What ingredients do you use?
Oils/Fats
Our main base oils are olive, coconut, sustainable palm and castor. We also use grapeseed, sweet almond, and safflower oils. Lard and tallow make wonderfully rich, bubbly bars of soap so we do utilize vegetable as well as animal fats on occasion.
Lye
All soaps require lye to create the chemical reaction that results in soap. We utilize both Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) and Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) in our soaps depending on the desired result - soft/liquid soap (KOH) or hard/bar soap (NaOH).
Butters and Specialty Oils
Soaps clean the skin. This cleaning process strips the skin of dirt and oils. That resulting “squeaky clean” feeling could be a sign of dry skin. Some enjoy this feeling while others do not. For those who prefer softer, moisturized skin after washing, we produce soaps just for you! Our luxury soap products include butters like cocoa, shea, and mango. We also include specialty oils such as babassu, argan, jojoba, and Vitamin E.
Additives
Beer. In my soap? Why, yes. That’s what I said! People have been rinsing their hair with beer for decades to moisturize and repair damaged hair. Including beer in our soaps produces a full moisturizing lather. Hops, an ingredient in beer, contains skin softening amino acids which can soothe irritated and inflamed skin. The brewer’s yeast in beer acts as an antibacterial agent, great for combating acne. Beer also contains vitamin B and other essential vitamins which further moisturizes the skin. Beer soaps also have a mild, natural scent reducing the need for additional fragrances, if desired.
Oatmeal/Colloidal Oatmeal. Oatmeal, and its natural oil coat, moisturize, protect and gently cleanse, while correcting the pH of itchy or inflamed skin. When added to baths, colloidal oatmeal doesn't clump; it spreads out and melts into a cloudy treatment that can relieve skin irritations.
Botanicals/Salts/Sugars. Many of these ingredients are added as exfoliates, but mainly we add them just because they are pretty.
Why are my soaps not ready right away?
Many of our listings start out as Coming Soon. This means the product has been produced, but for the best possible bar of handmade soap, the soap must cure for 4 to 6 weeks. This curing process allows for the pH of the soap to lower (creating a milder bar of soap) as well as evaporation of the excess water left over from the saponification process. The evaporation results in a harder, longer-lasting bar. Since handmade soaps do not contain the extra chemicals and detergents found in store-bought soaps, this curing process is extremely important to producing the best possible bar of soap for our customers.
