Clean Across Canada
Simple Soap Recipes for Starters and Sophisticates
Published by Jan Norn at Smashwords
Copyright 2010 Jan Norn
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Table of Contents
Homemade Soap
Simple Soap
Sophisticated Soap
Shampoo Blender Bars
Simply Lavender
Snow Drifts
Real Castile
Sunflower Bar
Soap Surprises
Golden Goat
Snow Flake Soap Balls
Woolly Soap
Gift Wrapping Your Soap
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“The level of civilization can be determined more accurately by the amount of soap used than by any other index” – Dorothy Richter.
The pilgrims who came to America in the 17th century made a real effort to keep clean, although it was not an easy task. Making soap was an important event in the pioneers’ schedule, and taking a bath entailed either a quick scoot to the nearest pond or creek, or a lengthy process of heating water over a wood fire, filling a wash-tub, and washing bodies first, then hair and finally clothes in the same water. So count your blessings next time you turn on a tap and clean, hot water comes out.
Benjamin Franklin supposedly imported the first bathtub in the country, from France. It was made of copper, with a small grate built into it for the purpose of heating the water. No taps, though, and no drains.
By 1974, the U.S. had ninety percent of the world’s bathtubs, and an average North American used an estimated twenty-seven pounds of soap a year for personal bathing, household use and laundry. So, for the last thirty-six years, we must have been considered ‘civilized’.
Soap is known to have been around for at least four thousand years. The oldest recipe I could find a mention of, was from Mesopotamia (Iraq) a country often referred to as the cradle of civilization. It was written on clay tablets, and it required fascinating ingredients: myrtle root, pulverized fir bark, powdered rosin, alkali ash, barley and the skin of a water snake.
In ancient Rome, soap was mainly used for medication, “to aid the disposal of scrofulous sores”. (Pliny the Elder). The Romans bathed a great deal, but they did not wash with soap. Bone scrapers, sand and oils were used to remove their dirt before they soaked in the famous roman bath houses. The really interesting thing was their laundry system – street corners in Rome hosted large clay containers for the deposit of urine. This was collected and taken to the laundry vats where it was aged and used to wash clothes. Horrifying as this sounds, articles on cleaning and dying give assurances that stale urine is an excellent cleanser. “Urine is pH neutral and sterile, which is more than can be said for your water supply!” says Paivi Suomi. So maybe we are missing out on something here! This takes recycling to a whole new level.
During the first century A.D., soap became popular for washing, but after the fall of the Roman Empire, the knowledge of soap-making was lost to that part of the world for several centuries. The Dark Ages might well have been called the Dirty Ages, as religious leaders believed that an unwashed state led to proper mortification of the flesh. In the words of St. Jerome, “A clean body and a clean dress mean an unclean soul”.
When the Crusaders went off from England to fight their wars, they were astonished by the prevalence of scented baths and clean underwear in the Holy Land. The Pagans were civilized! On their return to unwashed England, they re-introduced soap, although it was so expensive that only the very rich could afford it. Queen Elizabeth ‘ bathed once a month, whether she needed it or not’, and Henry 1V, in 1399, founded The Order of The Bath. This encouraged his nobles to take at least one bath during their lives, as it was part of the ritual of knighthood.
Finally, centuries later, Louis Pasteur proved that disease was caused by germs and that germs flourished in dirt. A wave of cleanliness swept the civilized world and soap was here to stay.
So, while you do your cleaning, spare a thought for the pioneers, and never take soap and water for granted!
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The first time I made soap, I was terrified. I knew that sodium hydroxide (lye) was a first cousin to Drano, a product that has always made me nervous, and I had mental pictures of ending the session minus the tips of my fingers.
Anyhow, I waited until my husband was gone, put the cats outside and donned plastic raincoat, rubber gloves and one of those masks that stop dust and fumes. Then I spread quantities of newspaper all over my kitchen, just in case, and began the recipe. The oils were no problem, but I was scared of that lye! Lye crystals added to water fizz vigorously and create a lot of heat and fumes, so this needs to be done in a well ventilated area. However, the lye didn’t eat the jug and escape and I began to feel more confident.
The next step was to bring oils and lye water to the same temperature and then pour the lye water very carefully into the oils without splashing. After that it was just a question of beating with a stick blender until it began to ‘trace’ or thicken, pouring into moulds (I used recycled one quart milk cartons) and snuggling in blankets in a warm place so that it could saponify. This is the magical process by which oils and lye become lovely rich soap.
