A Peachtree

City woman looking for relief for her skin has a homemade remedy that

she is now sharing with others via her own home-based business.

After growing

of constantly using lotion to counteract her itchy skin, Michelle Ferry

began noticing the large amounts of chemicals in most store-bought soaps

and how they were contributing to her problem.

A few months

of research, mostly on the Internet, convinced her that making her own

soap with vegetable oils was the way to go.

"Most

soaps in stores use animal fat, which does a good job of cleaning but

doesn't absorb very well," she said. "As a result, it clogs

your pores."

So she started

making her own soap and seeing great results with her own skin. She got

into the soap business by accident, however, after giving some away as

gifts being told repeatedly that she should sell her creations.

She named her

operation Scentsational Soaps, and now produces a variety of choices with

such names as Lime Delight, Cinnamon Oatmeal, Honey Cocoa Butter, Peppermint

Patty (made with Hershey's Cocoa), and Apples & Cinnamon.

Ferry points

out that in addition to using pure vegetable oils, which she says are

beneficial to the skin because they are natural moisturizers, she includes

natural glycerin, a skin softener that is stripped out of most commercial

soaps and sold separately.

Making her

soap is relatively easy, she reports, but it can be difficult to find

all of the ingredients. She has had to buy coconut oil, palm oil and other

exotic items on the Internet after being unable to find them in this area.

It is also

not a quick process, as curing her soap can take up to four weeks. Many

mass-produced soaps use chemicals partly to speed up the process and make

the products harder so they can be sold sooner. She cooks up about 30

bars in each batch.

While some

customers have specifically said that they like the absence of animal

products in her soap, Ferry says that most are pleased with it because

of what it does to their skin.

One customer

recommended her to the Green Plant Market in Senoia, whose owners called

her up and now stock some of her products. Fisher-Lee Coffeehouse in Fayetteville

is another vendor, and she is working on a special coffee-scented soap

for that establishment.

For more information

on Scentsational Soaps, call 770-486-0715 or check out www.scentsationalsoaps.homepage.com .

A basic vegetable soap recipe

Ingredients:

5.3 ounces coconut oil

7.5 ounces olive oil

3.2 ounces palm oil

2.3 ounces lye

Always wear protective goggles,

glove and other safety clothing when handling sodium hydroxide or potassium

hydroxide.

While wearing safety goggles

and neoprene gloves, combine solid lye and liquid, and stir well. Set

aside and allow to cool (100°-125°F). This is best done outside

while you are standing upwind.

Combine oils and heat gently.

Once the fats and oils are melted, allow the temperature to drop to 100°-125°F.

Combine lye solution and melted

oils. Be careful not to splash while combining the mixtures. Stir until

the mixture traces. If tracing takes more than 15 minutes, which it often

does, stir for the first 15 minutes, then stir for 5 minutes at 15-minute

intervals. Tracing looks like a slightly thickened custard, not instant

pudding but a cooked custard. It will support a drop, our your stir marks

for several seconds.

Once tracing occurs, pour raw

soap into your prepared molds. After a few days the soap can be turned

out of the mold. If the soap is very soft, allow it to cure for a few

days to firm the outside.

Cut soap into bars and set

the bars out to cure and dry for four weeks. This will allow the bar to

firm and finish saponification. Place the bars on something that will

allow them to breathe.