soap making essentials

Boil is a localized collection of pus surrounded by inflamed tissue in the skin. It starts off as reddened tender area and over a period of time, the area around it becomes firm and hard. The center of the boil full of pus is soft and is filled with infection fighting white blood cells, bacteria and proteins that eradicate the infection. Finally the pus forms a head, which can be surgically opened or drained out through the surface of the skin.

One can not pinpoint the reason for the occurrence of boils. They can be caused by ingrown hair, any splinter or foreign object lodged in the skin or clogged sweat glands that become infected to name a few. Boils can happen to young and old alike. It is one of the common skin infections ranging from the severity of a pimple to an abscess. Boils can be treated either with home remedies or medications. Any painful boil that is not rapidly improving should be seen by the healthcare practitioner.

The primary treatment for boils is heat application in form of hot soaks or hot packs. Application of hot compress increases the circulation to the area, allowing the body to fight off the infection. 10 – 15 minutes of hot compress four to fives times a day will help to bring the boil to a head and encourage easy drainage.

If you skin often breaks into boils, start cleaning your skin with an antiseptic soap. This could lessen frequent appearance of boils.

Regular use of antibacterial soaps helps prevent bacteria from building up on the skin. This can reduce the chance for the hair follicles to become infected and prevent the formation of boils.

If hair follicles on the back of arms or in and around the thighs continue to be inflamed, regular use of a loofah can break up oil plugs and build up around the follicles.

Cysts often turn into boils. Cysts can be prevented by avoiding direct pressure or irritation on the buttock area when the hair follicle becomes inflamed. Regular soap and hot water cleaning and drying is helpful.

Some of the home remedies for boils

Juice of garlic or onion applied externally on boils helps to ripen them, break them and drain out the pus.

A cupful of fresh bitter gourd juice mixed with a tsp of lime juice taken on an empty stomach daily treats this condition.

Mix 1 tsp of milk cream mixed with 1/2 tsp of vinegar and a pinch of turmeric powder to form a paste. When applied, it helps ripening the blood boils and heals them without becoming septic.

Gently warm a betal leaf till it becomes soft. Coat it with a layer of castor oil and put it over the inflamed part. Replace the leaf every few hours. Few applications of the castor oil coated betal leaf will rupture and drain out the boil.

Ground cumin seeds in water forming a paste. Apply the paste to the boils with beneficial results.

Steep parsley in boiled water till it is soft and juicy. When hot, wrap it clean muslin or linen cloth and apply it on the boils.

Application of turmeric powder on the boils enables to ripen it and burst.

The reader of this article should exercise all precautions while following instructions on the recipes from this article. Avoid using if you are allergic to something. The responsibility lies with the reader, not the site, and the writer.

Kevin Pederson
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/home-remedies-for-boils-21579.html

Why is coconut oil the best oil for your skin?

Coconut oil is great as a skin moisturiser. A study shows that extra virgin coconut oil is as powerful and safe as mineral oil when used as a moisturiser, with absence of adverse reactions.

The coconut oil will aid in removing the outer layer of dead skin cells, making the skin smoother. The skin will become more evenly textured with a healthy “shine”. While doing this the coconut oil will penetrate into the deeper layers of the skin and strengthen the underlying tissues.

Coconut Oil can help to keep the skin from developing liver spots, and other blemishes caused by aging and over exposure to sunlight.

Most commercial creams and lotions are mainly water. Their moisture is quickly absorbed into dry, wrinkled skin. As the water enters the skin, it expands the tissues, like filling a balloon with water, so that wrinkles fade away and the skin feels smoother. But this is only temporary. As soon as the water evaporates or is carried away by the blood stream, the dry, wrinkled skin returns. No matter how hard you try people will never be able to permanently cure dry, wrinkled skin with any commercial body lotion or body care merchandise. In addition to water, most lotions have an oil of some type. This oil is almost always a highly refined vegetable oil deficient of all natural protective antioxidants. One product in our food supply and in body care products that leads to a great deal of free radicals is oxidized vegetable oils.

Cocout Oil is not like other oils used to soften rough, dry skin. It will help to reduce chronic skin inflammation within days and be soothing and healing to wounds, blood blisters, rashes, etc.

Our skin is made up of connective tissues. These tissues give our skin strength and elasticity. When we are young and healthy the skin is smooth, elastic and supple. This is the effect of tough connective fibers. As we age their fibers are continually subjected to free-radical attack which breaks them down. As a result, connective tissues become hardened and lose both elasticity and strength. The skin loses its capability to hold itself together and begins to sag and become wrinkled. Once young, soft and smooth the skin turns dry and leathery.

