I enjoy making my own health care, skin care and home care items.  I've posted directions for such items as homemade toothpaste, deodorant, laundry detergent, face wash, etc.  Today I'll show you how I make our homemade glycerin bar soap!

First, you will need a few basic items...

You will need:  glycerin soap chunks, glass measuring cup, whisk, rubber spatula, water, extra virgin olive oil, fragrance/essential oils, botanicals/herbs.

Place several glycerin chunks in the glass measuring cup...

Melt chunks in microwave at 20 SECOND intervals until melted...

While your soap is melting, crush any botanicals/herbs you may want to add to your soap.  In this case, I am crushing dried rosemary leaves; later I crushed a few lavender buds from some I grew last year & had hanging in my kitchen...

When soap is melted, pour into a mixing bowl and add your botanicals/herbs, any coloring you may want (I usually don't add coloring), 1-2 TB extra virgin olive oil, 1-2 TB cold water and fragrance/essential oils...

In this batch I'm also adding about 10-15 drops of rosemary essential oil and 10-15 drops of tea tree oil.  Mix QUICKLY w/a whisk until soap is somewhat thick & frothy.

Pour into soap molds...

Remember...your soaps will not be the 'prettiest' at this point.    The bottoms are a little 'rough' but you will trim the 'uglies' off when your soap has cured.  Below, I have made 2 bars of lavender (upper left), 2 bars of gragefruit (my husband's shower favorite; lower left) & 4 bars of rosemary/tea tree (my shower favorite & what I sometimes put on the bathroom soap dish; right side).

After your soap has set in the molds for at least 30 minutes, turn them out onto a wire cooling rack to cure for 2 weeks.

You will notice that they are not 'pretty' on the edges.  As I said before, you will trim the excess off the edges when they are cured and you are ready use or store them.  Until I use them (or give them away) I wrap them in colored plasic wrap or brown paper gift wrap and tie w/raffia or brown or colored twine.

These are low-lather soaps and are particularly good for oilier skins w/o being drying to dry skin-types.  Adding oatmeal makes them great for drier skins or even exfoliating normal skin-types.  Adding coffee grounds that have been ground again (by you) is great as a gardener's or mechanic's soap.  Adding a few drops of tea tree, rosemary & lavender makes a great soap for oily skin (if you prefer a bar soap instead of the face wash I made earlier from liquid Castile soap).  Adding simply Vitamin E or extra virgin olive oil or a honey-almond fragrance is excellent for a bath soap for the whole family - good for the skin and even though it has a nice fragrance, it's not too girlie for the man of the house.

Let me know if you try this recipe.  Enjoy!

Blessings from Ohio, Kim Wolf<><