Category: General Crafts

Essential Oils and Nail Care

I’m always looking for new ways to experiment with essential oils. I now have enough supplies to try almost any recipe I come across. It wasn’t until I was cutting my fingernails the other day that I realized I needed something to help them be stronger and less ridged. I wasn’t familiar with even commercial products out there. I always just used hand cream to help dry, cracked cuticles, hoping the nails would benefit. I started researching products to help my nails.

I read an article from one of my favorite websites: https://strategiclivingblog.com. Gaye Levy is the author and she has been blogging since 2010. Her philosophy of life really appealed to me and I check in with her website frequently. She recently posted an article called, DIY Nail Serum for Damaged Nails. This serum is applied right to the edge of the cuticle where it meets the nail. She came up with a simple serum to help her nails grow stronger. With her background as a licensed manicurist she knew that, “the issues with my nails stemmed from the nail matrix. This is the area underneath and below the cuticle and this is where all the nail bed and nail plate nourishment comes from.”

Then I came across a recipe for a Cuticle Butter with essential oils that also might help. I’m not sure where the recipe came from, but it was probably one of the following sites: https://joybileefarm.com or https://www.pinterest.com.

I decided to make both of these products to see if I liked the way they felt and if they worked for me.

NAIL SERUM

This product is mixed up directly in a roller ball. I ordered them from Amazon, and luckily, they came with a tiny funnel, labels and a plastic tool that helps to lift the roller ball out of the glass bottle. I had never worked with roller balls before so these were very helpful. I have since ordered a packet of six tiny metal funnels, seen in the picture below:

I used the box the roller balls were packaged in as my holder while I added the oils. It kept them from falling over as I worked.

The ingredient list was pretty simple:

I just added the drops of oil to each bottle. I did six at a time, so I added the 4 drops of Vitamin E oil to each roller balls; then I added the lemon essential oil…10 drops to each bottle; etc. In the end, I had 24 roller balls filled with the Nail Serum…enough to share!

CUTICLE BUTTER

This recipe is also pretty simple:

Step 1: Melt the Shea Butter and the Coconut Oil.

Shea Butter and Coconut Oil

Step 2: Add the Jojoba Oil, Vitamin E Oil and Essential Oils of Lavender, Geranium and Rosemary, and stir well. Pour into containers.

This was a messy process! The containers I chose were just 1″ across. They filled up so quickly I couldn’t stop pouring in time!

Then I waited for it to set up…which was…never! I guess over two days or so it might, but basically it stayed liquid. I tried pouring one into a roller ball, but that was a waste because it did finally get thicker and then wouldn’t come out of the roller ball. I threw that one away!

Second Try

I poured all of the oil from the tiny containers back into the measuring cup, put it back on the stove and added more Shea Butter (you can see the recipe above has 1/4 cup crossed out with 1/2 cup penciled in).

The next time I poured, I set the tiny containers on a tray so I could slide them into the refrigerator. I hoped that would help them set up more quickly. It wasn’t pretty the second time I poured!

Increasing the Shea Butter and setting the tray in the refrigerator made all the difference. It made a very soft salve that melted in nicely to my cuticles. You can see how soft it is…my finger just barely touched the top of the salve and it left a dent. On a hot summer day I might want to keep it in the refrigerator.

My next step is to share these two products with friends to see if helps our nails. I’ll package them together and ask for feedback on which product is easier to apply.

As always, I include a list of ingredients so folks know what I used.

I’m not sure if I’ll have great nails by Christmas, but maybe by Spring I’ll know if they work! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly if you have questions at marykisner@comcast.net.

Aloe Vera Gift Soaps

Getting ready for Christmas when you’re a crafter often begins by Thanksgiving or even earlier. If you go to a store like Michael’s Craft store or JoAnn’s Fabric Store you will see Christmas projects and supplies available shortly after Halloween. They know when we start thinking about gifts we want to make and how long it will take to make them. We really are shopping for fabric, thread, craft supplies, etc. months before the holiday.

This year I wanted to give a few folks a bar of my Healing Aloe Vera Soap. I also needed a gift for an exchange, where I wouldn’t know the recipient. I’m sure you’ve been asked to “bring a wrapped gift that costs less than $10” for a gift exchange at some point in the past. Why not figure out a gift that I would be happy receiving? I decided to use some of this soap recipe to make some small gift soaps and found a clear container to hold them at Wal-Mart.

