I have never made soap but I am very interested. I was wondering if any of you had a good recipe for a novice with very sensitive skin. I get very itchy from bar soap-even the mild ones. I have read the archives and the two books my local library has and have also looked at a couple websites. It is very confusing. There are so many recipes. I also want to try the recipe for homemade laundrey soap posted recently because laundrey soap makes me itch too. I suspect it is all the fragrances but I am not sure. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

-- Colleen (bean@northwoods.net), November 08, 2001

Answers

If you decide to make soap yourself I would recommend a recipe that included no fragrance and only vegetable oils. I would even go so far as to say a recipe that was only olive oil. There is a brand called "Kiss My Face" that is pure olive oil and one type has no scent. I recommend it.

-- Anne (HealthyTouch101@wildmail.com), November 08, 2001.

Colleen, my husband has the itchy winter skin problem. He loves goat milk soap. Actually I ordered my last batch off of Ebay, she sells alot of it for about 2$ a bar, you ought to try one. I love the mint eucalyptus in which she leaves small pieces of the eucalyptus in which sloughs off dry skin. Nothing is more refreshing than mint soap after working with stock! I also have a friend in Canada who makes it out of sheeps milk, beautiful soaps. Elizabeth of MaMa soaps is on goatworld.com and has the prettiest soaps I have ever seen, she made my son some special soap for his face which he loves, tea tree oil. Soap making chats all over yahoo, and I believe even at contrylife.net, or somewhere else I frequent alot. There isn't alot of difference in the recipes I have seen, Mary Jane Toth has some in her books, the can of lye has one, it's like cheese, use the basic recipe and then tweak it. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), November 08, 2001.

I too would suggest a true castile (100% olive oil) soap like Kiss my face. A lot of people are unaware of this but coconut oil is a common allergen, and is in a lot of commercial soaps, not to mention shampoos. You might also want to try any of the Dr. Bronner's liquid soaps-- available at any healthfood store and even some grocery stores depending on where you live. There are also the large bars of what is referred to as "kitchen soap", like you see in cooking stores such as Williams-Sonoma, which are mostly olive oil and should be pretty mild.

Have you tried commercial baby clothing detergent? Or it could even be just the concentration of detergent left in the clean wash that is irritating, so maybe just using a bit less might work.

Olive oil castile soap is made the same as other soap, but can take a bit longer to trace--some people use immersion blenders (not a regular hand mixer) to help it along a bit. If you try the laundry soap recipe an immersion blender can be helpful with that as well.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), November 08, 2001.

my aunt cant use most (if any) store bought soaps,, so when I made some, the simple lard lye soap,, she loves it,, I need to make more,, she uses more than I do

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), November 09, 2001.

This site has lots of information and many useful links.

http://users.silverlink.net/~timer/soapinfo.html#Soap Contents

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), November 09, 2001.

I made a batch once of regular castile soap and added ground (in the blender) oatmeal. It was wonderful, and my nephew who has the most delicate skin I have ever seen and breaks out from everything loved it. No itching, and he loved how it felt. It is the most soothing I have made myself.

-- Jenny (auntjenny6@aol.com), November 09, 2001.

I have not made this recipe, but it uses standard cup measurements instead of weight, and only uses olive oil (try to buy at a warehouse store where it is a tad bit cheaper). You might want to weigh out the oil, then go to a lye calculator (Majestic Mountain Sage has one www.the-sage.com) and see if the lye amount is correct. A lot of recipes seem to be lye heavy, and could be more harsh than necessary. You want just enough lye to saponify, no more.

http://www.delcitysoap.com/soaprecipe.htm

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), November 09, 2001.

Thanks all! I will check out the suggestions you all have made. If I do decide to make soap I will try the olive oil. I didn't know that coconut oil was a common allergen but it makes sense because shampoo also makes me itchy. Some brands are worse than others-I find that biolage is best for me. I buy it by the gallon from a hairdresser friend at cost. Much much cheaper that way! I appreciate all your help! Colleen

-- Colleen (bean@northwoods.net), November 09, 2001.

I sell soap. If you make it, discount the lye to 10 percent. I go to 7 or 8 percent myself. Mine is very mild and I use 50 percent olive oil. Then I add an equal amount of coconut (for lather but if you use over 20 percent you can get into trouble with drying the skin. Palm is mild and makes a hard bar, castor oil is like olive an oil that keeps in the natural oils of your skin, sometimes cocoa butter which feel wonderful on skin ((although some people can be allegic to it))). If you like essential oils, which I do. Some can actually irritate the skin while other are wonderful and healing to the skin. My love ones always get Frankinscense. Which was expensive in Bible times and is still pricy but I make it for myself and family exclusively. There are many other essential oils that heal the skin. Stay away from Cinnamon Leaf and Peppermint which are one of my big sellers and go for Rosewood, Frankinsence, Sweet Balsam feel wonderful on the skin also. Lavender is said to heal burns! I make the Tea Tree but it is not a big seller of mine and I really prefer other oils myself. Debbie

-- Debbie (bwolcott@cwis.net), November 10, 2001.