Soap-A-Dope…

July 28, 2015

In one of my posts from last year, I showed pictures of my jewel weed soap.  The jewel weed plant is a natural remedy for poison ivy.  I have given some of my soap to several people and have gotten positive comments on how well it works.  I’m not the first or only person to make jewel weed soap.  In fact, there are many businesses on the internet that sell this type of soap. 

I believe that when God created the world, he also created herbs and other plants to sustain us and allow us to live relatively healthy lives.  Indeed, many modern medications are derived from flowers, herbs, and the bark from certain trees.  I try to use as many of these “natural” remedies as possible before resorting to calling a doctor.

Since my jewel weed soap adventure was what I consider to be a success, I decided to expand my “medicinal” soap making efforts.  I wanted to create a natural soap for my skin that would be gentle, but would still clean my skin.  I threw in an additional requirement for my soap this time.  I wanted it to be pretty…something that I would want to see in my soap dish or that I could give as a last minute gift, if necessary.

A couple of weeks ago I went out to my herb garden and gathered some leaves from my calendula plants, a bit of thyme, some lavender sprigs, and some plaintain leaves from our decidedly shaggy lawn.  Each of these plants has soothing, healing, or slightly astringent properties.  (Exactly the qualities I wanted for this batch of soap.)  I washed the plants, dumped them all into my largest stainless steel cooking pot, and added just enough water to cover them.  Noticing my aloe plant in the window, I pulled off a stem of that and squeezed its juice into the pot as well. 

After letting the pot simmer for about twenty minutes, I strained the liquid and threw the plant material into my compost bin.  Since it was too late in the day to make the soap, I simply poured the liquid into a glass container, put the lid on, and placed it into the freezer.  I find that if I “cook” the herb liquid and freeze it on one day, it makes the actual soap making process easier.  It’s sort of like those breakfast casseroles where you mix the casserole in the evening and then bake it the next morning…you feel like a little elf did some of the work for you.

So this past Saturday, I thawed the liquid and used it to make my soap.  Making this type of soap requires the use of lye, which can be a bit dangerous if you aren’t careful.  However, if you use reasonable caution, wear protective gear (rubber gloves, long sleeves, apron, and eye protection), and work in a well-ventilated area you’ll be fine.  It took me about forty-fives minutes to make the soap and the soap is “curing” as I write.  It will take four weeks for the soap to cure, so we’ll have to wait and see how well it works…or doesn’t.

Eighteen bars of herbal soap!  I purchased Wilton silicone baking pans from
Michael's craft store to use as molds.
(Charming and I both used Michael's 40% off coupons...Yay, Michaels!
Charming doesn't mind shopping at Michael's with  me.)

I also got two sets of "soap stamps" on sale for $1.79 each
from Michael's.  The plastic heart set had three different images and
the second wooden set had various images such as a paw print,
clover leaf, a tree, and a few other images. 

I think the plastic stamps worked better than the wooden ones.
They were easier to center and lift off of the finished soap bars and
will need less final trimming on the rough edges.

The soap bars are about 3/4" thick and it feels and looks
smooth to the touch.  I hope this is a good sign.

A close up of some plain bars that I left unstamped.  (I think
my manly man, Charming, would have a problem with using a
bar of soap that says "Love" on it.)

Above and below are samples of the wooden stamps that I
got from Michael's.  As you can see, they were a bit harder
to center and, since the wood wasn't flexible, it was more
difficult to lift the stamps off of the soap bars.