Soaps for the Outdoor Life Can you think of summer without thinking of casting out a line on one of our 10,000 lakes?  My uncle shared with me his secret, using Anise oil to improve his catch.  Here's my take on this "Old-time Secret": I've taken Anise essential oil and created a soap that not only cleans your hands but helps eliminate human odors that transfer to lures when handling them.  Try washing tackle with this soap - it cleans and coats your lure with the scent of Anise making it more attractive to all fish.           Fisherman's Scrub Soap Here's one of my purple coneflowers from my garden, which I need to work in more often.  When I do, our Gardener's Healing bar is what I reach for to clean the dirt off when I'm done.  It's filled with natural ingredients that protect your skin.  I've added powdered echinacea root for healing and lots of honey to soothe and soften hands.  The poppy seeds and ground apricot kernels help to gently scrub.  Shea butter and olive oil are added to help restore moisture lost while working in the garden.       Gardener's Healing Bar It seems that this year especially, the bugs have been extra aggressive.  Or maybe, our long Minnesota winters help us forget how pesty the creatures can be until the next summer when the sun comes out.  One trick I like is to keep a bar of Bug Repelling soap in our shower for the summer months.  I love the smell, a blend of 5 essential oils: peppermint, litsea, lemongrass, citronella and eucalyptus, all known to repel bugs.  Tip: When heading out for the weekend, don't forget to tuck a bar inside your travel bag.  The smell will linger lightly on your clothes, acting as a natural bug deterrent.       Anti-Bug Soap Summer living sometimes includes accidentally bumping into poison ivy.  In our family of five, three of us get poison ivy and two of us don't seem to be bothered by it...yet!   As soon as a family member thinks they may have been exposed to poison ivy, they wash with our poison ivy bar of soap.  Usually, washing is all that is needed to protect one from an outbreak.  If a rash does appear we do two things: continue washing the affected area with our soap and leave the lather on the affected area to dry.  The clay in the soap lather helps calm the rash and makes it itch less.    Poison Ivy Soap This specialty bar helps soothe the skin after a little too much exposure to the elements ~ both sun and wind.  Although we're careful about the amount of time spent in the sun, sometimes we over do it.  And when we do, our Sunburn Soother Bar is waiting for us.  This is one of those soaps that looks as good as it works, filled with skin soothing Aloe Vera and an extra helping of Shea Butter.   Sunburn Soother with Aloe Vera
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