In this post, I’d like to share what I made, along with the Aloe Vera soap recipe. If you want a review of exactly how the soap is made, please see my previous posting that goes through step-by-step of how to melt the soap and add extra ingredients (see https://marykisner.com/a-healing-aloe-vera-soap/).

Here is my current recipe:

I usually make two batches at a time…in two 4-cup heat-safe glass measuring cups. I set each on a pan of water on the stove. Because we have hard water, I add about 1/4 cup of white vinegar so the boiling water doesn’t leave behind a layer of sediment to the insides of the pan and the outsides of the measuring cups.

I start with the melt-and-pour soaps of Aloe Vera and Shea Butter Soap Bases. That simplifies the process so I don’t have to deal with lye to make the soap.

Here are the soap bases, ready to cut into cubes:

And then…all the rest of the ingredients:

See the article referenced above that takes you through the specifics of adding each of these ingredients. Please note…I used only one drop of the soap tint. The melted soap is sort of light green already, so that one drop just evens out the color. I like the light green color that makes me think of the Aloe Vera plant. Any more than that and it looks artificial.

Each batch of melted soap bade six regular-size bars and about 9-11 little heart soaps. I filled the hearts up just halfway to make a smaller soap. Then I sprayed the tops of the soaps with alcohol to disperse the bubbles that sometimes form on the top.

This made a nice batch of soap. Each one was wrapped in a piece of plastic wrap. Melt-and-pour soap tends to attract moisture, so I recommend keeping them wrapped until ready to use.

I think this will be a nice surprise gift at our gift exchange…with a little ribbon!

I always include an ingredient list for the things I make in case folks are allergic to specific things.

One project done for Christmas! I’d love to hear about the gifts you’ve made! Leave a comment or mail me directly if you’d like to share! marykisner@comcast.net.

Building a Simple Family Tree

Family trees and genealogy are fascinating to me. I seem to have become the “holder of the family info” for the Paul Bixby family, which includes my parents (Paul and Ruth), their 3 children, 9 grandchildren, 17 great grandchildren and numerous great-great grandchildren. Thank goodness for Family Tree Maker software!

Paul and Ruth Bixby 1935
Paul and Ruth Bixby 1985

I do remember how confused I was as a young child trying to understand how all my aunts and uncles were associated with my parents. My Dad had 4 sisters and my Mom had a brother and a sister. Each had their own families, so I had a hard time keeping my cousins straight. What I really needed was a simple family tree diagram to show me these relationships. (Obviously, as a young child I could have used an illustrated diagram!)

I’d like to share some simple Family Trees I made for my grandchildren a few years ago. I thought it might help them picture their immediate relatives and how they are related. Maybe one day, one of those grandchildren will be interested in exploring the rest of the family tree.

I had already collected the basic facts for these simple family trees. In my software, it looks like this:

This is a basic format and hopefully someday, Ben will appreciate the details. However, I wanted this first tree to include photographs he could relate to and show simple relationships.

So, first I made sure I had photographs of his grandparents. I could not get photographs of all of his great grandparents, so I just included their names. This was done on an 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheet of paper; the photos were scanned and placed into a Word document. Then the pine tree and leaves were stickers I pasted in by hand. I took a picture of the finished “Tree” before I put it in a frame for each grandchild.

Here was Ben and Anna’s first family tree:

And of course, Ted’s children had a tree with different people. Here’s the tree for Aislinn and Annika:

I hope I’ve set these simple diagrams up so if they move to a computer-generated family tree, they will see the similarity of the layout. If nothing else, it prompted me to get my computer program updated with the correct spelling of all the folks four generations back.

So, consider simplifying your family tree with the information and photos you have and make a picture for the younger generation. It may spark someone’s interest in learning more about genealogy! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

DIY Perfume

If you have purchased any perfumes recently, you’ll know even a small bottle can sometimes be expensive. With all the essential oils I have around, it seems I could create a simple perfume that would satisfy me. Of course, it would be too easy to just look up the perfume I use, and like, and find a list of the scents or ingredients involved! I don’t think so. I guess those ingredients are classified as “trade secrets.”

Even trying to recognize the scents in my favorite perfume is beyond the talents of my nose! I bought a few books about how perfumes are developed and did discover quite a lot of discussion about top notes, middle notes and base notes. I can smell my essential oils one at a time and sort of see how they got classified, but in a mixture I’m at a loss.

