These are simple soaps with extra olive oil, following the example of the Greeks and their love of olive oil. Chamomile and calendula flowers are anti-inflammatory herbs which lend a natural creamy color to the soaps. If those beauty bars aren't simple enough, I still offer an unscented, plain white soap, which I call old-fashioned lye soap. Grandma didn't have the type of ingredients we do today, so her soaps sometimes left a bad reputation for harsh lye soap. My lye soap will surprise you if all you've ever used is commercial soap bars. It's mild, and amazingly so.

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Use the soak time to quiet the mind and renew the spirit. A spa treatment can be in the comfort and privacy of one's own bath. No interruptions from the everyday world will help one truly relax and restore.

Contemplate and envision beauty.

Pressed flowers are dogwood flowers, Queen Anne's Lace & Santolina Gray leaves by Sue Lukens Creasy

I'm a juried member of the Arkansas Craft Guild, a cooperative that runs the Arkansas Craft Gallery in Mtn. View, AR.  I sell my bath products there since I closed my greenhouse and shop when I got married to Raymond in '01.  Friends and dedicated customers that like to stock up on my soaps can get them when they come to town at 104 E. Main St. This spring when the Gallery reopened after remodelling, I made a video for the opening.

Pressed flowers are violas and their leaves, tansy leaves, and larkspur by Sue Lukens Creasy

Patchouli was a pest repellant leaf from India that was packed in layers with fabric sent by ship to England. It served a functional purpose then, and the fabric arrived with the most exquisite and exotic aroma. It's a favorite scent of many, even if you're not a former hippie.

Doctors and midwives in the old days used to wash their hands with lavender water before attending a birth because of its antiseptic qualities and its calming effect on the mother's spirit during labor.

Wood ashes from the home fires used to be kept in a hopper with a drain so that the leachate, "lye," would be created when water ran through the hopper. That's why the strength of the resulting lye was somewhat unpredictable and the soap as well. When the lye solution is added to fat and water, a process called saponification occurs which creates something totally new -- soap.

 I've been told by customers my bath salts are the best!  If you have a problem with clogged pores resulting in skin eruptions, the bath salts will help open the pores and prevent bacterial infections.

My most unbelieveable story about taking a bath in herbs happened when my daughter caught chicken pox. She began to break out and itch, so I made her a chamomile bath, using at least a cup or two of flowers.  I just wanted to ease the itching and inflammation, but was amazed when it stopped the outbreak of itchy red spots altogether.