As a promotional bargain for our customers we are currently offering buy four bars of our handmade soap and get one free! Just request the free bar you want upon check out, or we will gladly choose one of our fine handmade soaps for you. ;)

Our Oatmeal Milk and Honey Soap is now available in the CP Soap section of our store!!

Contains Sopanified Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Goats Milk, Coconut Milk, Honey, Amish Oatmeal, Vitamin E, Glycerine and Fine Fragrance Oil.

Our Soaps are Phthalate Free and do not contain any additives, preservatives or foam boosters such as Paraben or SLS!

This soap is Lightly Scented and in it's natural color.

Our Natural Goat Milk Soap is now cured, packaged and available on the website for ordering. ;) More will be available later today and tomorrow, so please keep posted. :)

Contains Sopanified Olive Oil, Palm Oil, Coconut Oil, Coconut Milk, Goat Milk, Glycerine, Vitamin E.
This soap is approximately 5 oz. each bar and is fragrant and colorant free. Contains no Preservatives, or chemicals such as Paraben or SLS. ;)

Natural seems to be a loosely defined word alot of manufactures of soaps and toiletry products tend to toss around. When people became health concious and concerned about alot of the additives and chemicals being added into their soaps and such, they stopped using products that related to the ingredients. And rightfully so. I know I don't use products that contain certian ingredients.

We live in a world where nothing is natural anymore. It is pumped full of preservatives, alternatives, synthetics, chemicals and agents to create something more cost efficient. Soap for example. I can go on about this all day long. Unless you have sensative skin that these chemicals effect alot, it may not bother you much. But when you've watched your mother suffer from miagrances because of specific perfumes and fragrances, and your family suffers from psoriasis and eczema or get a rash from something you used that you thought was mild or safe, it most likely won't bother you, or may not even think about it. But once you have used a bar of soap that has given you a rash from head to toe or a hair gel that makes your sons ears swell then you start to wonder " WHAT IS IN THIS STUFF!?"

Alot of manufactures use the term "natural" so people who are more concious of these problems and are sensitive to additives will continue to sell their products. But when you get to looking into the labels, there are still a handful of ingredients that are Chemicals and preservatives. Like SLS for example. On a natural label they may define it as being Naturally derived from coconuts. SO? It is not coconut in the soap is it? It is an extract from the coconut they remove to make the chemical. What is SLS? As I've mentione before it is a foaming agent. Coconut OIL is natural and pure from coconuts, and guess what, when sopanified in soap it is a NATURAL foaming agent. No chemical needed just the coconut oil.

Which brings along the question I've been asked... " If you make soap with lye, how is that natural?" Well, that is a wonderful question. Lye or Sodium Hydroxide was accidently discovered when water and wood ash met up. And later it was discovered when you mix the water from the wood ash with fat it makes a soap. If you use the right natural oils you will NOT need chemicals or foaming agents to get a wonderfully natural and lathering bar or soap. Pure coconut oil does this. it is a true NATURAL SURFACTANT. It is a bit more expensive to make, but your skin loves you for it.

Using Lye to make soap is a key element, you cannot make true soap without. You start using alternatives to get away from lye and you get SLS, Paraben, and other ingredients that make a detergent not soap. By the time the oils are completely sopanified, the bar of soap has NO LYE remaining. SO truthfully, there is no lye in the soap, and when it is tested on a PH strip, it comes out to a 7, which is the mildest soap you will find. There are no preservatives for a long shelf life, because making soap cold process requires no heat to sopanify the oils, therefore they do not turn rancid. We also use vitamin E in our soap, which is considered a natural preservative for just in case.

Case in point is, it is not natural if it has a bunch of junk added to it. It is natural if it is allowed to go through a natural process of making soap without anything extra to foam better, last longer, be harder etc.

Our soaps are truly natural and we share ALL of the ingredients in it. Sopanified Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Cocoa Butter, Shea Butter, Mango Butter, Sunflower Oil, Safflower Oil, Cotton Seed Oil, Pine Tar.... etc. all of which are 100% pure and natural , unrefined!

