What to use in a gardener's soap?

[rosyrobyn]

I'd like to make a gardener's soap for a neighbor who often shares his fruits and veggies with me. What makes a good gardener's soap?

Here's what I was thinking -
coconut oil for high cleansing (or would this be too drying on hands?)
something for softening dry hands (goat milk? high superfat?)
used coffee grounds for exfoliation

 

[Obsidian]

If he is just washing off garden dirt, then there is no reason to make a excessively cleansing soap. I like either coffee grounds or fine ground pumice for extra cleansing. Pumice is my favorite of the two, its not scratchy and really helps wash away grime.

 

[earlene]

Depending on how intensely he/she gardens, (a gardener by trade or 'heavy duty gardener' who builds/repairs garden walls &/or does maintenance on gardening equipment, trims trees, etc. vs. a casual gardener), the formula may need to be a bit different.

For the heavy duty gardener like my eldest son, I make a Borax handwashing soap. My husband even likes it for after working on the cars, so it doubles as a mechanics soap in my family. I use a variation of this recipe (a non animal fat version), which is where I got my original inspiration.

ETA: Of course always run any recipe through a lye calculator and use weights, not volume measurements when making soap. (I mention this because that recipe I linked doesn't give weights.)

 

[shunt2011]

I use pumice. I have tried coffee grounds and cornmeal. I like coffee for getting smells of in the kitchen but pumice works best for garden dirt. I love to garden.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

My next kitchen/garden soap will be a salt bar with coffee. I was working on the car a while back and went in to the shower room (we have no "dirty" sink yet, of you know what I mean, and I didn't want to ruin the kitchen or bathroom sinks) and there was only my salt bar. So I used that and it worked very well indeed. So I will add coffee water and the grounds to a salt bar with 100% co and maybe (maybe) 15% lye discount.

Edit - make sure to only use all-natural cold-pressed gardeners for your garden soaps [emoji39]

 

[IrishLass]

Pumice is my favorite thing to use for a 'dirty hands' soap. Putting it in a salt bar sounds like a great idea. !


IrishLass

 

[rosyrobyn]

Thanks everyone for the great info. I'm on the hunt for pumice and borax for some experimentation!

 

[earlene]

Edit - make sure to only use all-natural cold-pressed gardeners for your garden soaps [emoji39]

Hmmm. Where does one find all-natural cold-pressed gardeners? Do I have to order them from the Northern regions?

 

[navigator9]

Speaking from my own experience as a gardener, my hands get dirty, but not greasy, so the soap doesn't have to be extremely cleansing. I like something just a bit scrubby, to help loosen the dirt, but not something scratchy. My favorite is oatmeal that's ground a bit, but not too finely. And gardening is always very drying to my hands, so I like a soap that's very conditioning. One I made recently, with lard and avocado oil is very nice. I made it as an all around soap, but I've been using it when I come in from working outdoors, and I like it a lot for that, too.

 

[Obsidian]

I actually made a 100% coconut bar with pumice. I did add a few spoonfuls of salt. Not enough to be a true salt bar but enough it helped harden it considerably. Its a great scrubby soap, I especially love it on my feet.
I made it HP and the pumice clumped together a bit in spots. I wouldn't wash my body with it, might be a bit too scratchy but its my favorite hand bar.

 

[shunt2011]

I actually made a 100% coconut bar with pumice. I did add a few spoonfuls of salt. Not enough to be a true salt bar but enough it helped harden it considerably. Its a great scrubby soap, I especially love it on my feet.
I made it HP and the pumice clumped together a bit in spots. I wouldn't wash my body with it, might be a bit too scratchy but its my favorite hand bar.

I'm going to have to try that. Hadn't though to. Thanks for sharing. My feet get bad in the summer because I refuse to wear shoes.

 

[Obsidian]

Same here, I have pretty thick callouses and it seems like the dirt from walking outside is a permanent part of my skin lol.

 

[DeeAnna]

I second Obsidian's suggestion to not make the recipe overly cleansing -- it's really not necessary. Even with greasy hands, a normal kind of bath soap recipe works fine. It's more the use of an abrasive -- very finely ground coffee, fine pumice, etc -- that is the key to cleaning ground-in dirt.

I also use a blend of EOs that have mild antibacterial properties (tea tree, lavender, etc.) for all those little cuts and thorn pricks that gardeners deal with.