Joyce Morningstar doesn’t do Internet. But she does do soap.
And her soaps were out in force at the Master Gardeners Plant Fair in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia this weekend.
Morningstar is the proprietor of Star Eagle Gardens.
And she was at the plant fair selling plants, perennials, dwarf irises, raspberries and soaps.
And the soaps were front and center at her booth at fair.
We’re talking homemade lavender oatmeal, rose, patchouli, lemongrass rosemary, peppermint, cinnamon spice, plain, forest fir, jewelweed, honey shea, sage and cedar, pine, comfrey calendula.
“I make them from coconut oil and olive oil as the base,” Morningstar said. “And then you add lye. And I use herbs from the garden.”
Her two best sellers are lavender oatmeal and rose.
“Lavender oatmeal is nice and soothing on the skin,” Morningstar says.
“The rose is my favorite,” she says. “It has rose clay in it. It has rose oil, rosewood, and rose geranium. It feels good on your body. It’s luscious.”
Morningstar says that the patchouli is a hippie favorite.
Patchouli is an herb from India, she says. “It even smells like it’s from the 1960s,” she says.
“Lemongrass rosemary is a refreshing one for summertime. There are bits of rosemary that I grow ground up in here. I love this one. It’s nice on a hot humid day.”
Peppermint is also cooling — also from peppermint that she grows.
“Cinnamon spice is based on an old recipe that came from Louis XVI or something like that – it was called Brown Windsor Soap. It has cinnamon and clove and other spices. It’s a natural anti-bacterial. Plus it smells good and it feels good on the skin.”
Morningstar carries a plain soap for people who are allergic to smells.
Forest fir is a green soap. “It’s a nice soap for guys,” she says.
Morningstar says that the jewelweed soap is popular because jewelweed “is nature’s antidote to poison ivy.”
“Jewelweed is an herb that grows in the forest along streams and wetlands,” she says. “You take the plant, crush it and cook it. And the liquid from the green plant turns orange.”
Morningstar uses the jewelweed soap when she thinks she has been in contact with poison ivy.
“It stops it immediately,” she says.
If the poison ivy starts breaking out on your skin — “this works terrific.”
She points to a red spot on her forearm.
“Poison ivy was trying to get a grip on me here,” she says. And the jewelweed soap stopped it cold.
Honey shea is a mild soap with no scent for people who are allergic. “It has just the smell of the honey and shea butter from Africa. “It’s soothing and moisturizing,” she says.
Sage and cedar is like a spiritual cleanse based on a Native American smokesticks.
The pine soap is based on grandpa’s old pine tar soap. “This one is good for eczema, psoriasis — things like that. It’s a bit of a harsh soap. It’s deep cleaning for people who need that sort of thing.’
The comfrey calendula is a healing soap. “It’s used for healing the skin — cuts, scrapes, wounds, rashes of any kind,” she says. “Its very soothing.”