I really enjoy what I do. It began as a hobby and then turned to my way of providing for my little family. My dream, is to someday soon have a local Soaps 'N Suds store front in town with a window where people can watch me make my soaps. Let's go ahead and take a tour of me making some Orange Ginger Frangranced soap today. My son obliged the pictures from a distance while I worked.
I first begin by weighing and measuring out my oils into a stainless steel pot and I place it on the oven over a very low heat , just enough to melt the solid oils and liquid oils together.

I then pour the sodium hydroxide into my water and mix it in the sink with the window wide open for ventalation then place my themometer in to monitor the temperature.


While the lye is cooling and oils have been fully melted I check the temperates of both oil and alkali solution to make sure they are simular in temps.



Slowly I pour the alkali mixture into the melted oils. I do it very slowly to prevent any splash back. Although I use goggles, gloves, long sleeve shirt and an apron, I do not want any of the caustic to splash back on me and land on any part of my face or other unprotected skin.


I then mix the oil and alkali mixture together with a stick blender, stopping periodically to hand mix with a wooden spoon to relieve any air bubbles the stick blender my incooperate.


After a few minutes of mixing with the stick blender and periodically hand mixing, I add the fragrance or additives if any at medium trace and continue mixing with the hand mixer and wooden spoon until the mixture becomes the consistancy of pudding.

Once I have reached this stage, I pour the sopanifying soap into lined wooden soap boxes, insulate it with towels and let it set for 24 hours before I check it.


My orange ginger fragranced Olive Oil soap is currently resting in the soap box in the closet. Tomorrow I will open it up and see how well it did and will take pictures of the outcome to share with you. :)

Rachel

I can tell you all day long what is in our handmade soaps. Olive Oil, Coconut Oil,Palm Oil, Cocoa Butter, Shea Butter, Vitamin E, Macadamia Nut Oil, Safflower Oil, Cotton Seed Oil, Sunflower Oil, Glycerine and the list goes on. But do you know what is NOT in our soap?

As I have discussed in past posts the market today is littered with more brands of soaps than you can imagine. They are technically not really soap at all, but are detergent bars stuffed full of foaming agents, preservatives, and various chemicals that are harsh on tender skin. Not everyone has sensative skin so these detergent bars are not so hard on them, but what about those of use who have mildly sensative skin to extremely sensitive skin and conditions such as psoriasis, eczema , dermatitus etc.? For us, that causes a problem and some of those additives can create skin conditions that didn't pre-exist or isn't genetic!

What is NOT in our soap is Phthalates. You will not find that in our candles or anything we use fragrance oil in. What is Phthalates? Read here to understand Phthalates better and consider what may be lerking in your perfumes, soaps, deoderants, candles and other fragrances products.

You also will not find Sodium Lauryl Sulfate commonly refered to as SLS. SLS is a surfactant (foaming agent) used in all sorts of products such as engine degreaser, car washing detergent, laundry soap, dish liquid, shampoo, toothpaste, pet shampoos and more. It's a skin irritant that for folks that do not have sensitive skin may not bother for those who do it will. To read a little about SLS go here.


Paraben is not found in our soaps either. What is Paraben you ask? Paraben is a chemical used as a preservative in the cosmetic industry. It prevents bacterial and fungal growth prolonging the shelf life and for people with normal skin may not effect them but studies have shown, folks with delicate skin have irritation and can form rashes from it. It's commonly used in soaps, shampoos, toothpaste etc. It is also highly absorbant through the skin. To understand Paraben and it's uses a bit more read here.

Why don't you see these ingredients in our soaps? Simply put, we make soap the old fashion way of turning natural plant oils into soap through sopanification by adding an alkaline mixture to the melted oils. We do not use animal fats or tallows that have a tendancy to spoil or turn rancid and we do not cook or heat our soap to hurry the process along. It takes long and is a cumbersome task, but the rewards are well worth the efforts. Making our soaps cold process allows time for the oils to turn to soap completely without heat and it retains all of the natural glycerine produced in the sopanification process. We discount our soap mixture at 6% meaning, we use a little less lye solution so the bar of soap is more rich with emollients and moisturizing properties to care for your skin, not strip it. Once all of the oils are sopanified there is no lye left in the bar of soap. We only use skin safe fragrance for a few of our soaps for the customers that love fragrant soap. I know I do, and even with sensitive skin I am able to use the soaps with fragrance because they are mild and do not contain the Phthlates that often give my mother headaches or give me a skin rash. However, for some folks, even the gentlest synthetic fragrances can cause a rash, so we offer natural fragrance and color free soaps. :)

