Soap soap soap...how do I love thee...a soap by anyother name would still smell like...lye...You had me at lather...
Okay folks, so there are a LOT of soaps out there in this world. I mean, walmart has an entire aisle here located to body washes, soaps, scrubs, scours and other skin stripping products. And then there's the world of hand made soaps...beautiful little bars of goodness made from all kinds on sunkissed and honey drenched ingrediants of sudsy love. I tend to gravitate towards the hand made soaps, the kinds you find at craft shows, fancy pants boutique stores and on Etsy.com. But even here it can be tricky to navigate your purchases. Some of the bars I've purchased have left my skin feeling pretty darn scaly dry..and I'm not given to dry skin! They also tend to leave a horrible ring around the old tub...but that's another problem.
Now, I'm not adventurous enough to go diving into my own soap making. Not yet. And that's okay, since there are about a million and two good soap makers out there that I adore. (I'll list my favorites later!) But...I have wanted to try making my own "every once in a while" salt scrub. Something to slough off all the grimy dead skin that collects.
So, here is a very simple recipe to get us started!
1/2 cup jojoba oil (or sweet almond, or grapeseed, it needs to be a light "massage" type oil)
1 cup fine sea salt
5-15 drops essential oil (Let's try...tea tree and lavender shall we? Lavender is one of my favorite all time scents and tea tree is getting to be! Other good ones would be rosemary, rose, lemongrass, patchouli...)
Put the salt in a small bowl.
Add the oil, mixing well with a spoon or wooden stick. The texture should be moist enough to hold together, but not overly oily. You can adjust the amount of oil to achieve that texture. Gently add in your drops of essential oils and mix in as well.
Ta Da! This will last you for maybe 3 showers? This doesn't (and shouldn't) need to be done daily, once a week or so is all to get that all over scrubbed off tingly skin!
Alternately...you can also use sugar to make a sugar scrub. Doesn't this Mocha Spice sugar scrub look over the top yummy?
So, where is my favorite places to buy soap?
Real Simple Soap: http://realsimplesoap.com/ Just like it sounds. Real and Simple.
The Bee Folks: www.beefolks.com Not only is this a great place to buy soap, but their honey is fabulous! I buy bars of soap from them every year at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. This year I also got some to die for hand cream...but that's another region of the body...
Chargin Valley Soaps and Salves: http://www.chagrinvalleysoapandsalve.com/ This is a newer find to me. I ordered some shampoo bars from them in my "no-'poo" quest and found they have some amazing soaps!
Blue Ridge Soap Shed: http://www.soapshed.com/Handmade-Soap/ I can't remember, but I got a bar from them as a gift and I loved it! Nice and creamy, lots of lather...
Look on Etsy.com also, there are hundreds and hundreds of soap makers out there. You can get vegan soaps, glycerin, every variety of oil under the sun....The suds the limit!
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