# Anyone make Jewelweed soap?



## MtnGranny

I bought some jewelweed soap last year and want to make some. Can I just make a strong tea with the jewelweed and use it for the liquid in my basic soap recipe?


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## halfpint

I plan to make some myself but haven't yet. I found a recipe in a book from our local library, and it says to place 12 oz of fresh jewelweed in a 2 quart saucepan and cover with water. Bring the water to a boil and reduce heat and simmer until the liquid is reduced by half. Remove from heat and strain.

If you try this let us know how it works.

Dawn


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## Milkwitch

Oh this is cool! what benefits would jewelweed have in soap???
I use a strong horsetail tea in my soap because of the high silica content in the older plants. It makes the soap more sudsy.


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## halfpint

Jewelweed is supposed to be good for poison ivy, oak and sumac. I've been using the Burts Bees poison ivy soap after working in the yard here as we have a lot of the sumac and it seems to help prevent breakouts. 
Dawn


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## SherrieC

Jewel weed.. You harvest the jewelweed from drainage, ditches or wooded areas any always moist area, it is a wild impation, the flowers are tiny yellow or orange with a speckled throat. If you Think you have found the herb which has sharp oval leaves around 2' tall, hold them under water and check for the "Tin foil effect" they will appear to be metalic under water like foil. Dry these then after dry Infuse them in Oil I use Olive, after infusion of 2-4 weeks at least these can be super fatted into your basic soap recipe. Or swapped out even for 6 oz to 12 oz of your lighter oils in the soap " olive, sunflower, saflower, rice"

use this soap before going into poisen ivy or Oak infested areas for the preventative , or with a break out, soap it up and let the suds dry on your breakout. I always crumble some dried jewelweed into the batch as well, but I'm going for visual effect here as mine are on the shelf to sell.


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## kesoaps

I've never seen that growing around here. Anyone care to pick and send some to me? (hmmm...wonder if it's on our noxious weed list?)


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## hillsidedigger

Is 'jewel weed' also known as 'touch-me-not' and as 'water weed'?


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## SherrieC

Yes! touch me not. I forgot to tell you. lol. The infused oil, can also be used for bug bites, we use our own essential oil bug repellents, and last night "we were star gazing and nightcrawler hunting" before we knew it had been bitten by mosquitoes and everyone came running for the jar of Bug off. My 9 year old son who is at that Whiny stage had a bite driving him nuts on his foot. I dabbed jewelweed oil on his foot and he said within 5 secs the pain of the bite was gone. he told me this morning that at bed time he took off his shirt to crawl into bed and a mosquito attacked where he had no repellent. so he ran into the bathroom moistened his hand rubbed some of the oil off his foot bite, and relieved went back to bed where he spent the night in peace. And the Teenager friends of my 19 yr. son are always over here presenting insect bites, or ivy rash for treatment Lol! Also at my Booth the lady across from the German Meat counter comes Running for treatment at the least little bite. So it's well tested here. : )

and also from my Old soap making book she uses it differently and says it can Only be used fresh which I know different but for those of you who may Not make lye soap yet even You can make this. it calls for 20 stems fresh jewelweed, or frozen fresh, blend them with 1 cup water, 1/2 cup glycerin and strain them through cheese cloth. remove 1/2 cup and freeze the rest in ice cubes for later use. take 2 cups glycerin, cool to at least 135 then mix in 1/2 cup jewellprep mix well, pour into molds cool. keep wrapped in paper, should stay potent for one year.


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## MullersLaneFarm

halfpint said:


> I plan to make some myself but haven't yet. I found a recipe in a book from our local library, and it says to place 12 oz of fresh jewelweed in a 2 quart saucepan and cover with water. Bring the water to a boil and reduce heat and simmer until the liquid is reduced by half. Remove from heat and strain.
> 
> If you try this let us know how it works.
> 
> Dawn



Freeze the tea and add lye to the tea while it is frozen .


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## blueknitter

I have never heard of Jewel weed. Does it have other names?


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## Heritagefarm

Saw this when browsing google. Jewelweeds is also good for poison ivy and the like. I intend to find it.


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## springvalley

If any of you have a source for the Jewelweed, I'd love to hear about it. DH suffers from poison ivy at least once a year, so I'd love to have some infused oil or soap on hand. I'm not sure if we have it here on our farm, but we're sure going to look for it in our moister areas!
-Catherine


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## MullersLaneFarm

Catherine, 
Jewelweed commonly grows right next to the poison ivy. google images of jewelweed and show them to Marc.

Fresh is best. He needs to get the urushiol (sp?) oil off his skin ASAP. the oil will stick to clothes & shoes and can recontaminate him.

Next best is just using your soap and washing the urushiol oil off his skin. Make sure all his clothes from that day get washed ASAP and do not get in contact with other clothes.

I'm sure you'll find jewelweed on your farm


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