Fresh Lemon Leaves in Soap

by SJ
(Arizona)

My husband cut off a bunch of trimmings from our lemon tree and the leaves smelled so good that I wanted to add them to my soap.


Being so new to soap making, I am now concerned that it may not be healthy or will they turn brown in the soap since I didn't dry them first?

Just not sure what the limits are when it comes to adding nature to soap.

Answer:

I've never used lemon leaves in soap making...fresh or otherwise.

As with any new ingredient, it is best to research the item for possible hazards and then (if the item is ok for skin use) experiment.

Make a small batch of soap using the new ingredient and take lots of notes.

Be sure to document how much you used, if it is dried or fresh, cut or ground, what stage it is added, the recipe you added it to...every bit of information you can think of.

This way if something goes wrong you know what you did and can make changes. If it goes right, you will know how to do it again.

Cathy

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starstarstarstarstar 		Lemon leafs or zest soap
by: Lieve

Hi Cathy & SJ

I was wondering if you also put any essential oils in your fresh ground lemon leaves soap? I made my first 100% olive oil soap 2 weeks ago and while it is still curing I thought of making some new soap but with fresh zest of lemons at the trace stage. I looked for info on the net but everybody seems to add essential oils too. My mother in law has a lemon tree in her garden so I can nick some of her leaves too(lemons are already in my kitchen), to add more lemon smell to my soap. Would you mind to share your recepy?
Many thanks
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by: SJ

I just wanted to report back since I last posted about using the chopped lemon leaves. It has been about a month since I made the small batch with the FRESH lemon tree leaves - I will say that the soap still has an amazing lemon sent which I love. Many of the pieces have turned brown throughout the soap, and is not rancid and looks like a soap that may have had dried herbs added to it. I thought it might be very drying to the skin, but I have not yet had any negative affects from using it. In the future, I want to try it again substituting dried leaves to see what difference it might make. It seems the lemon smell will be much less.

Answer:

That's great news!! I had no idea that lemon leaves would give much of a scent. As for the leaves going brown..oh well...all sorts of botanical matter goes brown in soap so I figure it's something we can live with.

Thank you so much for giving us an update.

Cathy

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