We also do not have animal fats and tallows in our soaps. Fat from animals can dry and irritate skin. Natural botanical oils are full of vitamins, minerals and natural moisturizers that protect and nurture your skin while it gently cleanse without stripping it of it's own vital moisturizers and lubricants.

As you can see, we have alot of wonderful properties in our naturally handmade soap, and alot not included either. ;)

Rachel

I wanted to post a little entry to my loyal customers and potential customers looking specifically at our soaps. If you enjoy handmade soap or are looking into buying some for the benefits you recieve from it, be cautious when soap hunting that you actually know what it is you are potentially buying.

What has inspired me to write this particular entry is my own run in with another soap maker. Just like with manufacturers of modern day "soap" there are a few out there that make "homemade" soap that claim theirs to be the best and the finest and their stories are truly convincing, however, what is really in their "soap". Notice I qoute soap...is their soap true soap? What is the definition of soap? Soap is the product created from the sopanification of oils or fats with lye (sodium hydroxide) and water. Oils and fats are a salt and Sodium hydroxide and water is an alkali. When combining the two it creates a chemical reaction that creates soap. After the oils are completely sopanified there is no lye remaining in the soap, leaving a natural soap made from natural oils with no preservatives or chemicals, foaming agents etc. There are two forms of making natural soap. One is our method of cold process which takes longer but leaves the benefits of the oils intact, and the hot process method, which is a quicker process accomplished through heat. The down side of hot process soap is the heat destroys the natural benefits of the oils, and so extra additives such as glycerine, vitamins, preservatives etc. are needed. Cold processed soap retains all of the natural glycerine created and no additives or preservatives are needed to make a rich lathering nurishing bar of true soap.

I was doing some looking around for pine tar soap. It seems to be a tightly gaurded trade secret these days and not alot of people are interested in making it. I have found, because it traces so quickly and you have to work fast. I found a couple of places I was considering buying some from to try. Believe it or not, altho I make my own wonderful soaps, I also use soaps made by others. Everyone has their own unique recipe and formulas and all soaps are slightly differant. I frequently buy from my friend Carla, because she has a couple of bars that I simply adore. But, considering me and my family have extremely sensitive skin I want to know what is going into the soaps I buy if it's not my own. According to the FDA when you sell soap you must have the following on your packaging: Name of the business, the word soap visiable, the business' address and phone number AND the full list of ingredients for the exception of the type of Frangrance you use, because fragrance is considered a trade secret.

So you will note on the back of our cigar bands it clearly states "Contains sopanified: Palm Oil, Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Vitamin E, Cocoa Butter, Essential Oils".... etc., etc., etc.!

Anyhoo, I contacted two soap makers about their pine tar soap. I real soap maker is proud of their soap and will willing share their ingredients, because we are all after the same thing to insure people ours is natural, real, and won't irritate their skin like manufactured "soap". Someone who has something to hide won't. So when you look for handmade soaps, bath bombs etc, notice if they list their ingredients openly... and I mean ALL of them.
Well one soap maker caught my eye. His discription claimed it to be natural soap with no lye! Well, as I have mentioned before, no lye, no soap! "Soaps" made without lye..... is not actually true soap, it is a detergent and where as it will clean you up, will also leave you dry and itchy because of the use of surfactants aka foaming agents and boosters. I contacted this soap maker and asked how it is he makes "soap" without the use of Sodium Hydroxide because it is a key element in making soap.

