Handmade natural tallow soap recipe: neem oil soap and salve
After my success using neem oil to control insects around the farm and to cure my toenail fungus (how I use neem oil), I did a lot of reading about neem oil and I was keen to try to harness its properties as an anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory to help heal skin.
You can get my neem oil natural soap from my online store.
Neem oil itself is a bit of a pain to use, as it goes solid in cold temperatures, liquid when it warms up and it never seems to stay in the bottle. I have tried to take neem oil insect repellent on holiday and ended up with it spilled through my bag. Luckily it does seem to wash out, but I thought it would be easier to use in a more solid form.
I came up with a couple of solutions. First I made a soap with 25% neem oil. It smells like neem oil, but I am getting used to the smell. Its kind of nutty and pungent. I gave some of this soap to a friend of North African origins and she thought it smelt nice, so maybe it depends which spices you've grown up with! This soap is great as a pet wash (Taz "loves" taking a bath with neem soap) as it repels insects including fleas. I also gave it to a friend who had dry broken skin on her hands that just would not heal. She has noticed an improvement since using the neem soap and neem salve (below). I know this is not a comprehensive test, but if you are having trouble with dry skin, neem oil may be worth a try. The soap could also be good for kids with nits (I haven't tried that though!).
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| Taz enjoying some neem oil soap |
I wanted my dad to try neem oil on his toe nail fungus seeing as the "expensive cream from the doctor" wasn't working. I thought it would be easier to use if I thickened it with beeswax. I made a salve with 50:50 olive oil and neem oil, and 10% by weight beeswax. This stays in the jar and is more manageable to apply to toenails. It can also be used on dry skin, insect bites, etc to relieve inflammation and kill microbes.
Neem oil is also a great insect repellent and I had been using a commercial neem oil mixture because I didn't want to use DEET, but as it tended to spill I decided to make my own version with beeswax. I use a mixture of citronella, lemon grass, lavender, tea tree and eucalyptus, and 10% neem oil, in olive oil thickened with beeswax. This mixture is effective (when I remember to use it!) and does not spill.
You can get my neem oil natural soap from my online store.
**Note that neem oil is not suitable for pregnancy as it has contraceptive properties**
Do you use neem oil? Have you found it heals your skin?
Other posts about neem oil:
Neem oil as an insect repellent
You can find out more about tallow soap in my eBook Make your own natural soap
Other posts about soap:
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Your neem oil soap “cured” the eczema on my hands. It is now starting to flare up again so will need to buy a few more bars.
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