After all my worries, this was a landmark experience. I now treat lye with respect, but I no longer wear full battle dress to make my soap. If you would like to try this yourself, I would suggest that you first watch someone who has done it before. That way you will avoid the trauma of waiting for something to go wrong, and you will learn all kinds of tips and short-cuts.
You may wonder why it is worth making your own soap when the stuff is so cheap and readily available. The reason is glycerine. Glycerine is a rich emollient that forms during the saponification process. It is valuable stuff, worth more than the soap that contains it, so most large commercial manufacturers extract it during the process, add detergent instead, and sell the glycerine separately. Since the mid 1940’s, commercial soap has been manufactured by the ‘continuous process’ method, preferred by industry to the old ‘kettle’ method because of speed, flexibility and costs. Because soap is licensed under a different system from most cosmetics, the manufacturers are not required to disclose their ingredients, but most bars of soap on store shelves actually contain synthetic surfactants (detergents).
Your own homemade soap, on the other hand, contains natural glycerine, making it a kinder, more gentle, creation. Soap –making is a very rewarding craft – primitive but elegant!
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I love making my own soap, but realize that it is a complex process and quite daunting for the first few times. So I’ve been looking for an easier way. Now if you search the web for long enough, you can eventually find out how to do almost anything, and a while ago I hit pay-dirt!
A creative soap-maker called Steve Cole has invented a recipe that makes things much easier, and was kind enough to publish it on the web for the world to share. Thanks to Steve, safe homemade soap is now possible for anyone who owns a blender. No more messing with thermometers to get the exact temperature, no more special pots, and it requires only minutes to make.
Combining Steve’s method with oven-processing of your soap means that you no longer have to wait weeks and weeks for your creations to be ready to use. November’s soap can be ready for Christmas gifts.
Because you are making your soap in smaller batches, you are free to experiment with different ingredients, and won’t be stuck with four or five pounds of soap that you are not too crazy about. This is a family-size recipe and you can be as versatile as you like.
However, the first time, you had better follow the instructions to a T. Here is my basic adaptation of one of Steve’s recipes plus instructions for oven processing:
You will need:
8 ozs. Olive Oil (use the cheapest pomace you can find, not extra-virgin)
8 ozs. Solid vegetable shortening
7 ozs. Water (soft or distilled water is best – rain or melted snow is perfect)
2.2 ozs. Lye (sodium hydroxide)
1 teaspoon of your favourite essential oil (or you may prefer fragrance-free)
A blender
A plastic or glass jug to process the lye
A plastic or wooden spoon
A clean 1quart milk carton
A rubber scraper
Old newspapers
Rubber gloves
A large stainless steel or heat-proof glass pot
Your oven pre-heated to a very low temperature, about 100 degrees C.
A friend to share with if possible
Wearing your rubber gloves, carefully measure the lye and pour it into the cold water. Stir gently with a wooden or plastic spoon. Do this in a well ventilated area and don’t inhale the lye fumes. The mixture will get hot and will be caustic. Leave in a safe place, away from kids and pets, until it has cooled to bath-water temperature. No! Don’t stick your finger in it – just feel the outside of the container. At this point, lye will sting your skin on contact, so if you get an accidental splash, wash with lots of cold water and apply a little vinegar. Working with lye is a bit scary the first time, but soon gets to be a breeze. Just use reasonable care.
Put oil and shortening into a pot over medium heat and stir until it has melted together, but don’t overheat.
Cover work area under the blender with old newspaper in case of spills. Make sure the blender is tightly locked together and pour in the oil. Add lye mixture very carefully – no splashing – and stir briefly with a non-metal spoon. Check blender for leaks.
Put lid on blender and press down firmly. Place an old towel over top of blender just in case and turn on to the lowest speed for a minute or less. I keep a firm grip on the top of the machine because I don’t trust the seal on the lid.
Allow the trapped air to ‘burp’ before lifting the lid and checking to see if it is thickening. If it is ready, it will form a ‘trace’ or trail when stirred. If it is not quite ready, cover and start the blender. Count to twelve and check it again Repeat until it traces. It might take anywhere from a couple of minutes to ten minutes, depending on the oils and the temperature.
