Staples

For a while I was all about making unusual soaps, soaps for special occasions and holidays, seasonal soaps, and extra luxurious boutique soaps. Lately I've been falling in love with extremely useful, basic staples in the soaping formulary. These days, while I still enjoy being creative and trying new combinations, I've also been focused on coming up with simple, tried-and-true soap formulas that I will make again and again.

I remember that when I would chat with other soap makers about adding glycerin and 10% apricot kernel oil to a soap formula, other more experienced soap makers would ask, "Why are you doing that? Why not save those expensive emollients for lotions and creams?" Well, for one thing, I wasn't making lotions or creams yet. But now I am starting to make them.

When I first caught the soap bug, I wanted to believe that the mildest soap with a secret blend of essential oils and happy-skin plant additives could some how be a wrinkle fighting beauty weapon, even making moisturizers completely unnecessary. Truthfully, a soap formula does make a huge difference in how conditioned and comfortable the skin feels after using it, and different skin types will prefer different formulas. Now I see that even the best soap needs to be part of a happy-skin team. So I play with formulas for balms, salves, oil cleansers, and masks. I continue to learn about the properties of exotic oils - which ones are said to be best for the scalp, which are best for aging skin. But these won't necessarily go into soap. I'm still inexperienced at making body butters. I've given little jars away to good friends and have received positive reports, but I know that batches I've made and used myself could use a bit of improvement. So, I continue to work at it. There are oils rich in antioxidants, natural additives that can help block out sunlight, and all sorts of soothing ingredients to experiment with.

Now I see what those more experienced soap makers were trying to tell me. While I still plan to add ingredients like shea butter and happy skin oils to some of my soaps, some of these ingredients are more effective when they haven't been altered by sodium hydroxide. Yes, expensive ingredients can make a better soap - but soap is just part of optimal skincare. Of course there is so much more to optimal skincare than soap and other topical preparations, like nutrition, rest, exercise, water, stress, toxins, not to mention genetics etc., but that's an entirely different tangent.

Yesterday I continued my quest for the perfect formula of pomace olive oil and goat milk soap. I think that pomace is probably one of the gentlest oils for soap making, and everyone knows the benefits of goat milk. This soap has only three ingredients: pomace, goat milk, and lye. Yesterday's batch didn't quite fill the mold, so I stirred in some fragrant shreds of pink floral soap. My plan is to continue making batch after batch of this simple formula, possibly scenting some of them, adding soap shreds to others and leaving others plain, until I have found the perfect formula that pleases me the most. It's going to be a long process because when pomace is not combined with other soap making oils, it takes it a very long time to harden and develop its lather. Right now I'm guessing it will be six months but that is optimistic. Some people say it takes a year. Only time will tell. I'm guessing this is the reason you don't see a whole lot of commercial soaps made strictly with olive oil - even soaps that call themselves "castile" will contain other oils like coconut, palm, etc. This is because when olive oil is the only fat used to make the soap, the turn-around time is at least doubled. But I think that if I combine this with the best oil cleanser, lotion, body butter and masks, and I will be very satisfied.

A main staple in my arsenal of soap formulas is my tooth soap. I call it Mad Dog, because it makes people foam at the mouth. It's an acquired taste, but I've grown accustomed and it doesn't bother me. It's basically a very mild coconut oil soap, with added myrrh, spearmint, clove, salt and stevia. It can be used on skin, hair and scalp as well, so if I could take just one soap with me on a deserted island, it would have to be this one. For the next batch, I want to experiment with adding xylitol instead of the stevia. The weird thing is that I have become quite accustomed to using it. Now when I do use toothpaste, the experience seems odd and strangely unsatisfying - as if I haven't really brushed my teeth yet.

Another staple is, of course, my laundry and housecleaning soap. After years of refining the formula, the most effective formula for my low-suds washing machine is a blend of beef tallow and coconut oil. After it has fully cured, it is combined with sodium borate, sodium carbonate and water to make laundry soap. Sometimes essential oils and/or fragrance oils are added, depending on my mood.

Yet another one is is shaving soap. This is mainly castor oil, happy-skin oils, clay, and fragrance or essential oil. I still haven't found that perfect balance that creates good shaving bubbles, good slip, and emollients, so for now it's necessary to use a post- shave topical preparation to condition the skin. I have yet to figure out how to make it more skin conditioning without sacrificing that long-lasting shave foam.

Next are shampoo bars. These are quite simple - mostly coconut oil, with a touch of jojoba. There are a few essential oils that are optimal for hair and scalp. I've been reading about plant oils that are said to stimulate hair growth, but I suspect these should go into a topical scalp preparation. These days my hair regimen is simple. About once a month I apply henna. After each shampoo with my homemade shampoo bar, I spray on a mixture of white vinegar, jojoba and essential oils, and rinse immediately. The immediate rinse helps to dilute the vinegar right away on my head, because I do not like to add water to the bottle. Adding water increases the potential for microbes, and I don't need to mess with preservatives for this. I simply fill a 32 oz spray bottle with vinegar, add about 10 or so grams of jojoba oil, and a few drops of essential oils or fragrance oils of my choice. Shake, spray, tousle, rinse and towel dry. If the hair becomes a bit brittle or dry, I use a tiny amount of balm made with jojoba, shea butter and beeswax on the ends. If I used hair colorant other than henna, perms, or a blow dryer, I might need to use other products, but one reason I started using henna and stopped using chemical hair dye was so that I could stop using commercial shampoos and wash my hair only with my own soap. So far I've been quite pleased with the results - far happier than I was when constantly fighting the damage caused by commercial hair dye and always on the lookout for that expensive shampoo that would reduce color fade.

And finally, we must have plenty of salt bars on hand. Salt bars are fantastic in the summer because they fight body odor far better than plain soap. They have a high percentage of coconut oil, loads of happy-skin oil, and are well scented. I love to customize these for family members. I make it with low salt for the children because they tend to scrape their knees and elbows, and too much salt doesn't feel good on cuts. I can add their favorite fruity, bubble gum and chocolatey fragrances. For my husband, the soap is heavy on salt with a manly scent, and for me, heavy salt with a sumptuous riot of floral fragrances.