Gardener's soap

[jarvan]

I know I have seen this in the various forums I have been in, but for the life of me, I cannot find a single post regarding recipes for a good gardener's soap.

I would think the following properties would be important:

1. antibacterial using something like tea-tree ore similar
2. scrubby without being painful
3. moisturizing to best ability

Does anyone have EO's/FO's they can recommend as being popular for a gardener's soap? I swear this was covered, but where??? The search function is of no help to me here, since every conceivable variation comes up empty.

 

[Pepper]

"Gardener's Soap" in Melinda Coss's book adds powdered pumice, carrot root oil, (not sure what that's for, except maybe colour), and tea tree and eucalyptus EO's. I think peppermint EO would also be good. And you could add ground lufah instead of pumice.

 

[dagmar88]

I know I have seen this in the various forums I have been in, but for the life of me, I cannot find a single post regarding recipes for a good gardener's soap.

I would think the following properties would be important:

1. antibacterial using something like tea-tree ore similar
2. scrubby without being painful
3. moisturizing to best ability

Does anyone have EO's/FO's they can recommend as being popular for a gardener's soap? I swear this was covered, but where??? The search function is of no help to me here, since every conceivable variation comes up empty.

1. This blend would seem very nice for a gardener's soap to me:
http://www.rainbowmeadow.com/infocenter ... hp?BID=547
Lavender has both antiseptic and anti fungal properties; though how effective it is in a rinse off product is debatable.
2. a tiny bit of coffee grounds is really nice; not too scrubby and removes that earthy or fertilizer scent form your hands.
3. There's so many recipe's you could use. I'd go for someting high in olive oil and bubbly; like 25% coconut or PKO, 70% olive oil and 5% castor with an 8% superfat.

 

[anita]

Adding 20ml of ground coffee per 1 litre of oils at trace is supposed to work great in gardeners soap. Coffee is a natural deodorant and a good exfoliator.

 

[carebear]

why would you want it antibacterial? soap as such is as effective as antibacterial soap IN USE.

pumice works much better than coffee grounds - and is much less painful to scrub with.

soap doesn't moisturize, quite the opposite. if you want something that is less cleansing then you may sacrifice the ability to get out that ground in dirt, but I guess the pumice balances that.

my gardner's soap is a nice minty blend in a high lathering bar with lots of coconut oil and a good hit of pumice. people like it.

 

[xyxoxy]

I was fortunate to receive a huge pile of (free) fresh rosemary from a lady on Craigslist. I dried it and ground it and put a fairly high amount in a batch where I also used dried mint, Rosemary infused olive oil, Palm, Coconut, Sunflower and Castor.

The Rosemary is scrubby without being too scratchy. I call it Rosemary's Garden soap. I would probably use a little more scent next time as the herbs only come through faintly... but people seem to like it.

 

[orangetree71]

Carebear: I've read in other posts too that soap isn't moisturizing. Why do we put all kinds of moisturizing oils in soaps then? Just so it isn't drying?

 

[carebear]

yep. soap's nature is that it solubulizes the oils on our skin (dirty oils and the naturally occurring) and makes them easier to wash away. we put in extra oils for 2 reasons
1- to make sure that any excess lye has something to work on (remember, naturally occurring oils and butters don't have an exact set SAP number - it actually falls within a range, so we superfat to make up for that uncertainty. and
2- to give the soap something to work on besides our skin! we LIKE using soap but getting just enough without too much is hard to do, and people enjoy lathering up. so some extra oil in there gives the soap something to play with besides the oils we want to leave intact.

 

[oldragbagger]

I make a wonderful gardener's soap that my friends absolutely cannot get enough of. Except for my lavender, it is my most requested soap, and it is the soap my husband uses every single day.

The exfoliant/scrub factor is corn meal (finely ground), essential oils are lemongrass, cedarwood and dill. Equal parts cedarwood and lemongrass with only a small amount of dill, about 1 part to 5 parts of each of the others) and I only use real essential oils, not synthetic fragrances.

I also add a small amount of ground dill weed, for additional exfoliant, scent and a bit of an earthy appearance. The oils I used in my recipe were olive, palm, coconut, castor and shea butter, but I imagine you could use whatever oil combination suits your fancy.

In addition to the scent being very invigorating, the cornmeal being good scrubby, and the oils being antibacterial, they are also apparently very good odor killers. I have a couple of girlfriends who keep a bar by their kitchen sinks all the time to use after cutting onions and garlic and such. They say it takes the odors off their hands like nothing else.