When it is beginning to thicken, add your essential oil if required, and run for a few more seconds until it is the consistency of custard. At this stage, your soap will still have some ‘bite’ to it but will not be nearly as caustic as the lye.
Pour and scrape the traced mixture from your blender into a clean stainless steel or glass pot and place in the center of the oven (pre-heated to about a hundred degrees C.) The mix should not fill more than a third of your pot, as it may expand
Close the oven door but keep a close eye on your soap through the glass window. If it gets too hot it may decide to expand suddenly. Too small a pot can mean that it will come up like a tidal wave and flood your oven. Any obvious expansion means that you should reduce the heat even further
After ten minutes with no problems, turn off the heat and let the soap sit quietly for an hour The ‘cooked’ soap should be somewhat transparent with the consistency of apple sauce. Take it out of the oven and drop a small amount in cold water. If it sets with an opaque look, it is ready for the final stage. If not, put it back in the oven at the original temperature and retest after a few minutes
Finally, give the mixture a thorough stirring to ensure that it is evenly blended. Pour or scrape into a cardboard milk carton (I usually cut off the top part) and leave it to harden for a couple of days. The whole process starts a chemical reaction that cures your soap and forms the lovely, gentle glycerine that is usually lacking in the commercial product.
When the soap has hardened peel off the cardboard carton and cut your block into slices. Place these on a cardboard flat and allow them to season for a few days before using. They will become less alkaline (and consequently milder) as they age.
There are a lot of free recipes on Steve’s website http://www.colebrothers.com/soap but it is safer to use your own adaptations as he uses fragrance oil and non-natural colouring in a lot of them. He does offer for sale an excellent Soap Calculator that allows you to adapt any recipe to blender size. I sent for one and find it very useful. His basic techniques are great and should change the way we think about making soap. Thanks, Steve!
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The last soap recipe was simple, basic and not too exciting. It was a practice exercise to let you find out that do-it-yourself soap was possible. Now, having crossed the first bridge, it’s time for you to find out some of the creative and crafty things that a person can do with soap.
First of all you need to understand the oils. Your ‘Simple Soap’ was made with vegetable oils (pomace olive oil and solid vegetable shortening) that were chosen for their mildness. If your goal is high suds, then replace the shortening with coconut oil. This will give you a long-lasting, high-foaming bar that cleans beautifully but leaves the skin too dry for my liking (although it is good in shampoo bars). There are many other oils that you can use, palm, soybean, sunflower, grapeseed and any of the cooking oils being the most common. If you have expensive tastes you can include things like shea butter, emu oil or some of the exotic nut oils, but I prefer to save these beauties for making skin creams.
Our pioneers used animal fats to make their soap. Fat scraps from cattle, sheep, pigs and even bears were rendered down to make lard or tallow. There are still plenty of recipes available for making soap from lard but I haven’t tried it yet. In the supermarket age, it is more convenient and probably cheaper to use vegetable oils – plus the fact that vegan soap sounds more appealing than critter soap.
So there is a lot of choice when it comes to ingredients, but it makes sense to stick to a basic recipe that you are comfortable with and add a few goodies to it at the end of the process. Here are some options:
The addition of essential oils stirred in just after soap traces. Amount added varies according to intensity of the EO. I never use more than 1 teaspoonful. Do not use fragrance oils as they contain alcohol and can ruin your soap, as well as being bad for you.
Spices such as cinnamon and cloves add colour, texture and sudsiness. Add up to1 tablespoonful at trace
Oatmeal, dried lavender blossoms, orange peel or poppy seeds help with exfoliation. Add 2-4 tablespoons at trace.
Fresh ground coffee will remove kitchen odours such as garlic from your hands. Add 2 tablespoons at trace.
Pumice powder is the answer for gardener’s soap. Add 1 tablespoon at trace.
Using the Simple Soap basic recipe, it is easy to add any of these ingredients. Blend in well with a wooden spoon and process as usual. You may have read about a process called ‘super-fatting’, which is the addition of a small amount of special oil at trace. If you are a beginner, don’t attempt this yet as the amount of lye may have to be altered.
After your soap has hardened for a day or so in the milk carton mould, peel off the cardboard and slice your chunk into bars. I sometimes slice mine quite thinly (about a half inch) and use cookie cutters to make fun shapes. This leaves you with a lot of leftover bits, but I have plans for those as well.
