Gardener's Soap

[celtic-shamanes.livejournal.com]

Title: Gardener's Soap
Categories: Soap
Yield: Servings


(in a terra cotta pot)

This is a great soap for washing up after gardening. The corn meal
particles have a nice scrubbing affect to get the dirt off your hands,
and it looks really cute packaged in it's own little flowerpot!

MATERIALS NEEDED:
little clay flower pot (2 or 3 inch diameter)
4 oz. glycerin soap ("melt and pour" glycerin soap can be found at many
craft stores-but you can use a bar of glycerin soap grated up)
1 TBSP corn meal
1 TBSP dried calendula petals (not absolutely necessary-but it looks
nice!)a few drops of essential oil- (I use lavender
and sweet orange)

DIRECTIONS:
Cut an eight-inch square of plastic wrap and line the flower pot by
pushing the center down into pot. Make sure the plastic wrap comes up
over the edges of the pot. You may want to use a rubber band to secure
it there. Grate the glycerin soap and melt in the top pan of a double
boiler (or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water) Don't stir too
vigorously or it will
get too many air bubbles.
When the soap has melted remove it from the heat and stir in the corn
meal and calendula petals. Add the essential oils by the drop as
they are strong! Pour the soap into the plastic-lined flower pot and
set it aside to harden. You can hurry this up by
putting it in the refrigerator. Once the soap has hardened remove the
plastic wrap and put the soap in the flower pot. Wrap the entire thing
in plastic and tie with a ribbon. A silk flower tied into the ribbon or
hot-glued on top would be a nice touch!
It also looks nice if you insert a silk flower into the soap before it
hardens completely so it looks like a plant growing in the pot! You
could also paint the pot...even mud-colored fingerprints would be
appropriate for this!

Melt and pour glycerin soap can also be melted in the microwave in 30
second intervals on high. Make sure you stir in between heatings.

Howls
Ravenwolf Burke