Luckily, there are many simplified explanations and recipes online that demonstrate how certain scents work together. Recipes I can follow! One online site had recipes for three ways to make perfumes…an oil mixture in a roller ball; a solid mixture with scents added to an oil/beeswax combination; and a spray with an alcohol base with scents added.

This site can be found at https://simplepurebeauty.com/. You can find many more recipes by just searching for “make your own perfume.”

So today, I thought I’d try to make a roll-on perfume and a solid perfume. I’ll leave the spray for another time.

DIY Roll-on Perfume

I started with this recipe:

First, I got out an empty roller ball bottle. It came with a tool that’s pretty slick to get the ball out of the bottle and a tiny funnel.

That little half-circle slides right under the base of the ball and with a twist the ball comes right out. The tool came in the box with the roller balls.

This is the recipe I used:

First, I added the drops of essential oil to the bottle.
These are the three essential oils I used.

Once the essential oils are in the bottle, I just filled it the rest of the way with grapeseed oil (you could use almond oil, jojoba oil, or olive oil).

The best part about this recipe…it made just one bottle! If I don’t like it, I can wash it out and use the bottle again.

DIY Solid Perfume

Here’s the recipe I started with.

I adjusted the recipe to make a little more…big mistake! I now have enough perfume to last me quite a while. This is my adjusted recipe:

This process was much more familiar to me, since many of my lotion bars and salves are made the same way.

I started with the grapeseed oil and beeswax:

I melted them in a glass measuring cup in a pan of boiling water.

When it was all melted, I stirred in the 5 essential oils (see the recipe above) and poured it into small containers. I labeled the small containers:

At the end of all this, I had two similar smelling perfumes. Now we’ll see if I like applying the perfume with a roller ball or my finger…and which scent lasts longer. Then we’ll see if I’m ready to try a spray! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

The Unscented Choice

Over the last few months, I have encountered a few folks that have commented that they prefer unscented products, or had a preference for certain scents in the things I’ve made. Since I’m usually not selling my products, it hasn’t been an issue…my feelings aren’t hurt when my gifts have been turned down. When I think about it, I’ve added scents to a few of my products that could have been left unscented. Curious!

When I look back over the last 10 months of web posting, many of my body products either start with an organic olive oil that has been infused with either calendula flowers or lavender buds; or they begin with beeswax and shea butter that also have their own subtle scents. To those products, I add a scent or two…not just for the smell but for the healing properties of the essential oils.

Dried calendula flowers add a scent to olive oil, along with healing properties.
Lavender buds add a subtle scent to olive oil along with healing properties.

My soaps all start with a melt-and-pour soap base of some kind…my favorite is an aloe vera base. I also use goat’s milk, shea butter and a clear glycerine base. Each of these has a mild scent, with probably the glycerine soap base as the least scented.

Just a few of the soap base choices out there.

My specific interest has been in the various healing properties of the essential oils that I add to all these products. The natural bug spray used 5 different scents of essential oils! (https://marykisner.com/natural-bug-repellent-for-dogs/)

The natural bug spray used 5 different essential oils…all disliked by bugs!

My latest product was the travel soap tin that had an insert to allow a small bar of soap to dry better between uses. Since the focus of the product was the tin with insert, the kind of soap included really didn’t matter. I first used my aloe vera soap:

So, while I was thinking about unscented products, I grabbed a 1-pound chunk of clear organic glycerine soap from my stash and melted it down in two glass containers.

The first container I left absolutely plain. Hopefully, the mild scent of the glycerine soap would be OK for folks that preferred unscented. The second container I added a yellow soap tint and citrus blend essential oil just for variety. I now have a way to offer the travel soap tin to someone who prefers unscented. That felt good!

I will try to pay attention to where I use scents in my products, or at least mention ways to leave them unscented if possible. I also make a point to include a card with each item that tells exactly what is in each product. For example, when I made the eye pillows for headaches or toothaches, I added lavender buds to the flax seeds so when they were heated in the microwave they smelled good. It would be just as easy to leave the lavender buds out…the flax seeds are what held the heat/cold. (https://marykisner.com/making-a-hot-or-cold-eye-pillow-for-headaches-or-toothaches/)

As time goes on, I’m sure I’ll find other ways to reconfigure my products without scents. At the moment, I will continue to identify all the ingredients in my stuff so folks can make their own choices. Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Recycling Greeting Cards into a Placemat

I have a file drawer jammed full with assorted greeting cards…that have arrived over the last year FREE from assorted charities and organizations. I have enough to send a birthday card, a get-well card, a thinking-of-you card, a thank you card and a card with a pretty picture where I can write my own message…to everyone I know for the rest of my life! And they keep coming! I can hardly wait for the influx of Christmas Cards to arrive.

