Efficacy of active ingredients

HI all, forgive the cynic in me as I am new to soap making, but am searching for an answer to my wife's psoriasis (and my dog's eczema, but wife comes first, right) and am wondering about the efficacy of active ingredients in cp soap.

For instance, from my reading some of the prime ingredients to combat or more likely soothe psoriasis are: manuka oil, neem, pine tar, honey, oatmeal, kiwifruit oil, jojoba, evening primrose oil, rose hip oil etc. But am wondering how much of their reputed therapeutic values remain once they've been through the saponification process.

Even if one were to throw them in at a medium trace, would the amounts be so small as to have no effect? I am thinking here of, say, jojoba or green tea powder, both of which are prohibitively expensive to use in large quantities. Although my wife is worth every cent :wink: I'm really looking at percentages of like 2-3% of such ingredients -- are they still working at such small volumes?

BTW, if anyone has any suggestions or has had any success with a psoriasis soap or with particular ingredients I'd be very grateful for information: her psoriasis literally came out of nowhere about five years ago during a trip to England and we've tried everything to reign it in, but everything we've tried has little or only temporary effect.

(Dog's eczema is due to an allergy to red meat. Go figure.)

many thanks,
sam

My daughter has eczema and other skin problems. We've found the best thing that helps lessen the flare ups is just plain 100% olive oil soaps.

I'd keep the more expensive ingredients to make her a lotion, since soap gets washed off right away.

There have been a few discussions about psoriasis. You can use the advanced search function and then you can skim through the comments until you see what might be helpful.

As to making soap for a dog, dog's alkalinity is much different from human skin so you'd want to research it. Good luck!

My eczema was caused by a candida (yeast) overgrowth in my gut. Was awful, docs told me it was eczema and put me on steroids and it didn't do anything. Started taking probiotics after months of pure hell and finally got it under control. I still have to watch out for flare ups. Google candida overgrowth and do some reading about it to see if there are any similarities to your wife's problems. This is not a diagnosis I'm just telling you what worked for me, and also some friends of mine with similar problems.

Anywho, as far as soaps go anything too harsh will irritate it id imagine. So I second the 100% olive oil recommendation. I've also read that 100% lard soaps are good.

Best of luck to you!

Red Kev said:

HI all, forgive the cynic in me as I am new to soap making, but am searching for an answer to my wife's psoriasis (and my dog's eczema, but wife comes first, right) and am wondering about the efficacy of active ingredients in cp soap.

For instance, from my reading some of the prime ingredients to combat or more likely soothe psoriasis are: manuka oil, neem, pine tar, honey, oatmeal, kiwifruit oil, jojoba, evening primrose oil, rose hip oil etc. But am wondering how much of their reputed therapeutic values remain once they've been through the saponification process.

many thanks,
sam

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I often ponder this as well and wonder about 100% olive with goatsmilk in place of your water????

I have made two soaps recently for friends who suffer either from psoriasis or eczema. The first was a mostly olive oil soap (infused with chamomile) with goat's milk as liquid. The second was with pine tar at 20% of the oil weight. I am awaiting feedback at this point.

From what I have read, avoiding fragrance is best. Also, that dietary changes can be more effective than anything used on the skin. Neem is also supposed to be really good but it smells pretty strong. Then again, so does pine tar, but I don't find it offensive.

Good luck! I'm sure your wife appreciates your efforts.

I make 2 Pine Tar soaps which sufferers of Psoriasis rave about. I use the Pine Tar at 5% and it does retain its therapeutic properties. Other ingredients that retain their therapeutic properties are essential oils even if the scent disappears, White Willow Bark, and most of the oils you mentioned. Jojoba is good because it so closely resembles human sebum.... Zinc Oxide is also a good ingredient.

HTH

judymoody said:

I have made two soaps recently for friends who suffer either from psoriasis or eczema. The first was a mostly olive oil soap (infused with chamomile) with goat's milk as liquid .

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Oh now that is a lovely idea I love chamomile so may have to try this combo if you dont mind muchly Judymoody

Judy that sounds like an amazing baby soap too!

Lyn, feel free to give it a try. That's the beauty of this forum, sharing ideas.

A faint scent of chamomile remained but it smelled kind of like fresh baked bread or oatmeal. It's a nice soap. Adding a touch of lavender would be nice too.

Thanks all, there's some good ideas there. We've only tried store-bought pine tar soap, and it hasn't had much effect, but maybe a home made version with significantly more pine tar might help. I'll certainly be formulating some recipes around ingredients mentioned here and on other posts. Thanks again. It's a very frustrating condition.

Lindy, why zinc oxide?

Zinc Oxide is very soothing to people with exzema, psoriasis and other skin conditions. You will find it as a major ingredient in some creams that are formulated to help ease those conditions. It's properties do survive saponification from what I understand.

If you want to understand the science that is soap making I can recommend Kevin Dunn's book Scientific Soapmaking....

Enjoy your journey....