First, grate all the bits on your cheese grater. You can save them in a plastic bag or use them right away, but you will need about a pound of shredded soap to make a batch. Put it into a glass or stainless steel container and add some goats-milk. If your soap is less than a week old, it will still be quite moist, and you will only need to add a half cup of milk. Older and drier soap may require up to a full cup. Shredded soap will keep almost indefinitely, but it does dry out - the milk brings it back to life again.
Let it soak in the milk for an hour or two, depending on how dry it was. Stir a few times. Turn your oven to very low, about 150 degrees F. and pop in your dish of soap. Cook for an hour, stirring every ten minutes. Take out of the oven and beat with a stick blender until smooth. Stir in any extra ingredients and pour into milk carton. Allow to harden as usual.
Why use goats-milk? Because it makes the most elegant of soaps. It is pre-homogenized by the clever goats and is incredibly gentle for your skin. Left-over milk may be frozen until you need it again.
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Here is one more thing for you to try: this is the recipe I get asked for most by all the folks who don’t want itchy scalps and dandruff, so I have cut it down to ‘blender size’.
You will need:
5 ounces of castor oil
5 ounces of coconut oil
6 ounces of vegetable shortening
2.2 ounces of lye
7 ounces of soft water.
Follow the steps for “Simple Soap”.
Once you have used your own homemade shampoo bars you will never go back to commercial shampoo. My scalp gets itchy just thinking about the stuff! Remember to pH balance your hair with diluted lemon juice or apple cider vinegar after washing (don’t rinse this off) and to brush lots with a natural bristle brush.
One more thing that I get asked a lot is, “Do you keep special utensils just for soap?” The answer is that it depends what the utensils are made of. If they are enamel, glass or stainless steel, I wash them (with soap!), rinse thoroughly and use as per normal. Well, think about it – this is soap we are talking about, people, the safe stuff that we use on our skins, and it is much less harmful than the detergent most folks use to wash their dishes in. The lye has been de-fanged by mixing it with oils. It is not simply diluted but has undergone a chemical alteration. Your blender will be the cleanest it has ever been, as will the mixing pot and the stick blender, etc. However there is one exception. I generally mix my lye and water in a plastic jug using a wooden spoon. These are dedicated to ‘soap use only,’ as they may have absorbed unblended lye. Don’t use them for lemonade.
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Lavender’s name is derived from the latin word ‘lave’, meaning ‘to wash’. What better ingredient could we use in soap?
You will need:
14 ozs. of vegetable shortening
2 ozs. of olive oil
6 ozs. of lavender hydrosol
2 ounces of lye.
Follow the directions for Simple Soap.
If you don’t have lavender hydrosol, use water and add a half teaspoon of lavender essential oil at trace.
Decorate with dried lavender blossoms.
February is the time of year when my perception of snow changes. ‘Romantic, exquisite, pristine snowstorms’ are seen as ‘more dratted, dangerous, rotten weather’.
“What,” my family growls, “has happened to global warming?” We are tired of boots, muddy floors, slippery walks and the colour of white. We need sunshine!
To be fair though, snow is wonderful stuff. It is brilliantly engineered, flake by flake, and is the most perfectly pure source of water that is readily available to us. It is also free. In this age of buying water in plastic bottles, we shouldn’t overlook a free gift. So…
Find a clean pot or pail and fill it with fresh snow. Bring it inside and let it melt – you have pure water, untouched by contaminants and soft as a fairy kiss. For skin and hair, there is nothing so cleansing and revitalizing. It takes a lot of snow to make a little water, but believe me, it is worth the effort (if you have ever seen the inside of one of your water pipes or looked at the gunk in the bottom of your water heater you will know what our household water goes through!). The only source of water as pure as snow melt is distilled water, but it comes in plastic jugs – the stuff that falls from the sky is better.
I keep a spray bottle of snow melt in my bathroom and always mist with it before applying any cream. If you collect some and freeze it in ice-cube trays, you can make enough pure ‘mist’ to last until next winter. Try to keep some extra snow melt frozen for making creams and lotions as well. Distilled water will work, but snow melt is the ultimate.
Winter is definitely the time to make snow-water soap, so here are a couple of recipes:
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This is a classic soap, originally made by the olive growers in Spain.
16 ozs. olive oil (pomace grade, not extra virgin)
6 ozs. snow melt
2 ozs. lye
That’s it! Follow the directions I gave you in ‘Simple Soap’. Pure and gentle enough for baby.
