Olive oil is a natural moisturizer that can help keep skin healthy and nourished. Olive oil soap is great for dry and sensitive skin because it is an emollient, an agent that softens and soothes the skin. Enjoy a late 1800's olive branch botanical illustration.
Coconut oil offers lathering and moisturizing properties. Being rich in Vitamin E it nourishes and moisturizes skin. Its antioxidants help speed up the skin’s natural healing process.
Palm oil helps produce small and slow lather and hardens the soap. Since it is less soluble in water, its firmness holds up throughout use. It is mild and an excellent cleaner.
Sodium hydroxide, also called caustic soda, is transformed in the soap making process. Lye changes the chemical make-up of oil so water and oil can combine, know as saponification, and become soap.
A touch of beeswax adds to soaps hardness. I use the best quality I can find. It is wax from the honey "cappings" and is double filtered. I purchase it from the Kohn's of Honey Glow Farm in Owen, Wisconsin. The benefit of adding a bit of beeswax is it draws moisture to and forms a protective barrier on the skin but allows the skin to breathe.
The dried herbs and flowers are organically grown in my garden when possible and harvested at a favorable time for potency. The lilacs are from my Aunt Betty's wondrous flower bed in Posen, Michigan. The plants are cleaned and naturally air-dried. Comfrey, lavender, lemon balm, and peppermint are perennials; calendula is replanted each spring.
Cocoa butter is pressed from cocoa bean pods. It is a high quality emollient, a skin softening and moisturizing agent that sooths dry and injured skin.