Dry skin vs Oily skin recipes

by Larry Mitchell
(Youngsville, LA USA)

I see lots of bar soap recipes on the Internet, but I haven't found recipes that are designed specifically for dry skin, normal skin and oily skin. My wife has dry skin, I have very oily skin. What would you recommend as recipes aimed at dry skin and oily skin?

Thanks for the help...

Larry Mitchell
SOI Naturals
Youngsville, LA


Answer:

Hi Larry,

I'll first direct you to this page Soap Making Oils...scroll down to "Formulating a recipe" and read right down to the bottom. This page talks about how I choose oils and what qualities the oils have. This will give you a better understanding of the oils and help you to choose which will work best for you and your wife's individual skin care needs.

I would begin with the basic recipe...Coconut 30%, Palm 30% and olive 40%...and then manipulate the recipe to suit you.

You'll notice that the oils labelled "Bring on the Bubbles" have cleansing qualities. When formulating a recipe for your oily skin, you will want to increase these oils a little and then for your wife's skin, you will want to decrease them.

The next three sections of oils contain conditioning oils. With the decrease of coconut oil in your wife's recipe, you will want to add some of these.

Another page you will want to look at is Blending Scents...scroll down past the table and there you will find a list of essential oils that are good for specific purposes. Dry skin and oily skin are amoung them.

Here is a sample recipe that I would attempt for oily skin:

Coconut oil 40%
*Palm oil 20%
**Olive oil 35%
Castor oil 5%

lye discount - 5%
scent with a blend of oils listed for oily skin.

For dry skin:

Coconut oil 20%
*Palm oil 40%
**Olive oil 35%
Castor oil 5%

lye discount 10%
scent with a blend of oils listed for dry skin.

*you could substitute any of the 'creamy lather' oils for the Palm oil.
**you could substitute any of the 'condition me' oils for some or all of the olive oil.

I suggest you make small batches and take notes of what you did. That way, with each subsequent batch, you can make adjustments until you find the perfect recipe for you and your wife.

Have fun,

Cathy