Soap Lily: We make Dog Soap for our 4-legged friends

#dogsoap #essentialoilsoap #fourleggedfriends #dogshampoobar

Thursday, March 5, 2015

This post is all about dogs, specifically making them smell better. Now to clarify, if your dog smells terrific we are thrilled for you; you have no idea how lucky you are. Alison and I have dogs who aren't so posh and occasionally they desperately need a bath.

Doggie introductions -

Kathy's three dogs, (occasionally heard barking in the background of our videos). From top to bottom: Uggie (found on the side of the road next to a bag of trash), Tippy (another sweet dog found on the side of the road), and Hazel a Chocolate Lab we adopted from a family who couldn't keep her!

In this picture they are looking for an innocent squirrel or maybe a fresh pile of cow manure!

And Frodo Waggins, Alison's dog. Frodo is a bit more protected from the Elements as he lives near a major highway and is not able to roam freely (much to his unhappiness).

Since I (Kathy) live several miles from town in a fairly rural are,a my three dogs think it's fine to roll in a variety of delicacies. The variety seems endless but their favorites are dead fish (occasionally found in the creek), fresh cow manure (courtesy of neighbor cows), dead animal remains (when they are lucky enough to kill a squirrel, it's tradition to let it "ferment" a few days then roll in it), and my all time favorite - skunk! You get the idea. Sometimes a dog shampoo is not optional; we have to do it to survive the smell! While Frodo (Alison's dog) is mostly an indoor dog and doesn't have quite the enticing options that my dogs do, he occasionally needs a scent pick me up just to boost his morale.

The dog shampoo bars we made last year are gone, and it is time to restock; however, we found a notation on our prior work sheet reminding us the next batch should be cold process due to a 120 degree flash point in the Eucalyptus which is too low for HP soap.

On to the making of Doggie Soap 2015

We use a mixture of three Essential oils for this soap - Lemongrass and Peppermint from +Lebermuth Co. and Eucalyptus from +Bramble Berry.

The mixture is really nice and clean and obviously can be used by humans.

I had the brainstorm to write on the bars. Write what, you might ask? Woof and Arf, of course, something all dogs would understand!

To do this I colored a small amount of batter brown with Aborigine Amber from +Rustic Escentuals.

I measured out the three EOs using 35 grams each of Peppermint and Lemongrass and 14 grams of Eucalyptus. Interesting how they all have different colors.

We mixed our oils - Coconut, Olive, Palm kernel flakes, Rice Bran and Castor - then added the dissolved lye/distilled water and stick blended until it emulsified.