Before the days of chemically produced "deodorant" soaps, herbs and botanicals were added to soap to make it sweet smelling and appealing. Many of those plants added more than just a pleasant scent. Adding botanicals and herbs to your soaps can give you the same added benefits those bathers of long ago enjoyed and elevate any bathing experience to new heights.

Chamomile in Soap

Chamomile has long been highly valued for its relaxing, sedative, healing properties. In tea, it has been used to soothe teething, fussing babies and calm frazzled nerves. It has long been known to have a tonic effect, helping insomniacs find relief and bringing healing comfort to those with fevers, sour stomachs and aches and pains. Chamomile's healing properties led it to be dedicated to the Egyptian sun god and it was often an ingredient in medieval love potions. Centuries of use have proven that chamomile is one of the safest herbs known to man.

Adding chamomile to your bath will not only surround you with its calming, soothing scent, but will help with those aches and pains, as well. Chamomile can help relax sore muscles and joints, bringing relief to arthritic joints, strained muscles and aching backs. It can soften skin and soothe dry, rough patches. Bathing with chamomile can help ease the sting of sunburned or wind burned skin, too. Chamomile soap is a wonderful way to end the day, calming nerves, relieving your aching bones and tired, sore muscles, while gently softening and soothing your skin, as well.

Lavender in Soap

Lavender is another botanical with many uses and a long history. Its scent is an instant pick-me-up and stress reliever. The scent of lavender is said to help relieve headaches, cure insomnia and diminish the effects of depression. Adding lavender to your soap for its aromatic benefits alone is a good idea. Lavender, however, has healing, soothing properties that rival chamomile's. Lavender can soothe tired, stressed skin, easing away the day's dryness and tightness and leave it feeling cool and refreshed. Lavender in the bath can also help relieve dry, itchy spots, too. Some say that lavender is just as good at relieving sun burn as chamomile. Combine lavender with oatmeal and you'll create a soap that gently treats your skin to a good moisturizing while alleviating the day's stress and fatigue. What a better treatment for dry, tired skin at the end of the day?

Chamomile and Lavender in Soap

For the ultimate in skin relief and an aromatherapy experience that will calm your nerves and whisk all your stress away, try combining lavender and chamomile together in one bar. The calming, healing properties of each will combine to offer your skin the utmost in soothing relief. The heady blend of the two botanicals' scents is sure to pacify your stress and serve to tame your savage nerves.

Peppermint in Soap

In tea, peppermint is known to quiet aching tummies and relieve painful gas. As a chest rub, peppermint has brought relief from many head or chest cold, clearing clogged breathing passages. In a soap, it will have the opposite effect as chamomile or lavender. Peppermint soap will get you up and get you going in the morning, or in the early evening when you need a little pick-me-up after work. The scent will be beneficial if you happen to have a sinus or chest congestion problem, too, just like in a rub. Peppermint oils will create a soap that will leave your skin feeling tingly and vibrant. Peppermint soap also has clarifying properties, so if you have oily skin, peppermint can leave you feeling fresh and clean and your skin looking great. Be careful, though, as too much peppermint can create a soap with unpleasant effects, causing burning, numbing sensations. (Imagine bathing with an arthritis cream or chest rub.) Used sparingly, however, peppermint can be used to create a revitalizing, refreshing and stimulating clean.

Rosebuds in Soap

From the ancients Persians to modern gardeners, the rose has long been considered the "queen of the flowers." Long prized for their heavenly, heady perfumes, few realize that roses have curative, restorative properties as well. Rose petals and buds contain Vitamin C, making them mildly astringent and therefore good for cleansing the skin. Rosebud soaps have been used to treat red, blotchy patches and outbreaks of pimples. Victorian ladies often used rose petal soap or "rose water" in their toilettes to ease redness and puffiness around and under the eyes. Lest we forget their trademark scent, rose petal soap can help relieve anxiety, stress and depression. Rosebud soap can leave your skin refreshed and your mind at ease.

Rosebuds and Lavender in Soap

For a truly refreshing, clean feeling combined with a mind-easing, stress-relieving experience, consider combining rosebuds and lavender in one bar. The two botanicals both have calming aromatic properties, while offering your skin a gentle cleansing and softening.

Rosebuds and Peppermint in Soap

For that invigorating, refreshing all over clean feeling, try combining rosebuds and lavender together to create a soap that will leave your skin naturally cleansed and clarified. Your sense will delight in the combination of rose's stress-relief and peppermint's pick-me-up to ensure that your day ends or begins on just the right note.