Homemade Organic Soap (and other things)

Paul and I have started a new hobby...soap making! We use the cold process method to create wonderful bars of homemade soap, and it's lots of fun! Paul handles the lye, since I'm pregnant and it's pretty nasty stuff. But overall, the process is not difficult and it only takes about 45 minutes. We have been using organic olive oil, organic coconut oil, castor oil, lye and water. More recently I've tried some batches with shea butter or mango butter along with some other oils like sweet almond oil or avocado oil. Once we get more familiar with the process and techniques, I'd like to be more creative and try some different things. It feels good to be able to use cosmetic products that you've made and know the ingredients of. So many products on the market today have harsh and even toxic chemicals in them and preservatives. If you haven't heard of it already, please check out the Environmental Working Group's (EWG) Skin Deep website here. They have a great database for looking up cosmetic products to see how toxic they are. You can also search by ingredients, if they don't have your product in the database. I always try to research products before I buy to see how toxic they are.

I've also started making my own lip balms, body butters, lotions, hair gel for Paul (made from gelatin!), and spray hand sanitizer. These things are easier to make than most people think. The only thing is that the shelf life is not as long, so many items I keep in the refrigerator (like Paul's hair gel) to make them last longer. The book that started me on all this was one Paul got for me for Christmas called Natural Beauty At Home, by Janice Cox. Some recipes have been a flop and some have worked out, but it certainly got me started. From that point, I researched a ton of stuff online and have a few favorite sites for recipes and supplies.

By the way, they guys at work all make fun of Paul for making soap and using gelatin in his hair, not to mention all the other things we do differently from most people (cloth diapers, organic food, he's restoring a tractor in our garage, we want to be farmers someday, etc.). However, when Paul brought a bar to one of his co-workers and his wife used it for several days, she told me that it's really great for her dry hands and she doesn't need to use as much hand lotion! She liked it so much that she came over the other day to learn how to make soap herself. It's fun learning things and then teaching others!

Making our first batch of soap back in March. Mixing the lye and water.Mixing the lye mixture and the oilsAfter 2 days, we un-molded and cut the barsAfter 4 weeks, the bars were ready to use!