Garlic Soap???

Garlic Soap, Reflections, ,

I have decided to edit this post in light of recent comments  made by a reader. Their comment was:

“Hello, we grow giant seed garlic and noticed your blog. There is a serious possibility of introducing botulism with this- “I would use a cold infusion method – mince the fresh garlic, add it to the oil and let it sit on a sunny window sill for several days.” Reference page:
https://donteatitsoap.com/2018/06/20/garlic-soap/

Setting the garlic in a sunny window would raise the temperature up to levels where botulism would multiply. And windowsill temperatures (especially if a sealed jar were used) will go beyond the breakdown point of the most common garlic chemicals such as allicin and other organosulfur compound products of the alliinase reaction.”

Original Post

Yesterday my blog stats showed that someone came across my site, twice, through a search engine – The search terms were “where can I buy garlic soap?” and “how to make garlic soap”. I am certain that my blog came up because both soap and garlic are topics I blog about. While I do use many types of plants and foods in my handcrafted soaps Garlic is not one of them. I would be lying if I said that the thought never crossed my mind, but whenever it has I have immediately dismissed it, thinking it was not a good idea.

Regretfully the person searching for information on garlic soap did not find what they were looking for on my blog, so today I want to fix that.

There are actually two things that come to my mind when I hear the term “garlic soap”. One is a soap that would remove the smell of garlic. For this purpose a coffee soap is commonly recommended. Truthfully you wouldn’t even need a coffee soap, just rub some wet coffee grounds onto your hands and the garlic smell should be eliminated.

I do, however, make a coffee soap and many of my customers love it. This soap is made with a triple coffee infusion. I use brewed coffee as the liquid in the soap. I infuse the oils with coffee by adding coffee grounds to the oil and heating it to about 190 degrees Fahrenheit, and I then leave the coffee grounds in the soap to add some extra scrubbing power. I do sell my soaps locally and am willing to ship within the U.S. but I feel that shipping out of the country would be cost prohibitive. You can view my selection of soaps and skincare products here and if you are interested in ordering please email me at ruth20012001@yahoo.com and be sure to put “soap” in the subject line..

The second thing that comes to mind when I hear the term garlic soap is a soap that is infused with garlic. This is the one that I thought was a bad idea. I can see some potential benefits to applying garlic to the skin. Garlic is said to be antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral. It sometimes used as a pesticide and is said to ward off evil. All that being said, it is questionable whether any of the beneficial properties of the garlic would survive the chemical process required in soap making.

Edited

Considering the above comment and knowing that there is a the risk of botulism growing when garlic is in an anaerobic environment that had a acidic value above 4.6 I retract any statements or recommendations previously made about using garlic to make soap. Although botulism is generally contracted through ingesting foods that have been improperly processed or stored there is the possibility that botulism could enter the blood stream through open wounds as well.  Thus garlic added to soap may pose a treat to the user.

I personally will not be making “Garlic Soap”.

Thanks for reading and have a great day 🙂

 

40 thoughts on “Garlic Soap???”

  1. Hello, we grow giant seed garlic and noticed your blog. There is a serious possibility of introducing botulism with this- “I would use a cold infusion method – mince the fresh garlic, add it to the oil and let it sit on a sunny window sill for several days.” Reference page:
    https://donteatitsoap.com/2018/06/20/garlic-soap/

    Setting the garlic in a sunny window would raise the temperature up to levels where botulism would multiply. And windowsill temperatures (especially if a sealed jar were used) will go beyond the breakdown point of the most common garlic chemicals such as allicin and other organosulfur compound products of the alliinase reaction.

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  3. Pingback: 2018 Review | Don't Eat It! Soap and Skin Care

  4. I was so confused by the title of this post. You should sell it as a novelty product to keep vampires away. And I think mosquitoes (?) don’t like the smell either. So maybe there are some good attributes to garlic soap after all.

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      1. I think I can probably find one my friend makes soap so she will ship me some probably if I wanted her to but you’re right the prices are crazy

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      2. I looked up pricing to ship four bars flat rate to Canada from US and it was over 25 US dollars. That would triple the cost of what I would sell bars of soap for. To me it just didn’t make good sense.

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    1. Thanks for the positive feedback I am really not a tech person but just thought if could provide someone with information that they were searching for I would like to do that. 🙂

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  7. Pingback: *Press it* Garlic Soap??? #38 | Its good to be crazy Sometimes

  8. I’ve seen this post days ago but didn’t have time to read it. I really thought you’re making a garlic soap Ruth. Garlic itself is used in medicinal purposes so I thought garlic soap sounds interesting but as you explained it might lose its medicinal purposes once it goes through soap process. And garlic infused oil is really good, I made one myself,using olive oil though. I love using it on drizzling on my salad.

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    1. Ha!Ha! My husband some times tells me I am “out of control” when he hears about some of the tings I add to my soaps. LOL! If I had made the garlic soap he would have really though I had lost my mind.
      You are right about garlics health benefits but I think it is best eaten- Garlic in olive oil is wonderful. 🙂

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  9. Good to know it wouldn’t smell of garlic, but garlic soap is not something I’d ever thought of before. Could be an interesting one, given it’s antibacterial properties..! x

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    1. It is possible that the soap could smell like garlic but probably not very strong. There are probably more pleasant ways to make a soap antibacterial though. LOL

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  10. Your coffee soap is one of my favorites. I like to wash my hair with it . Being a brunette it seems to enrich my hair color and leave my hair soft and gorgeous.

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    1. I sometimes use the coffee soap to wash my hair as well. It does seem that it enriches my (dark) hair color and with those greys sneaking in that is a good thing. 🙂

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  11. I’m not sure about the garlic soap either lol. I really enjoyed your explanation on the coffee soap making since I have some of it and love it. I still plan on sharing your soaps in one of my own articles but just haven’t gotten to that particular subject……it WILL happen sometime though lol.

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      2. A year and a half ago we started making coffee in a stove top percolator. The smell of coffee fills the house in the morning. I never realized that we were missing that when we were using an electric coffee maker.

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    2. I have have Ruth’s coffee soap and love it!! The grounds do add a nice touch of exfoliation but it’s a little different texture than those artificial “beads”. It seems much more skin friendly. I’m also using the Hair Care Soap and don’t ever want to go back to bottled shampoo again. I have dry hair and haven’t had to use conditioner at all since I started using Ruth’s soaps.

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      2. I remember hearing about that now. There is so much in this world that is artifice and is really doing a number on our planet and our bodies. So many people just aren’t even aware.

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      4. The hair care soap sounds great! My hair is also quite dry… and frizzy!! Especially now that it’s winter and there’s so much moisture in the air here. Interesting on the exfoliation comment too, I imagine it’s a nice touch.

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      5. Have you ever considered making soap or do you know anyone that makes soap? I am thinking about doing a series of posts or a creating a page to help people who want to learn to make soap.

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      6. I don’t know anyone personally, and I’ve made liquid soap from soap before but I don’t think that really counts!! I’d find the series very interesting if you decide to do one 😊

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  13. Interesting as to garlic soap. Might ward off germs though. When I worked at the diner, everyone wanted our used coffee grounds. We sold a lot of coffee and had big pails (that our pickles came in) and we threw all our coffee grounds in the pail and people wanted it for their gardens. We also had egg shells and people clamored for them for the garden as well. Business was brisk for breakfast at the diner so we had a lot of eggshells.

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      1. Most of our customers were regulars and had been coming to the diner for years and we had a lot of coffee grounds and eggshells to share. My boss did not have a garden but used the coffee grounds on his own lawn to keep it healthy.

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