Natural soap photo by L Jenkins of Glenbrook Farms

Natural soap has made a very popular comeback after taking about 70 years off. It's more popular than ever!  People are becoming more aware of the chemicals  that bombard our bodies in various ways everyday! Our goal now is to eliminate them as much as possible and turn back to a more simple , pure. and natural way of life. At Glenbrook we try to combine the simpl,e pure ,and natural with a touch of elegance in our soaps.

How do you know if a soap is natural or not? The ingredients label will let you know what exactly your soap is made of . Natural soaps will be made of oils like olive, palm, coconut, soybean, rice bran, sweet almond oil, shea butter, cocoa butter. It may contain herbs, clays and essential oils. These items are all combined with water and lye to make a natural soap. Lye is used to make soap , without lye you have no soap. When a molecule of lye, a molecule of fat and a molecule of water are combined , it creates a whole new item. This is called glycerin, a very gentle non caustic product.

Most of our soaps are made with a base of olive oil and goats milk and are gentle enough for baby. We do have a soap that is as pure as the snow called "Baby Bubbles". Start baby out with a natural bath everyday!  Below are some recipes for natural bath products for baby.

Healing Baby Butt Balm

Gently heat together
1 oz of calendula petals
1 oz of comfrey root
1 oz of chickweed
1 cup of olive oil or sweet almond oil

Heat this together over a double boiler or you can also put in the crock pot for a few hours on low.
(You are trying to extract all the healing properties from the herbs into the oil)
Strain the herbs out using cheescloth and then add the herbal oil to a pan to warm and add 2 -4 teaspoons of beeswax.
Stir until the wax is melted , spoon into a clean jar and add one vitamin e capsule.
You can also use this balm to help heal sore nipples

For more baby supplies from Avent, Jellybean, Baby Bjorn and a whole lot more at Annie's Maternity Corner