Kitchen soap has ingredients especially good for preventing poison ivy.

As much as we love summer, 2009 has proven to be problematical in terms of poison ivy, mosquitoes and other pests. We’ve had lots of rain, and although it is truly beautiful in this rural area in Kentucky, there’s also plenty of poison ivy as well as our share of summer mosquitoes. Anything we can do to fight back is welcome. I thought we might turn our attention to our specialty handmade soaps which, because they’re made with care and in small batches, are likely to be both effective and safe … certainly safer than many of the commercial products on the shelves.

I developed a two-fold approach to poison ivy, and it seems to be working well. The first step is to be sure all the oils from the plant are washed off the skin as soon after exposure as possible. For that I recommend Anna’s EsSCENTials “Old Fashioned Kitchen Soap” which I developed to absorb cooking odors a few years back. An added benefit is that the coffee grounds and poppy seeds in the soap are slightly abrasive and appear to do a superior job of removing those offending surface oils. Often, this step alone is enough to prevent an allergic reaction to poison ivy.

The second step helps after itching and bumps appear. Anna’s Rhassoul Clay soap is especially good at removing toxins in the skin, and those who have used it on poison ivy report it speeds the drying and healing process. Essential oils also help reduce swelling.

The combination of these two soaps has become popular this summer as a preventive and healing aid to poison ivy outbreaks. I’m not willing to infect myself to test it out, but I can report good results from the many people I meet at soap tables.

Bugs Away
And then there are the flying pests. I’m one of those individuals particularly vulnerable to mosquitoes, so you can imagine when I realized I could make a soap that helped keep them away, I went for it big time, making Bye Bye Bites soap. Always a doubter, I did not have a lot of hope for success. With research to scout out essential oils the creatures don’t like, I came up with a soap that very quickly got the attention of a lot of moms whose children really wanted to play outdoors at dusk, or kids heading for camp … that sort of thing.

When this soap began selling in bundles of five or six, I began to take notice. One evening I decided to use myself as a guinea pig. I took the dry bar and rubbed it lightly over my exposed skin, took a deep breath, and headed outdoors at the peak of mosquito season. It took only seconds for the first wave to head for me, and no one could have been more surprised than I was to see those blood-thirsty critters swoop toward my bare arms, do a sort of double-take, and change their minds! What a glorious sight to see them flying away from me instead of toward me.

I have to tell you, this was a thrilling moment! With no chemicals, DEET or other insidious poisons, I could safely go outside and survive the onslaught. Since then, many people have asked me if this soap will work for chiggers and other awful creatures. Once again, I am NOT willing to use my body to test with chiggers, having been awake many a night with ice packs on swollen places, but I will say that when I go into the tall grasses of my hillside now, I’m always covered with a coating of Bye Bye Bites as well as a very light amount of commercial bug spray, and it works. I also shower or bathe immediately after finishing my gardening or other work.

Summer is for fun
I love summer. And I’m tickled to feel like these products help me enjoy more of it!