The ideal lotion is one that is made from an oil that not only softens the skin, but protects it against damage, promotes healing and gives it a more youthful, healthy appearance. Coconut oil fits that description.

Once a free-radical reaction is started it can cause a chain reaction which produces more free radicals, which ultimately damages thousands of molecules. The only way our body has to fight them is with antioxidants. When a free radical comes into contact with an antioxidant, the chain reaction is stopped. For this reason, it is good to have plenty of antioxidants in our cells and tissues to protect us. The number of antioxidants we have in our tissues is determined to a large extent by the nutrients in our diet. Having anti-oxidants in skin care products is important, too. Dr. Ray Peat, a biochemist who has written about the antioxidant properties of coconut oil, states “It is well established that dietary coconut oil reduces our need for vitamin E, but I think its antioxidant role is more general than that, and that it has both direct and indirect antioxidant activities.” Virgin Coconut Oil is especially useful in fighting free-radicals, as it is unrefined and hasn’t been extracted of any of its natural components through the refining process.

Conventional body care goods that are made with refined vegetable oils which have all the antioxidants extracted from them are highly prone to free-radical generation both in and outside the body. That is why eating processed vegetable oils can cause a deficiency in vitamin E and other antioxidants. The antioxidants are used up fighting off free radicals causing permanent damage to connective tissues. This is also the reason why you should be careful about the type of oils you use on your skin, and in your lotions, creams and lip balms. If you use a lotion, or cream with a refined oil in it you are in fact causing your skin to age faster. The lotion, though it may bring temporary improvement will actually accelerate the aging of the skin and even develop skin cancer through the free radicals that are readily formed from the refined vegetable oil..

The oil our bodies produce is called sebum. Sebum is secreted by oil glands (sebaceous glands) located at the root of every hair as well as other places. This oil is very important to skin health. It softens and lubricates the skin and hair and prevents the skin from drying and cracking. Sebum also contains medium chain fatty acids, in the form of medium chain triglycerides, that can be released to fight harmful germs.

Pure virgin coconut oil is the best natural ingredient for skin lotion available. It prevents destructive free-radical formation and has protection against them. It helps to keep connective tissues tough and supple so that the skin doesn’t sag and wrinkle. In some cases it might even restore damaged or diseased skin. The oil is absorbed into the skin and into the cell structure of the connective tissues, limiting the damage excessive sun exposure can cause.

Coconut oil will not only bring temporary relief to the skin, but it will aid in healing and repairing. It will have lasting benefits, unlike most lotions. It can help bring back a youthful appearance.

Coconut oil for your scalp and scalp

What coconut oil can do for your skin it can do for your hair.

In India and Sri Lanka, coconut oil is commonly used for styling hair, and cooling or soothing the head and offer stress relief.

It is wonderful to use as a hair conditioner.

What coconut oil can do for your skin it can do for your hair.

The protective environment of the skin and how coconut oil helps

Our skin is home to many tiny organisms, most of which are harmless; some are beneficial. At least one variety of bacterium is essential to the healthy environment on our skin. It feeds on the sebum, breaking down the tryglycerides into free fatty acids. The bacteria actually feed on the glycerol part of the triglyceride. This leaves fatty acids which are now “freed” from the glycerol unit that held them together. Medium chain fatty acids which are bound to the glycerol unit as they are in coconut oil have no antimicrobial properties. However, when they are broken apart into free fatty acids, they become tough antimicrobials.

So these bacteria convert the medium chain triglycerides (in the sebum or on the skin) into free fatty acids that can kill disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and fungi. The combination of the slightly acid pH and medium chain fatty acids has a protective chemical layer on the skin that prevents infection from disease-causing organisms. Due primarily to the action of bacteria, the oil on the surface of your skin and hair is composed of between 40 and 60 percent free fatty acids. The medium chain fatty acids in the sebum offer the protective layer on the skin that kills harmful germs. Coconut oil is nature’s richest source of medium chain fatty acids.

When coconut oil is put on the skin it doesn’t have any immediate antimicrobial action. However, when bacteria which are always present on the skin turn these triglycerides into free fatty acids, just as it does with sebum, the result is an increase in the number of antimicrobial fatty acids on the skin and protection from infection. The free fatty acids also help to contribute to the acid environment on the skin which repels disease causing germs.

Coconut Oil is an brilliant ingredient to use in healing salves and ointments. People have used a coconut oil/crushed garlic mixture at night to eliminate plantar warts and athlete’s foot with brilliant results.

In the making of soaps, the soap does not have a tallow smell nor the smell of a vegetable oil. Instead, it has a nice fresh smell and yields a nice fluffy lather. Coconut oil is one of the most popular oils used in soap making.

