Benefits of Handmade Lavender Soap
Lavender oil is a wonderful tool to have in anyone’s home remedy kit. Useful in aromatherapy applications, lavender oil also has numerous topical benefits, which is why it’s a great addition to your handmade soap recipe.
Lavender oil is extracted from the flowers of the lavender plant, mostly through steam distillation. The lavender flowers are extremely fragrant and have long been used in potpourri and perfume applications.
The highly concentrated fragrance of lavender essential oil has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety and even help in relieving headaches. Lavender can also help people suffering from insomnia. Studies have shown that people who have lavender oil placed on their pillows sleep more regularly and stay asleep longer. Showering with a bar of lavender soap will give you many of the same effects as undiluted essential oil, since aromatherapy is based entirely on the olfactory response to scents.
Aside form the comfort its scent lends, lavender also provides anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties. Using an organic, gentle handmade soap made with lavender oil can help people suffering from skin conditions such as mild burns, scabies and dermatitis.
For those suffering from acne, lavender soap is doubly useful. It can be difficult for acne sufferers to find a soap that does not irritate their already sensitive skin, while still attacking the bacteria responsible for their pimples. Lavender handmade soap will allow you to gently cleanse your skin without stripping it of its natural moisture barrier while still treating the condition with lavender’s anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties.
Lavender soap can also help combat the signs of aging, and help prevent hair loss from alopecia, an autoimmune disorder where the body rejects its own hair follicles. More than 40% of alopecia patients in a study showed an increase in hair growth when they regularly rubbed lavender oil into their scalps.
With all these benefits, it’s no wonder that lavender soap is so popular. To make it even richer, try making your soap with coconut oil of cocoa butter to further soothe the skin.
Hemp oil has both medicinal and topical benefits that make it a great ingredient to add to soap. Nutritionally, hemp oil has a high source of essential fats and contains omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, which help maintain healthy brain and nerve function. We do not naturally produce these fatty acids so they must be absorbed from our food.
The anti-inflammatory benefits of hemp oil make it great for treating rashes and acne and the essential fatty acids that are great for your internal health also do wonders for keeping your skin young and elastic.
Dry skin, eczema and hives can all benefit from exposure to hemp oil. When the seeds of the cannabis plant are pressed they produce a thick, natural moisturizer whose chemical compounds are said to resemble the protein found in human blood.
To make your own hemp soap at home and reap the benefits of this wonderful oil, we recommend a simple recipe like this:
- 3 cups coconut oil
- 4 cups palm oil
- 2 cups hemp oil
- 2 cups olive oil
- ½ cup mixture of essential oils
- 3.5 cups distilled water
- 1.5 cups lye
A recipe like this is gentle and super moisturizing and very simple to work with, but if you’re already familiar with making your own soap and would like to challenge yourself, we recommend the following recipe, which smells heavenly and has an earthy green tone:
- 2 tablespoons castor oil
- 4 tablespoons cocoa butter
- 1 cup coconut oil
- 1 cup olive oil
- 1 cup hemp oil
- 1 cup palm oil
- 4 tablespoons shea butter
- 4 tablespoons hemp butter added at trace to super fat
- 6 tablespoons patchouli essential oil
- 2 cups water
- ¾ cup lye
- ¾ cup palm kernel
The addition of castor oil makes the bar especially creamy and will give you a smooth, rich lather.
Happy soap making!