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Fun to make and a pleasure to use. You will need:
6 ozs. olive oil
4 ozs sunflower oil
8 ozs. vegetable shortening
7.2 ozs. snow melt
2.6 ozs lye
Follow the directions from ‘Simple Soap’.At light trace add:
1 teaspoon raw honey (slightly warmed).
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons turmeric
1tablespoon dried calendula petals.
One half teaspoon sweet orange essential oil.
Mix in well and pour into mold.
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Adding colour to oils is a tricky process, simply because oil and water refuse to mix. Something like beet juice, which turns water a brilliant shade of red, divides into sulky little pink bubbles when added to oil. The only way I know of getting pink or red oil is to soak some slices of dried alkanet root in the oil you are planning to use – the longer you soak the alkanet, the deeper the colour. I often do this when making lip balm. Stable tints can also be added using clays, mica or herbs such as tumeric, but the colours are muted.
I had been playing with ways of making simple blender soap with goats’ milk, since there is nothing more gentle for your skin. I had never much liked the colour of my original recipe (the process turns the milk a blah shade of tan) so I decided to try the alkanet-treated oil and hopefully end up with a pretty pink.
Big mistake! When I added the milk/lye mix to the pink oil in my blender, it began to turn a sickly shade of green and ended up a vile sort of khaki. If I had thought more quickly, I could have added pumice powder to it and called it ‘Gardener’s Soap’ or added ground coffee and labelled it ‘Kitchen Soap’ (coffee does a great job of removing the smell of onions, fish or garlic from your hands) but by the time I had stopped being surprised, the soap was done. It still works as well and kindly as ever, but it is plain ugly. Never mind, it will get used one way of another.
Here is a recipe that does look nice as well as being supremely gentle. The secret lies in freezing the milk first…
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Kind and gentle for the most delicate skin – a must for your baby.
8 ozs. olive oil (the cheap pomace kind)
8 ozs. vegetable shortening
7 ozs. goats’ milk
2.3 ozs. lye
A teaspoon essential oil if desired
1. Freeze goats’ milk until it is slushy.
2. Follow the directions for Simple Soap
.
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Kids are natural crafters, so here is something that will keep them busy in the holidays as well as letting them make useful and personal gifts.
They will need:
Soap, the plainer the better. If you can find fragrance-free homemade soap, that would be ideal. Remember that most commercial soaps are not really soap at all, but a mix of detergents and chemicals. Because the manufacturers are not obliged to display their ingredients, you really don’t know what you are getting. The original unscented Dove seems to have no bad side-effects and will work for this recipe if you can’t find the real stuff.
Fresh, clean snow.
Oatmeal, dried flower petals, cloves, star anise, ground coffee, coarse sea salt, cinnamon bark or lavender.
Your choice of essential oils if desired.
A cheese grater.
A spray bottle.
Small cookie molds.
1.Melt enough clean snow to make at least a cupful of snow water – this is the softest, purest water you can get. Pour it into the spray bottle.
2.Grate one or two cakes of soap. You will be surprised at the amount of flakes this yields.
3.Take about half a cupful of flakes and start working into a ball with your hands, spraying with enough snow water to make it stick together. It will take at least ten minutes of kneading and misting before it becomes a smooth ball, firm but not sticky.
4.Add a few drops of your favourite essential oil if you wish, and work in well.
5.Push into small cookie moulds or roll into perfect balls.
6.If moulds are used, carefully remove the shaped soap.
7.Mist your finished shapes or balls lightly and sprinkle with your choice of decoration. Allow to dry.
8.When thoroughly dry, package with love in small bags or boxes.
9.Make a label and include your ingredient list.
10.If this is a gift, make a card.
The decorations on your soap are useful as well as pretty.
Oatmeal is very kind and gentle to your skin.
Dried flower petals cleanse and nourish your face.
Cloves, cinnamon bark and star anise make great decorations and smell wonderful.
Ground coffee will take strong smells like fish and garlic off your hands, so coffee soap should live by the kitchen sink.
Coarse sea salt is a skin cleanser and exfoliant.
Lavender is soothing, healing and antiseptic. It is the world’s most popular smell, too.
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In spring I have daffodils, crocuses, violets and hyacinths blooming around the house – this is the time to think about gardening, even though the days are cool. I love my garden, but I know what it is going to do to me in the way of aching back, weather-beaten skin and mangled hands, so this year I am preparing a few garden-ease ideas ahead of time.
