Soap 101


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Catalog Home Completely Natural Nearly Natural The Classics Signature Line Faves & Raves Balms & Basin Favors Soap Club 2007 Recipe Board	Soap 101 *What’s the difference…* At one time we didn’t know how to make soap, so when purchasing cleansing bars from grocery and drug stores, we didn’t know that we were not buying soap, but detergent. You read it right; detergent. Most store bought “soap” is actually a petroleum based detergent. Mass producers strip everything beneficial during their soap making process to sell at higher prices. These beneficial ingredients are then used to make creams and lotions. Check your grocery store bought soap labels and you will see a big difference between their ingredients and ours. In fact, soap is probably not on the label at all. Words like cleansing bar or beauty bar often appear. Why? Well, because it’s not soap. *Why you should buy our soap…..* Store bought “soap” generally leaves the skin feeling dry, tight and itchy. Many people think that the problem lies with their skin, when actually the problem is the “soap”. Free alkali is generally the most common irritant in mass marketed soap. We superfat our soap at 5% or better. This means that we leave 5% conditioning oils unsaponified. No free alkali remains, but plenty of moisturizing oil remains unreacted. We get tons of letters and calls from customers who notice a change in their skin with one use of our soap. Quite often those who suffer from skin conditions like psoriasis, eczema, and severe dryness find immediate relief after using our soap. Of course we can not make any medical claims to this, but the proof is only a bar away. The skin is the largest human organ. It works hard to protect you; shouldn’t you give it the care it deserves? *How soap is Made….* The soap making process begins with a great recipe. We select a combination of fine oils, each in different percentages depending on the final result we are looking for. We use the cold process method of soap making. We heat the oils to the desired temperature and combine them with a warm solution of distilled water (or other liquid depending on the recipe) and sodium hydroxide (lye). This process is known as saponification. Saponification is the chemical reaction between the fatty acids (oils) and the alkali (lye) turning into soap and glycerin. At this point we add fragrance or essential oils, herbs or other additives. Then the raw soap is poured into large log or slab molds and covered. After 24 hours the hardened soap is removed from the mold, hand cut, trimmed and/or beveled, and set on drying racks to cure for 3-6 weeks. Once the cure is complete we hand label and shrink wrap each bar. *Oils and Butters ….* We use quality food grade oils in all of our soaps. We use a variety as we have several favorite recipes. Our shea butter is unrefined, imported from West Africa. We also use only unrefined natural cocoa butter. We choose to use lard in some of our soap recipes. As seasoned soapmakers, we feel that soap made with lard is very nurturing to skin. However, we understand that some people wish to avoid soap made with animal oil. For this reason, you will only find soap made with lard under one category on our website; The Classics. *About Lye ….* True soap can not be made without lye. There is no lye present in a correctly made and cured bar of soap. We are often asked about lye and generally repeat this borrowed slogan; “No Lye? No Soap! No Lie.” *About Glycerin….* Naturally produced Glycerin is wonderful for the skin. It’s a conditioner and a natural humectant. Humectants draw moisture to the skin. Handmade soap produces naturally occurring glycerin. You just can’t go wrong with a good bar of handmade soap. *Antibacterial & Hypoallergenic…* Soap is alkaline, so it’s naturally antimicrobial, meaning that it affects viruses as well as bacteria. Our soap has a pH of 8-10. This higher pH discourages microbes, resulting in healthier skin with fewer blemishes. Bacteria is said to thrive with pH levels of 6-8. Soap with pH of 8+ will be more affective. Anti-bacterial soap has been tested with results that do not differ from non-antibacterial soap. Hypoallergenic is a term coined to mean non-allergenic. There are no real non-allergenic cosmetics, even though the label may read hypoallergenic. A cosmetic can never be guaranteed to not produce an allergic reaction, as individuals are allergic to a wide array of substances. The word hypoallergenic does not exist in the medical field. It has simply come to mean that the manufacturer has chosen ingredients which are least likely to cause an allergic reaction. We have chosen ingredients which are least likely to cause an allergic reaction, however you should always read ingredient labels if you have known allergies. We do use ground nuts and nut oils in a couple of our recipes. *More on pH…* Soap that is pH balanced (a pH of 7) is believed to be better for the skin. We say not really. The skin can tolerate a wide range of pH values. The skin produces healthy natural oils that aid in its protection. Many soaps strip this necessary oil, damaging the skin. Going back to antibacterial properties of soap we see that bacteria thrive in low pH. So soap with higher pH actually cleanses the skin better. Little to no dirt particles get left behind which leads to better blemish control. The skin must stay clean to fight blemishes, but don’t use such harsh cleansers that you leave your skin dry and defenseless. A little story about your chief soap maker. When I was a teenager I developed a severe case of acne. It was dreadful and I was miserable. I rarely looked in the mirror because I knew I’d hate what I found staring back at me…. A red, blotchy, blemish filled face. Like any good parent would do, my mother sent me to dermatologist after dermatologist. She ordered several products that were supposed to miraculously treat the acne. Nothing worked folks. My face was continuously broke out and most times the acne was more severe than before the prescription. So one day I said no more face wash, no more toner, no more cream. I was resorting to good old fashioned soap and water. A beloved bar of handmade oatmeal soap given to me as a gift was soon to be my savior. I opened its wonderful packaging and used it only on my face to make it last as long as possible. Now, remember how I said I had quit looking in the mirror? It’s completely true, I had. Then one day about a month after I pitched all the prescription face treatments and started using the handmade soap I looked up from the basin into the mirror. It wasn’t what I saw, but what I didn’t see that shocked me. My face was no longer red and blotchy. The blemishes, while still there, were subsiding and at an all-time low. A few months later there were absolutely none to speak of. I get many complements on my complexion to this day. Family and friends that knew me all those years ago are still amazed that I have no acne scars. *Colorants, Fragrances, and Additives…* We use pigments in some of our soaps. We like to be creative and pigments allow us to do so. All pigments that we use are FD&C approved and are skin safe. We use both essential oils and fragrance oils in our soapmaking recipes. All of our fragrance oils are skin safe. We love essential oils, but feel limited in our scent choices. The use of fragrance oils allow us hundreds of choices in scents, adding to our creativeness. Fragrance oils also allow us to keep up with current trends. Oh boy, do we ever love additives. Additives are herbs, clays, oatmeal and grains. Additives can make a soap drying (for oily skin), soothing, fragrant, colorful, exfoliating, conditioning, and aesthetically pleasing. *Preservatives…* There are no preservatives used in our soap. The shelf life is about two years, depending on the oils used. Most bars last longer, and soap gets better with age. *A higher price…* Our handmade soaps are more expensive than commercially manufactured soaps for many reasons. Commercially manufactured soaps contain very little, if any, pure oils and are loaded with chemical colorants, perfumes and hardeners. As we mentioned earlier, mass producers remove the naturally occurring Glycerin and add chemical hardeners, perfumes and colorants and market that as soap.
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