Pine Tar and Jewelweed

So looks as if I need to make myself a pine tar soap. I read sinfuls thread first and have a few questions. This will be cp btw.

Do you prefer or see a difference between 10, 15 and 20%? What's your preference? I saw the gent state his first was 10% and you made a 15% after. Did you find one better than the other (I didn't see a follow-up so forgive me if I missed it).

I know there are several brands, and I read it can go from burnt rubber smell to smokey. DeeAnna, you suggested eAuson "Kiln Burn", is this still your preferred brand? Being for my own and a teens personal use I want the best no matter the cost.

My issue is a possible new psoriasis issue, and a facial break out issue for the teen, thus the jewelweed.

For jewelweed, I have none and will not be going through the trouble of making it. My question, do you prefer it in an oil, a water like hydrosol, or both? I googled "jewelweed extract" and came across these two types of methods available for purchase, which can be added to soap.

Finally, I thought for our issues a little tea tree, eucalyptus, and because I have rheumatoid arthritis maybe rosemary and lavender eos. Smells medicinal I am sure, and I do not believe eos can cure ailments, but I figured for this those may be best. Any eo opinions or advice welcome.

I know many ask the same questions here, and I really tried to research sinfuls thread first, so I do apologize in advance for any redundant questions to the forum.

In the Failor books it's the solid stuff that's used for soap. You melt it with the oils and I think it may be more the pure resin. I got this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JFF6XP2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Hi, LionPrincess -- Yes, I still like the Auson "Kiln burn" pine tar over the Bickmore brand I've also used. I cannot say whether it's any better than any other brand for helping with skin problems, but it smells the best -- like a smoky campfire.

North American jewelweed (sometimes called Wild Celandine among other names) is used as a folk remedy to treat poison ivy dermatitis. and it's the one I'd look at for helping with other skin problems. This would be Impatiens pallida (yellow jewelweed) or I. capensis (spotted jewelweed). I have yet to see this herb being sold on the market in dried or extract form. Dried jewelweed loses its efficacy -- it's the wet sap that works. Oil infusions don't work well either -- too much jewelweed sap in oil just makes a moldy mess and the active ingredients apparently are water soluble, not oil soluble. Most people make a tincture of jewelweed and water or witch hazel and refrigerate the tincture. Or they freeze chopped up bits of the plant into ice cubes and rub the ice cubes on affected skin.

The "jewelweed" you find on the market as a dried herb is usually Impatiens balsamica, a plant native to Asia. It has a history of use in folk medicine, but more for digestive ailments and injuries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impatiens_balsamina. Another herb mistaken for North American jewelweed is Greater Celandine, Chelidonium majus. It is sourced from Hungary and native to Europe. It is a member of the Papaveraceae (poppy) family. According to the references I found, it is poisonous if ingested, and it can be irritating to the eyes and skin, although it was used traditionally to remove warts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelidonium

Coming on the tail of DeeAnna's very detailed and informative post (as usual!) I feel like a kindergartener giving you my perspective. I've only used Bickmore's PT because that's what's available to me locally. I use it at 15% and add tea tree EO at 1.5%. My 1st batch was 10% PT and all users like 15% better (I haven't gone up to 20%). I've used these percentages for both CP and LS. My faithful PT soap users (DH, SIL, many friends and other family) love how it feels on their skin and the improvement of various skin issues. I've never used jewelweed so can't give any opinion on that part.

I've read and heard pretty much the same as DeeAnna about jewelweed. It's best used fresh and not dried. In the past I considered making an oil infusion for poison ivy soap but after some research decided the lye monster would probably eat all the goodies. If I could get my hands on some fresh stuff, I would likely make a water-based poison ivy spray instead of soap.

My experience with CP pine tar soap is a total of 2 batches using the Bickmore brand. Latest recipe was 15% pine tar and I have some extra bars I could send if you want to sample them. Here's a link to the recipe for comparison purposes http://soapee.com/recipes/485. My next experiment will be liquid pine tar soap but I haven't started formulating a recipe yet.

I'm also a card carrying member of the auto-immune arthritis club . . . recently diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis after years of crazy neck & back pain. As far as EOs that seem to help the joint inflammation/eczema/psoriasis issues, I can only tell you what I've tried so far. I know you won't be icked out by what I'm about to describe because you're a lard/tallow lover like me.

Before Christmas I made a whipped tallow cream using 90% tallow/10% avocado oil just for kicks. Added a little tapioca starch to cut the greasy feel and used a combo of peppermint, rosemary, sweet birch & cedarwood EOs to cover up any trace of 'animal' scent. That stuff turned out nicer than I ever expected. I've used it like a muscle rub and also for dry hands/legs because my skin just drinks it up. It's hard to explain but my shea/cocoa whipped butters don't seem to penetrate like the tallow does. I still have a small tub left if you want to try some along with the PT soap.

I use Bickmore and use it at 15%. I add a bit of cocoa butter (5%) to the recipe to make sure it's a hard bar.

