At the Kansas City Chapter meeting Tuesday, September 7, 2010 Lisa Richter will be conducting a workshop on making homemade soap using native plants. Here are the associated details on plant species and the recipe for the re-batched soap bars.

We hope you'll join us for some good, clean fun!

Materials needed for workshop:

• 1 bar of Ivory or other pure white soap (4-6 plain hotel soaps - but they will be harder to grate)
• a cheese grater or butter knife
• dried and crushed native plant parts to put in your soap
  • Please hang leaves to dry, crush when crispy, place in labeled plastic bag, and put in freezer to preserve freshness.
  • Please mince roots, dry in the sun, place in labeled plastic bag when wrinkled/crispy, and put in freezer to preserve freshness.

Plant possibilities:

• Blackberry - berries
• Blephilia (mint) - leaves
• Cedar - needles
• Elderberry - berries only and must be boiled first)
• Echinacea Coneflower - leaves
• Geranium – flowers or leaves
• Ginger, Wild - root
• Grape - leaves or fruit
• Honey – from bee hive
• Honey Locust - seed pod juice
• Jewelweed – leaves
• Lead Plant - leaves
• Lettuce, Wild (good for the complexion) - leaves
• Monarda, (Wild Bergamot, Lemon Mint, Mountain Mint, etc) – leaves
• Passionflower - fruit
• Persimmon – fruit juice and pulp
• Plum, Wild - blossoms, fruit, or dried leaves
• Prairie Crabapple blossoms, fruit, or dried leaves
• Prickly Pear - juice
• Pumpkin, Field (Cucurbita pepo) - fruit
• River oats - seeds
• Rosa – hips, seeds
• Sage (White or other fragrant Salvia sp.) - leaves
• Sassafras - leaves
• Sumac - berries
• Sunflower – seeds, oil or flower petals
• Sweet Everlasting – flowers, seeds
• Verbena – leaves and flowers
• Yucca - root

Some of many possible scent Combinations:

• Cedar/HorseMint
• Blackberry Sage
• Sassafras Persimmon
• Sunflower Honey
• Bergamot/Rose Geranium
• River Oat/Calamint
• Ginger/Sumac
• Sweet Everlasting/Jewelweed
• Passionflower/Lemonmint

 
Websites for Homemade Soap Recipes:
http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/soapmakingbasics/a/sm101.htm
http://www.teachsoap.com/mp.html

This site has info on making lotion:
http://www.teachsoap.com/lotion_basics.html

Super Easy Soap Materials List:

• One-quart double boiler and heat source for melting the soap base or 2 pots with about 2 inches of water in bottom one
• 2 cups glycerin chips soap base per recipe or 1 bar shaved ivory soap per person
• cheese graters or butter knives
• Measuring spoons and cup measures
• Wooden stirring spoons
• Heat safe plastic freezer bags
• Heat safe gloves
• Plastic soap molds, candy molds, plastic food storage containers, or other interesting containers
• Assortment of herbs or oils for the recipes
• Optional: Soap coloring drops, Shea Butter/milk for softer soaps that need 2-3 weeks to cure (dry and harden)

Helpful Tips for Super Easy Soap:

• Glycerin can be melted in the microwave and is often called cold-process soap.
• Re-batching by cutting up soap bars and blending them to fine bits works best using a double boiler.
• Microwaved rebatched soap “blows” up like marshmallows and gets more dried out.
• Liquid shea butter or shea oil is fractionated shea butter. This variation of shea butter is liquid at room temperature and wonderful for adding to melt and pour soap, massage bars, or to creams and lotions. It's very moisturizing in the tub, but may be a bit too oily for some folks.