I was ready to pitch them all until I went to a meeting of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Fire Company last week. One of our members mentioned she was almost out of Get-Well cards that she sends to our members and others as needed. Another woman said she uses cards to make placemats. My goodness! I have cards!! So, I came home and cleaned out the drawer.

Mixed in with all the free cards are the ones I have purchased over the years. I try to pick up ones with photographs made by local artists and they are blank inside. I find these at almost every craft show I go to. Some are good to cheer people up; others are low key for folks that are sad. I put these cards back in the drawer.

Now the drawer looks like something I can handle!

Next, I looked up making placemats using greeting cards and found one tutorial that used circles cut from the cards. They were mounted on card stock and laminated with clear Contact paper. So, I headed to WalMart.

I found the card stock in office supplies but couldn’t figure out where to find the sticky clear Contact paper. Office supplies? Nope. Craft supplies? Nope. I finally asked someone. It is with the home furnishing stuff…with the kitchen drainers, etc. Who knew Contact came in all different colors and patterns to use as drawer and shelf liners. Boy am I out of touch!

While I was sorting out cards, I picked out nine Birthday cards that had pictures of flowers. I used a circle template and drew around the flowers I wanted to use.

I cut out the circles and played with the arrangement. One card had a nice rectangular image, so I made that the center.

I used two 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheets of card stock and taped them together (on the back) as my base.

Once I liked the arrangement, I used glue stick to keep them from shifting while I used the Contact paper.

I did the back first. Then I flipped it over and attempted to do the front. No small challenge to get it started. Somehow, it seemed to work in spite of my technique with just a few wrinkles. I trimmed around the edge and I now have a pretty placemat.

I was feeling pretty smug about my success and decided to try another one using pictures from a Greyhound calendar. (Just so you know…being SMUG is dangerous!!)

I ended up having enough pictures to make two placemats, with the larger pictures as my center focus. However, getting the Contact paper to go on smoothly was a real PAIN! It was determined to wrinkle and stick everywhere I didn’t want it to! From a distance, not too bad. Up close they were a wrinkled mess. I think the calendar paper was not as sturdy as the cards so they refused to stay flat. Anyway, I did it. Not sure if I’ll make any more, but I can say I tried!

So, if you are getting free cards in the mail and don’t use them, look for folks who do use them…or try making a placemat! If you have any tips about using clear Contact I could use them!! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Travel Soap that Works!

By now you know that my favorite bar of hand soap is my Aloe Vera soap that I make myself (see https://marykisner.com/a-healing-aloe-vera-soap/). That’s great when I’m mostly washing my hands at home. However, when I go out of town…like I was this past weekend…I really wanted to have my soap with me. I was already taking small sample size soaps with me to give out at the conference, but without a way to use one in the hotel room I was stumped. The bar really needed to sit on something so it could dry between uses.

I did have 2 oz. tin containers about 2″ round that would easily hold the small bar. Then I needed some way to keep it up off the bottom of the container while it dried. I found I had a sheet of plastic canvas grid that is used with yarn to make coasters. I marked off a few 2″ squares and cut them out. Trimming the corners slightly allowed the plastic to just fit in the bottom of the tin. The small bar of soap just fit and enough air could circulate around it so it dried between uses.

The tin was small enough to fit in my cosmetic bag, and I was able to leave it open beside the hotel sink to dry. My hands were very happy!

When I got home, of course I wanted to make more of these to give as gifts. I found several bars of Aloe Very soap that I had made recently. Instead of starting from scratch I decided to remelt these bars and pour them into smaller molds.

Since I had 3-4 bars of two different colors, I melted them separately.

These bars were originally colored with calendula petals. One batch got a little darker than the other.
These bars had originally been colored with a drop of green soap tint.
I added a few extra drops of essential oil, just to refresh the scent…
…and I poured them into small heart-shaped molds.
These plastic grids just fit into the tins.
First, I wrapped each soap in plastic wrap to keep it dry until I gave it someone. Then I dropped the plastic grid piece into the tin. With a label on the back of the tin it’s ready to be a gift!