It's always difficult to prepare for the acceleration you get with PT. I weigh out my hard oils and soft oils separately and add the pine tar to the soft oils and mix it really really well. I add my lye water (I would definitely NOT use low water with PT) to the melted hard oils and SB past emulsion and just about to light trace. Then I mix my softs up again and pour it in thin streams going around the bowl of hard oils batter. THis way, no one spot is getting a big load of PT. Then I hand stir only trying to get the PT/oils thoroughly mixed in with the rest. It will go thick pretty quickly but you can stir it in fairly easily when it's all poured around. As it starts to look thick and apple-saucy, I pour. If you're fast enough, you can get a beautiful smooth pour. It heats up readily so no need for cpop.

I have added in tea tree, rosemary, myrrh and other EO's for skin. YOu can't smell them that well over the PT but I like the idea of having them in.

doriettefarm said:

I've read and heard pretty much the same as DeeAnna about jewelweed. It's best used fresh and not dried. In the past I considered making an oil infusion for poison ivy soap but after some research decided the lye monster would probably eat all the goodies. If I could get my hands on some fresh stuff, I would likely make a water-based poison ivy spray instead of soap.

My experience with CP pine tar soap is a total of 2 batches using the Bickmore brand. Latest recipe was 15% pine tar and I have some extra bars I could send if you want to sample them. Here's a link to the recipe for comparison purposes http://soapee.com/recipes/485. My next experiment will be liquid pine tar soap but I haven't started formulating a recipe yet.

I'm also a card carrying member of the auto-immune arthritis club . . . recently diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis after years of crazy neck & back pain. As far as EOs that seem to help the joint inflammation/eczema/psoriasis issues, I can only tell you what I've tried so far. I know you won't be icked out by what I'm about to describe because you're a lard/tallow lover like me.

Before Christmas I made a whipped tallow cream using 90% tallow/10% avocado oil just for kicks. Added a little tapioca starch to cut the greasy feel and used a combo of peppermint, rosemary, sweet birch & cedarwood EOs to cover up any trace of 'animal' scent. That stuff turned out nicer than I ever expected. I've used it like a muscle rub and also for dry hands/legs because my skin just drinks it up. It's hard to explain but my shea/cocoa whipped butters don't seem to penetrate like the tallow does. I still have a small tub left if you want to try some along with the PT soap.

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Awesome! I made tallow, cocoa butter and some soft oil bars for the winter. It was Fannie and Flo's organic tallow with no scent what so ever. It's not greasy and it's the bomb on chapped lips! My little one uses it for that and any other boo-boo she gets - carried it to school and everything.

Aye, 15% is better than 10%. I might have considered going to 20%, but I think more important is the rest of the recipe. Personally, I would be looking at a low (or no) co and high lard/tallow. It's a practical soap, so it really doesn't need to bubble

DeeAnna, thank you for the wonderful explanation. Not sure where I can go from here with it, but I'll do some more research on a spritz or tincture.

Thank you KristaY and gent for the percentages. I'll start off with 15%, low co, and high lard since I havent bought nor rendered tallow in quite some time. Thanks for the tea tree amount as well.

Doriettefarm, how absolutely kind of you to offer the soap and whipped tallow! I would love to try both! That gives me a chance to try things out while I wait for making a soap and a good long cure. Thank you a thousand times over!

Newbie, thank you for the tutorial on mixing it in. I am out of cocoa, but I still have plenty of mango butter which should sub nice I believe. With mango and high lard I think I can come up with something hard enough to counter the pt. Thank you again for the helpful hints and eo list you've used!!!

I appreciate everyone's helpful hints, advice, and the education I received alongside it, thank you all!!!

Now I REALLY want to make pt soap! Watched two you tube videos, one where the pine tar was warmed up to add to soap batter and another where the pine tar was added to hot/warm oils and stirred till blended in. It looked like the latter worked best. We have a Tractor Supply Store here and I'm going to swing by and see if they have pt in the horse section.

Thanks for all the good info here!

doriettefarm said:

I'm also a card carrying member of the auto-immune arthritis club . . . recently diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis after years of crazy neck & back pain. As far as EOs that seem to help the joint inflammation/eczema/psoriasis issues, I can only tell you what I've tried so far.

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My aunt has lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and Shogrun's (sp?). She swears by glucosomine and chondroitin supplements. Also, she has deduced that large amounts of animal protein make her symptoms flair up. She's not really a vegetarian, but she doesn't eat meat every day, and when she does, it's usually small amounts or cooked in food as an accent - such as a bean soup with a little ham, or 1 piece of bacon with breakfast.

For those who might be interested, I wrote up an article with my thoughts and tips about making PT soap -- http://classicbells.com/soap/pineTarSoap.html

Thx dixie. I eat red meat once, sometimes a second day weekly and the second is literally a couple bites. I recently chamge my eating the past yr and eat veggies, sauteed chicken, salmon and tuna steaks only. Made a huge difference I think. Oh, wine is terrible, I think it's the sulfates/sulfites or whatever that is. Diet change made a big difference I think. I also lost a ton of weight from it, and keeping weight down seems to help as well on the ole joints.

DeeAnna said:

For those who might be interested, I wrote up an article with my thoughts and tips about making PT soap -- http://classicbells.com/soap/pineTarSoap.html

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Finally got around to reading it. Wonderful tutorial! Thank you for the link!!!