Friday, January 6, 2012

what's not to love!

Tea Tree essential oil is one of those EO's that you either love or hate! And I have to say it's an EO that I love using in my soaps. I have to admit though, when I used it for the first time way back when my eldest son's skin broke out in his teenage years, the tea tree oil soap was branded as 'Brendon's pimple soap' and no one in the family liked the smell! Then it became 'Quinton's soap', and by that time it was being used not only by Brendon and Quinton on their faces, but also in the shower as well by all the males in the household. I was still not sold on this medicinal scent, especially as I had all the other gorgeous EO combinations to try!



When my youngest son Rowan glided (his transition was a walk in the park!) into his teenager years, aside from the legs that just seemed to never intend to stop growing and an appetite of jaw dropping proportions, his battle with acne was the most traumatic. As his face, neck and back went from 'to be expected' to 'bad' and 'worse', we progressed from doctor's appointments to 'acne' and visits to a skin specialist. Over the ensuing years, so the soap ingredients started to change. This soap recipe originally started out with olive, coconut and palm oils and was a plain white soap. In conjunction with the medication that Rowan was taking, on advice from the skin specialist, the recipe was loaded with moisturising oils and even butters (who would of thought!) at various stages of the medical treatment.



Today, the three boys are all grown men, and although their skins are past the 'tea tree oil for problem skin' stage, the clean medicinal scent has grown on the whole family.


Olive, coconut, sunflower, palm, castor and sweet almond oils, tea tree essential oil, parsley powder for some colour (go green!), throw in some 'waste not bits' and we love it!

Greetings from Cape Town, South Africa!