Soaping for my husband - Tree Sap???

[MirandaH]

I am sick and tired of dishes piled to the ceiling because I ran out of dish soap. My husband will be very easy to soap for. He is not really concerned with the way the soap makes him feel, provided that he feels clean. He runs a tree company and comes home every day covered in bar oil, gas and tree sap. In order to remove all of this tree sap, he uses my dish detergent!! This can't be healthy, between washing with it constantly and me wanting to kill him for leaving me with no dish soap.

I am not asking anyone to hand over their precious recipe, as I understand how hard we all work to perfect these things, but I am curious if anyone can give me any ideas of what I can make some soap for him with that will remove all this sticky, gooey mess, other than my Dawn. Any ideas????

 

[Lindy]

What about doing a 100% Coconut Oil soap with only a 10% SF (it's usually 20% for this type of soap)?

 

[MirandaH]

What about doing a 100% Coconut Oil soap with only a 10% SF (it's usually 20% for this type of soap)?

I have read about people doing 100% coconut in salt bars. I have really wanted to do a salt bar, but we have 5 kids, 4 at home and one is a baby, so things are very unpredictable. I was thinking that a salt bar might help him because I figure it would be somewhat scratchy (I have never tried one, so not sure, just what I was thinking). But the reason I haven't tried it yet is because I hear they get really hard, really fast and I will need to cut them in about 2 - 4 hours. If things get crazy with the kids, I don't know that I will be able to cut it on time and it is hard to plan my day around a soap that hardens very quickly. If I don't put salt in a 100% coconut oil bar, will it be too hard too fast, or is it the salt that causes that?

 

[Obsidian]

Salt hardens the bars faster but 100% coconut will still get hard fairly quick. If you have individual cavity molds, those work really well. Salt bars aren't scratchy at all though, they are very smooth like a river stone.
Finely ground coffee grinds would be better, you could add those to a coconut soap for high cleansing with good scrubby action. My hubby works at a lumber mill and when he comes home covered in sap, I use baby oil to break it up then it will just wipe away.

 

[seven]

You can use individual molds so you dont have to worry about cutting it up at the right time. Salt bars are not scratchy at all. The leather is kinda lotion like and it's a really nice soap i reckon.

 

[MirandaH]

Thank you for the insight on salt bars. I REALLY want to try to make some. I am going to have to go get some individual molds. I would love to see what they feel like.

As far as the baby oil goes, that is just about the only thing that he won't use. And smells he doesn't like. He normally doesn't care what the soap does because he has a "three step washing method" He uses the Dawn on all the tree sap, then bar soap for the other dirt and gas and stuff and to get the Dawn residue off (No, I have no idea what he is talking about) and then liquid soap to smell good. He has started using the soap that I made from the recipe Hazel gave me, and he likes it, but it is unscented. He says that baby oil makes him feel slick and sticky and after being in the heat all day, he wants to stop feeling slick and sticky.

When your wife makes soap, you should not be bathing with commercial chemicals. And especially not dish soap. We are working together on finding an EO or an FO that he likes. (This is proving very difficult. Glad just the soap itself isn't something he will be picky about, as long as he doesn't feel slick and sticky.) If I can find that then he will step down to a 2 step method, where he only uses the Dawn and my soap, but I am thinking that if I can make something that takes care of all three steps in one shot, my water and grocery bill will be much lower, I will have more space in the shower and I will stop running out of dish soap.

 

[coffeetime]

I've been making a lemon salt bar and it's awesome if I do say so myself. I don't use 100% coconut, I add Shea butter and castor for bubbles, then colour with annatto-infused olive oil and scent with lemon and litsea essential oils. If he likes lemon dish soap maybe that would do the trick?

And you could use kitchen plastic for individual molds. I hear the dollar store carries cheap containers.

 

[MirandaH]

Those are lovely coffeetime! I really want to try some salt bars and it would be really nice if he liked them.

 

[ourwolfden]

I make two soaps for my hubby that he really likes (he works with his hands all day on machinery and comes home covered in grease). One is the coffee grounds soap. I add a lot! In fact, I don’t like it, I think it hurts to wash with it, but he loves it to get the grease off his hands and arms. I also make one with loofas that he really likes.

 

[savonierre]

I make a soap with fine pumice it gets off dirt grease oil etc. I make it with a high superfat so the soap isn't bothering hands to wash so often.

 

[Pepsi Girl]

Yep to the coffee grounds. My husband (dirty rancher) uses it and he says it works on everything including pitch which he often seems to find! I also use a lot and I don't grind it very fine in fact it's pretty course .

 

[Ellacho]

I make salt bars often and I prefer to use individual molds. Here is my latest sea salt bars made with 100% organic extra virgin coconut oil, 15% superfat & no scent. I really love it!

Hope this helps!

 

[MirandaH]

Great ideas, everyone. There may be something in the works that will be good for him. Also, all of the soaps that were posted are beautiful! I love looking at all of the things that all of you make! Before starting this, I never would have imagined that there could be so much creativity and beauty in soap!

 

[kdaniels8811]

Coffee soap removes tree sap from my hubbys hands/arms. If you would like the recipe, drop me a PM and I will post it. Easy soap to make.

 

[coffeetime]

This is my coffee soap. I also used ground vanilla bean pods and cocoa butter, so it smells like a cookie! But it's unscented (teehee.)

 

[coffeetime]

Ok why are my photos coming in so huge? I'm attaching them from my phone and there doesn't seem to be a re-sizing option.

 

[Lindy]

For men's scents take a look at Save on Scents. They even have some Axe dupes....

 

[TVivian]

Ok why are my photos coming in so huge? I'm attaching them from my phone and there doesn't seem to be a re-sizing option.

The bigger the better I say!

 

[MirandaH]

The bigger the better I say!

Me too!! I just love looking at everyone's soaps. I could spend days in the photo gallery. Hopefully someday I will be able to make something as impressive as what I see here. Right now I am just happy when my soap firms up and makes bubbles, lol.