My solution for a travel soap worked great!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Difference Between Essential Oils and Fragrance Oils

Essential Oils

Many of the projects I’m working with now include at least one essential oil. These oils impart a subtle scent to the products I’m making with added benefits like being soothing to the skin, or especially healing to damaged skin. Many essentials oils can be taken internally or can be used in aromatherapy.

Essential oils are extracted from different parts of a plant, such as flowers, stems or roots, usually through the process of steam distillation and are not cut with a type of carrier oil. Essential oils are difficult to reproduce synthetically since they can be made up of 50-500 different naturally occurring chemicals found in the plant. Many of these chemicals have not even been identified.

Most of the oils I use are essential oils. With a few exceptions, my products are meant to be soothing or healing to the skin…whether human or canine! For example, my lotion bars and soaps often include Lavender and Manuka Essential oils.

The Flea and Tick repellent includes Lemongrass, Eucalyptus, Rose Geranium and Lavender essential oils. This mixture needs to be safe for the dog’s skin.

Oils used in the flea and tick repellent.

Fragrance oils

Fragrance oils are created in a laboratory. One of the main benefits of using these oils is that they are are non-volatile and the scent generally lasts longer than essential oils. However, they don’t provide the same health benefits as essential oils. They are designed purely for the purpose of mimicking a scent. Fragrance oils are problematic because these synthetic compounds are drying and irritating to the skin and can cause many other health problems. These compounds are hard to get away from as they’re found in most commercially offered cleaning products, room fresheners, personal care products, laundry soap, baby diapers, toilet paper, food, drinks, candy, toys and so on! If you have allergies, you have already learned how to read the fine print on products you buy.

A benefit of fragrance oils is their cost! They cost about half as much as the essential oils. Taking advantage of their long-lasting scent, I use fragrance oils in a few products. In my air-dry clay air freshener, I’ve found the essential oil lasts about a day. The fragrance oil will last for several weeks. In an air freshener, the scent is what matters to me.

Before I realized the cost difference, I used Citronella essential oil in my beeswax candles. I could have saved some money with the fragrance oil…although I don’t know if that scent would still repel mosquitos or if it’s something in the components of the oil that is given off when the candle is burned. We’ll see this summer!

Read Labels Carefully!

I can see it would have been very tempting to use a Lavender Fragrance Oil instead of Lavender Essential Oil in my products, since I use so much of it, but I think I would not have been able to say my products are good for your skin. However, they might have had a nice strong scent of Lavender for a longer time.

Read labels carefully on the products you buy. If it is supposed to be soothing to your skin, make sure it says Essential Oil! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly if you have questions, at marykisner@comcast.net.

Natural Bug Repellent for Dogs

All my work with essential oils has been geared for human use. I’ve been asked if this salve or that lotion can be used on their dogs and cats for their skin issues. (At the end of this post is an article from a veterinarian about which essential oils are safe for dogs and cats. This helped me a lot in choosing which oils would be safe in my spray.)

Today was my “chemistry experiment” day…where I experimented with making a Flea and Tick Repellent for dogs (but not cats). Here are two books I just got that have lots of recipe ideas.

The recipe I’m using today came from a website on the internet. Most of the recipes are pretty similar, with water, essential oils and something that serves as an emulsifier to disperse the oils in water.

Forgot to add the 1/4 teaspoon of Polysorbate 20 to the recipe. It was the emulsifier.

Last week I prepared to make this spray by ordering the 8 oz. spray bottles, the Lavender Hydrosol (basically lavender-infused water) and Rose Geranium essential oil. I already had the other oils. Then it was recommended I include an “emulsifier” to help the various essential oils disperse in the water. So, I ordered the Polysorbate 20.

I chose 8 oz. spray bottles because I was planning to give these to several folks that would test it for me.

I did not have enough Lavender Hydrosol to use only that instead of plain water, so I portioned it out so each spray bottle had 2 ounces. It smells really good!

Since the total amount of drops of essential oils measured to about 1/4 teaspoon, I added 1/4 teaspoon of the Polysorbate 20 that would help disperse the oils in water.

Then I filled the bottle the rest of the way with filtered tap water, screwed on the spray top and shook it up. Looks like the oil is dispersed just fine!

This spray is just for dogs. My research into which essential oils are safe showed that this will work for dogs, but NOT for cats. See the information below:

What Veterinarians Say About Essential Oils

I’d like to share what various veterinarians have recommended for which essential oils are safe for dogs and cats. There are many long lists of essential oils that are BAD for your pets. It’s easier to show you the list of oils that are SAFE for your dogs and cats.