First the hands: wearing gardening gloves is a sensible idea, but somehow there is nothing like meeting the weeds in hand-to-hand combat. I always start off with the gloves, but they get discarded somewhere along the way, and I end up with assorted scratches and bug bites, black nails, stained fingers and smudges everywhere. So I will need either some woolly soap (more about that later), or a ‘scrubby’ soap with pumice powder in it, or a chunk of pumice. This is a light, bubbly, volcanic rock that actually floats, and it takes off grass-stains and other debris like nothing else. Soap and scrubbing brush will bring the fingernails back in shape. Witch hazel eases the bug bites and a good cream quenches thirsty skin on hands and arms.
Next the face: no matter how effective a hat you wear, the UV rays take their toll, as does the wind. So be sure to have sunscreen on hand, along with something to discourage the flying insects. A good after-gardening moisturizer is comforting as well.
The aching back? This problem does not have a cosmetic fix, but a lovely long soak in the tub with essential oils of lavender (3 drops), marjoram (2 drops), and juniper or pine (1 drop) will help a lot. And of course you will need some woolly soap! Here is what you must find to make it:
A bar of soap (real home-made soap, not the commercial detergent-masquerading-as-soap).
Pure wool (synthetics won’t work). Either knitting wool or felting wool, but it must be natural fibres.
For quick results, it is easiest to use felting wool, which comes in cloudy bats and is easily folded around the soap. Knitting wool will work too, and is very sturdy, but it takes longer to felt. Felting wool comes in brilliant, rainbow colors, so choose a base color and two or three scraps of contrast colors for each bar of soap.
First, take a puff of felting wool long enough to wrap around your bar of soap lengthwise and another piece to wrap widthwise. Be sure the corners of the soap are well padded. Be creative with the smaller, multi-colored scraps to make stripes or patterns. Pat the wool so that no ends are sticking up Your bar of soap will now look so pretty that you won’t want to do anything else with it, but the fun is just beginning.
Fill a bowl with hot water. Holding your puffy soap in one hand, drizzle the water over it on all sides (but don’t dip it into the water or your wool will slide off). Drizzle and pat while you keep turning the soap around gently. The wool will begin to stick together and soapsuds will start to appear as a woolly ‘skin’ forms around your soap. Keep squeezing, patting and turning - you will soon have lots of suds. Take special care of the edges and corners. If you don’t mind flying soapsuds, slap the bar against your hand several times. This all helps to compact the wool.
After about five minutes, you should have a fairly loose cover all around the soap. Now take a piece of bubble wrap and rub the bar on it, gently at first, but increasing in pressure. Do all sides, rubbing and slapping against the bubble wrap, until the ‘skin’ is fairly snug.
Now run the bar under the cold tap to rinse off the suds, squeeze out excess water and blot dry on a clean towel. Put in a warm place so that the wool can dry out.
To use, run the bar under the tap and slap it around a bit so that it sudses up. Woolly soap not only looks gorgeous but it gets you incredibly clean. Use it on your face for a few minutes and your skin will positively glow. Don’t forget to pH balance and moisturize afterwards. Recovering from gardening can be fun too!
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Soap can be presented in small boxes or gift-wrapped in paper or scraps of pretty fabric. I like to partially dry large grape leaves and use them for wrapping, finishing with a twist of raffia.
If you want to keep your soap in small plastic bags, or to shrink-wrap it, make sure that it is well dried. If it is not sufficiently cured, the soap may sweat in plastic, or oils may soak through your wrapping if paper is used. Coloured tissue paper can dye your soap
A flat piece of bark or driftwood makes an attractive and unusual soap holder. Wrap it with your gift soaps. Be creative and have fun…
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Your own home-made soap and cosmetics make wonderful gifts for your family and friends and open the door to many more creative ideas. All these recipes are flexible, allowing for your own personal touches. If you have trouble finding any of the ingredients, simply mail to jan.n@columbiawireless.ca and I will suggest sources or alternatives for you.
You will find my Bio at Jan Norn's Smashwords Author Profile: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/SafeBeauty
For a full list of my books and for lots more information on making your own natural cosmetics and remedies please visit my website at http://www.kitchen-cosmetics.com
Thank you for visiting with me – Jan.