This is the reply I recieved: "Thanks for your interest. If you add the Sodium Hydroxide to pine tar it changes the pine tar to soap along with all the other oils. this would reduce the effectiveness of the pine tar. We use a natural version of SLS made from palm oil which is our sudsing agent therefor the pine tar is not turned into soap and makes our product much more effective"

Now, let me break this down real quick and point a few misleadings, that someone who is shopping and doesn't understand the process of soap or the differance would fall into believing here. Yes, Adding sodium hydroxide to pine tar or any other oil or fat changes it to soap, it does not however reduce the effectivness of the pine tar, because that is determined by how much pine tar is used in the recipe. Now if you buy a bar of pine tar soap that has only say 5% pine tar it will be less effective for what you want it to do than if you buy a bar that contains the maximum amount of 20-25%. Also, when soap is made most soap makes use a lye discount. Discounting lye by a certian percentage means there is less lye used in the mixture than needed, causing ALL of t he lye to be used leaving none behind for a milder, safer soap, therefore not sopanifying ALL of the oils and leaving the benefits fully intact. Trust me, I've done my home work and made soap , tried soap and compared soap for years.... this guy is full of crap!

Also, notice how he says he uses a natural SLS alternative from palm oil which is his sudsing agent. OK! WOAH! SLS!? NATURAL SLS ALTERNATIVE!?? Ok first off, if they don't spell it out for you , they don't want you to know what it stands for. SLS is the abbreviation for Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. The abbreviated symbol for Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is used around the world in clinical studies as a skin irritant!! Yes, I see he said he uses an Natural SLS from palm oil..... SLS is derived from coconuts and is used as a surfactant... aka a foaming agent, and is used in the following products , engine degreaser, car detergents, dish detergents, tooth paste, dog shampoo and yes, even bar soap!!! Now you could claim that SLS is NATURAL because it is derived from coconuts OR..... not. Again, this is guy is full of crap and is using my so called ignorance to his advantage to sell me his soap. This ticked me off!

My soap has a natural surfactant, it's called COCONUT OIL. When you use coconut oil or coconut milk in cold processed soap it helps create a fluffy lathering bath. That is the only reason I use coconut oil in my soaps, so it lathers up wonderfully without the need of adding a foam booster. No SLS what so ever.

Now, I emailed this person back and wanted to know exactly what it was he was using as an "alternative to SLS from palm oil" because I wanted to research it for myself to see if it would give me a rash. He refused to tell me. UGH! Anyone ligetamately selling REAL TRUE SOAP is proud of their work and what the use and want to meet FDA standards and will be open with the ingredients AND is suppost to for the exception of fragrance and perfuming, this is what he said:

"I am sorry but there are some questions that have to do with making our soap that we do not discuss and therefor can only tell you that if you try the soap and are not satisfied we will refund your money."

Who on earth wants to chance buying a soap that has SLS or it's skin irritating cousins in it without knowing what it is and risk a rash or worsening their considition so they can turn around and get their 5.00 back? Sorry, the refund isn't worth the rash.

So, in closing, when you hunt for True handmade soap, look for ingredients , honesty and openess from the maker and make sure they are not trying to fool you into thinking their product is handmade soap, when all it is, is a homemade version of manufactured "soap" detergents.

Rachel

We have new soaps currently curing on the wracks and they will be available for purchase June 1, 2008.

The new soaps include:

Goat Milk Color and Fragrance Free soap made with Olive Oil, Palm oil and Coconut Oil. This is, by far, our best moisturizing soap so far. We try each and every soap we make and love them all equally, however, this one took the soap cake by storm. It has a rich soft and fluffy lather, feels creamy and smooth and leaves the skin extremely moisturized!

Lovely Lavander and Calming Chamomile soaps. These two soaps are 100% naturally scented with real lavander and german chamomile flowers and essential oils. We love these botanical bars!

Fresh Oatmeal , Milk and Honey soap made with our basic Olive Oil soap,Goats Milk, Amish oatmeal and raw new mexican honey. We use Amish oatmeal in our oatmeal soap because it is the most natural and is certified organic oatmeal we've found. There are no preservatives used in these oats. We purchase our oats from the amish just outside of Jefferson City, Missouri.

Cinnabun Olive Oil and Goats Milk soap has a pinch of fresh ground cinnamon in each bar and is scented in our popular cinnabun fragrance oil.

We will be listing the soaps on the store and you may preorder. Once the soaps are ready we will package and ship them out to you.

Soap makin' moma,
Rachel