Teach Soap

Hi Everyone!
I'm very new to soaping (only about 4 months) and would like to use an infusion of oatmeal. I have friends and family suffering from dreaded winter dry skin that range from 2 yrs old to 75 yrs old. Because of their ages, skin sensitivity, eczema, etc I'd like to infuse a bit more oatmeal into a gentle recipe of olive oil, sweet almond oil and shea butter. Is this a weird idea? Has anyone else done something like this? If it's possible, should I steep the oatmeal in the water I'll use to make the lye or infuse it into the oils? I've done a calendula infusion in olive oil which worked out well but I've also used boiled down beer with water for the lye. I just don't know if I'm thinking way to far outside the box! Any ideas out there? Thanks

Oatmeal doesn't infuse in oil very well. I'd make an oat milk and use it in places of part of your lye water.

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Genny

I would try an extract--I assume you mean a body butter or lotion, not a soap, yes? Bramble Berry sells some nice extracts, like Buckthorn, Green Tea, and Evening Primrose Oil, which are really nice for extra itchy skin.

Otherwise, your choice of oils sounds great. You can put the whole think in a mixer and whip it into a light butter.

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Lesli Sagan
Avital's Apiaries
Like us: http://www.facebook.com/AvitalsApiaries

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Just to clarify, the oatmeal infusion will be for CP soap. I also plan to add 1/4 cup of finely ground oatmeal to a 5 lb batch. Is this too much oatmeal? I'm definitely going to try boiling it and using it as the lye water. I'm thinking I'll use lavender 40/42 EO as that's widely recognized as the "safest" of the essential oils. A friend of mine just learned she's pregnant so I'd like to give her a safe, gentle soap as well. I'm not crazy about lavender by itself so I'd like to add a bit of another EO or FO. Does anyone know what else would be safe for pregnancy, young children and the elderly? Thank you all so much for your advice!

I like to add either a tiny bit of orange 10X or lemongrass when using lavender.

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Thanks so much Hestey for your great advice! I've got the oatmeal steeping and will get on this tonight

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Lesli Sagan
Avital's Apiaries
Like us: http://www.facebook.com/AvitalsApiaries