Roger Bert
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/why-is-coconut-oil-the-best-oil-for-your-skin-72167.html

Doctors and the National Institute of Health recommend the use of a room humidifier when you have cold or flu symptoms, or a sinus infection. Humidifiers add moisture to the air in a room and your skin. When moisture is added to your skin, moisture is also added to your nasal passage allowing you breathe easier.

Room humidifiers are small, portable units that will send moisture into only one room of your home at a time.

There are an overwhelming amount of room humidifiers to choose from at the stores. The first decision to make is do you want a warm mist or cool mist humidifier?

The main difference is how the water enters the air and at what temperature. It is recommended you choose a cool mist room humidifier if you are putting it in a room with a child. The heated steam of a warm mist humidifier may burn a child.

Cool mist room humidifiers are safer, but more maintenance. The water in the tank can be the perfect breeding ground for bacteria. These units need to be cleaned daily or every few days with soap and water.

After you decide if you want a cool mist or warm mist room humidifier, you must decide if you want an impeller, evaporative or ultrasonic. Each type has different benefits and problems. Ultimately it depends on personal preference. Impeller humidifiers propel water into the air from discs. Evaporative humidifiers send water into the air by blowing it with a fan. Ultrasonic humidifiers send water by creating vibrations. The biggest downfall with this type of unit is it leaves behind white dust everywhere.

The main components to keep in mind when choosing a room humidifier are the maintenance, the potential health risks, and the cost.

What kind of maintenance are you willing to spend time doing? Cool mist humidifiers take a lot more maintenance than warm mist humidifiers.

How much money do you want to spend maintaining your unit? If you have to, use distilled water that may cost a little extra. If you buy a humidifier with a filter it is an extra cost to change that a few times a year.

Do you want a design that has potential to grow bacteria? Not all models have this issue, and it is not a problem if you clean your unit properly. It is important to keep in mind so your health is not affected.

Lillian Wills
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/making-an-educated-purchase-room-humidifiers-755080.html

Making soap in a crock pot is also called the "hot process" method or "milled" soap.

http://www.mommamuse.com/2006/02/17/instructions-for-making-crock-pot-handmade-soap/

http://www.rainbarrelsoap.com/recipe.htm

http://bellecitysoapworks.com/crockpot_soaps.html

Hope this helps! Good Luck!!

get the cotainer u want it in

Go to the supermarket and get some dettol soap

Put it in your container.

Dettol soap is a product of unilevers and they don’t give out the formula… i thought everybody knew that.

I have found a ton of information online but there is so much conflicting information…what temperatures to use, when to add additives, colors and fragrances…it’s so overwhelming. Anyone have some good instructions on these things? I am going to be utilizing a melt and pour base, fragrance, and some texture additives. That’s it! How hard can this be?

I started making candles a couple of months ago and i found some videos on YOU TUBE.

If you go to you tube and type in candle making it will come up with lots of videos i found the ones from expert village are the best.

Hope this helps Doogle

You can read this..I hope the link works.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you_turn_your_bar_of_soap_into_liquid_soap_without_having_to_buy_liquid_soap

I’m interested in making bar soap and oils. I would love to know how to make it at home..

Hey,

I have a bunch of recipes in my soap making newsletter. You should check it out.

http://www.soapmakingfun.com/newsletter4.shtml

Was there a particular scent that you wanted? Here is one you may like.

http://www.soapmakingfun.com/cold-process-soap-making/powerfulherbalsoap.shtml

Is there a way to calculate how much soap a specific recipe will make if that information isnt provided with the recipe. Before I make the soap I would like to know if I need to modify the recipe to fill my mold and to also make sure I will have the amount of soap that is desired. This would also be helpful to know how to do if I am making my own recipe.

Well I am not sure what kind of soap you are making, but if you are using a plastic tray of cavities as a mold, usually it states what the ounce weight will be for each bar. Just weigh your ingredients or m&p chunks to match the total ounces of the bars in the mold before you melt them to estimate, add an ounce or so to be on the safe side.
Another estimate would be to just fill the mold with water and then pour it out and measure it.
Have fun and be creative!

I’ve recently begun making cold process soap, using only essential oils for fragrance. I’ve made wonderful soaps containing rosemary, peppermint, pink grapefruit, and other essential oils, and I’ve been thinking of selling them, but I’ve read that some essential oil (like peppermint) shouldn’t be used by people with certain conditions (epilepsy, pregnancy, high blood pressure). Would a soap containing these oils be harmful to people with those conditions, or does that only refer to direct contact, like massage?

I’m into aromatherapy myself (I LOVE IT), and as far as I know, I think things are fine in a diluted state – plus it depends if your oils are 100% therapeutic grade (like young living brand or something). If they are not, they probably aren’t that strong and you shouldn’t worry.