Soap Properties

Properties of my Soap Ingredients

I started making soaps because my young son suffers from eczema. Everything we tried to bathe him in caused an itchy rash. His pediatrician was recommending different treatment options to help battle the rash, but I wanted to try to find something that wouldn't cause it in the first place. Someone told me about using handmade goats milk soap to help with his eczema. So I started reading on how to make soaps. I know I could buy them myself, but I figured if I was going to try to use hand made soaps why not make them myself, that way I could control the ingredients. So I started checking out how to make soaps and I soon discovered that there are millions of ways and ingredients you can use. I decided on a few ingredients that had properties that really seemed like they would benefit my son's skin. I started making my soaps, recording exactly what went into each bar and then seeing how they affected his skin. I am happy to say that so far my son has done WONDERFUL with the soaps I have made for him. His rash completely disappeared. I even had to send some soaps with him whenever he goes anywhere so if someone else needs to give him a bath they use his soaps. My mother bathed him without his soaps once and the rash came back immediately, but once I got her using my soaps again it has again disappeared. So I wanted to share with you just some of the properties of the different ingredients I use in my soaps. Hopefully this will help you to decide which soaps would be best for your skin.

Avocado oil contains vitamins A, D and E.  It is useful for healing and moisturizing.

Castor Oil is conditioning as well as moisturizing. It is an excellent humectant; attracting and holding moisture in the skin. It creates a fluffy, stable lather.

Coconut oil makes soaps lather beautifully. It is an emollient, moisturizing, conditioning and protecting to the skin. Coconut oil is what makes the soap "clean".

Flax seed oil is said to soften and heal skin abrasions and scars and to reduce swelling and redness of rashes and lesions from skin disease.

Grape seed oil is lightweight oil that absorbs into the skin quickly without leaving a heavy greasy feeling. It has mildly astringent qualities and is said to be useful for acne and other skin complaints.

Olive Oil attracts external moisture to your skin, helping to keep skin soft and supple. Traditionally "Castile" soap was made using only olive oil, but the term has loosened now to include soaps that have olive oil as a major proportion of the oils in them.

Sunflower oil contains Vitamin E, and is a great skin conditioner; it creates a silky feel.

Walnut oil is a soothing oil which is said to help regenerate, tone and moisturize damaged dry skin and to aid in preventing wrinkles, controlling eczema, dandruff and rough, dry or sunburned skin.

Honey is known to have antimocrobial qualities and it is also a humectant, which means it attracts moisture to itself. Making it a great moisturizer and conditioner for your skin.

Oatmeal and its natural oil coat, moisturize, protect and gently cleanse, while correcting the pH of itchy or inflamed skin back to normal.

Goats Milk contains Alpha Hydroxy Acids which remove dead skin cells, leaving smoother younger looking skin. It is high in Vitamin A which helps reduce lines and wrinkles, control acne and give relief to psoriasis and eczema. It is moisturizing due to the fat content and contains many minerals such as selenium that are great for preventing and repairing damage to the skin from things like sun exposure.