This list came from Dr. Maranda Elswick, who is a licensed Veterinarian in Florida and Virginia:

Essential Oils Safe for Dogs include:

Cedarwood oil, Chamomile oil, Citrus oils (including lemon oil and orange oil), Eucalyptus oil, Fennel oil, Frankincense oil, Helichrysum oil, Lavender oil, Lemongrass oil, Certain mint oils (peppermint, spearmint), and Rose oil.

Essential Oils Safe for Cats include:

Chamomile oil, Jasmine oil, Lavender oil, and Rose oil.

So you can see, it matters what your pets are exposed to.

If you find your dogs or cats are experiencing mild respiratory irritation after inhaling an essential oil, move them to an area with fresh air.

If an essential oil causes irritations after contact with your pet’s skin or fur, wash the area with a pet-safe dishwashing liquid, such as Dawn.

If your dog or cat ingests an essential oil, consult with your veterinarian or poison control center immediately. Do NOT induce vomiting.

Good advice from Dr. Elswick!

I will make sure that the label on the final spray bottle will say NOT FOR CATS! I may also print out the list of safety warnings above on how to help your dog or cat if they have a reaction to this spray.

That was my chemistry experiment of the day! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly if you have questions at marykisner@comcast.net.

A Dog Shampoo for Fleas and Ticks

Now that I’ve fallen in love with making my own soap and learning about the uses of essential oils in skin care products, why not think about making a shampoo bar for dogs that would help with fleas and ticks? While I don’t have a dog to care for, my greyhound connection is always giving me great ideas about products I could make.

Usually, I start collecting ideas by going to Pinterest. That always gives me ideas about what other folks have tried. Lots of folks have dog shampoo bars for sale or recipes to make your own. They are “all natural” and “safe” and cute!

I guess a dog’s needs are becoming just as important as they are to their owners. The chemicals in commonly used treatments for fleas and ticks are pretty strong and frequently systemic.

“Give your dog this pill and fleas and ticks will die if they bite your dog.”

“Put this chemically-laced collar on your dog and the chemicals will be absorbed into their skin…and the fleas and ticks will die if they bite your dog.”

Then dog owners are faced with the side effects of the chemicals…skin irritation, vomiting or even respiratory problems. Just like with people, sometimes the side effects of a treatment are not worth it!

Basically, you want to remove the fleas and ticks before they bite your dog. Any soap and water will do the trick. Often Dawn dish washing liquid is used as the base for a liquid shampoo. Shampoo bars start with simple soap bases, like Goats Milk or Shea Butter soap bases. Then essential oils can be added that naturally repel fleas and ticks.

CAUTION: Do not apply essential oils directly to the skin. Essential oils are extremely potent and can cause irritation, itchiness, redness and other side effects when applied undiluted. Always use a neutral, plant-based oil that is safe for the skin (like coconut oil, sweet almond oil or jojoba oil) to dilute essential oils before applying them to your pet’s skin.

Just as burning a Citronella candle will keep mosquitos away, essential oils like Lemongrass, Eucalyptus and Neem oil have strong scents and will serve the same purpose.

The scent of Lavender oil naturally repels fleas and ticks, making it unlikely that any will burrow into your animal’s fur. It also prevents tick eggs from hatching, so if they did make it onto your dog’s skin, they would not be able to reproduce and would quickly die off. Lavender oil is extremely soothing and has antibacterial properties to help prevent infection.

Fleas hate the scent of Lemongrass oil and will generally stay away from it. The active ingredients, citral and geraniol, are natural repellents.

Cedarwood oil, Rosemary oil, Clove oil and Manuka oil are some of the others that are effective.

Basically, you can mix 5-10 drops of these oils to your dog’s regular shampoo and it will keep the pests away. In a solid shampoo bar, the oils are added after the soap mixture is melted and before pouring the mixture into molds.

You can also mix the oil with water and make a spray for your dog’s coat or pet bed. Adding essential oil to a diffuser is another great way to debug your house.

I made up a simple batch of a dog shampoo bar with Goats Milk and Shea Butter soap bases, Vitamin E oil (for a preservative), and Lemongrass, Lavender and Manuka essential oils. Amounts of each are still being tested with a pet groomer.

Now we’ll wait and see if the bars are the right size and shape for the groomer to use. My experiment of the day! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.