just make sure you pour it evenly. I like to tap the mold on a hard surface a couple of times (like you would cake batter) to make sure there are no air bubbles and that everything is spread evenly. Also, do not scrape the remaining mixture out of the pot. Leave it in there and wash it out – scraping it could mess up the whole process…trust me.

Once the mix is poured into the mold place a piece of heavy cardboard, wood, plastic – whatever you have available – on top of the mold then wrap it with a few old towels or blankets (being careful not to shake up the mixture in the mold, this is where having handles on the mold and an extra set of hands comes in handy.

Step Seven – Patience

Set the mold in a dry warm place to heat up and fully saponify. The soap should sit, undisturbed, for about 24 hours. I place my mold on a shelf in my upstairs closet – it makes everything smell wonderful!

After 24 hours, unwrap your mold and check out what you’ve made! The soap is not quite ready yet but it’s still fun to check it out. Keep the soap unwrapped in the warm dry place for a few days to allow it to cure and harden to the point where you can cut it with a knife. Note: You don’t want the soap to be rock hard – just hard enough that you feel resistance on your knife when you attempt to cut it. You can also test this by pressing your finger into the soap. If it dents very easily with the slightest pressure – it’s not ready.

Step Eight – Cut the Soap Into Bars

Once the soap is firm but not super hard, it’s time to cut it into bars.

Some people like their bars to be perfectly even – if this is you you’ll want to use a tape measure and make light marks with your knife to determine the perfect size for you before actually cutting. I prefer to cut my bars by eyeballing it – this gives them a very rustic and homemade look which I find endearing. It’s completely up to you.

Step Nine – Remove the Ash

You will find that a gray/white “ash” has accumulated on the tops of all the bars. This is sodium carbonate which, although not harmful, can be very drying to the skin. You’ll want to cut this ash of carefully with your paring knife. Just the slightest cut needs to be made to remove the thin layer of ash. You can also use this time to even up the bars.

Once the bars are cut, spread them out on brown paper (aka shopping bags) in a single layer to finish the curing process. Allowing them to cure for about 3-4 weeks. Turn them over once during this time to ensure even curing.

Step Ten – Enjoy!

Happy Soap Making