Handcrafted vs Store Bought Soap

My first memories of soap were those store bought adventures like dove, dial and irish spring.  And the routine shopping list often included another pack of soap.   Thats all we knew, and that is all we used.

But one day walking through an art festival there was a booth filled with amazing scent, luxurious big bars of soap with ingredients that were simple… coconut oil, olive oil, palm oil.  Not that list of chemicals we really dont know or have any insight into how they affect our skin.  Yes, that day at the art fair I bought a few bars of soap, and my skin said thank you.  Yes, my skin felt so much more loved.  Funny that fast forward a decade or two and here we are making soap for a living.

In 2010 when we began making our own soap it was done with great amounts of research.  We wanted to create soap that would be luxurious, moisturizing and beneficial to the user.  So that started us on a quest to understand the differences between store bought soap and handcrafted.

Reason #1: Handmade Soap Contains Glycerin.

Glycerin is a natural skin emollient (skin softener) that attracts water from the surrounding air. Because of this, glycerin is highly prized in soaps, lotions and creams for maintaining moisture in the skin throughout the day. Vegetable oils contain between 7-13% of glycerin as a part of their natural chemical makeup.

During the soap making process, the fats/oils and lye blend together to form soap while the natural glycerin maintains its integrity as glycerin and basically settles in between the soap molecules. Too much glycerin and the soap will become mushy and disintegrate quickly. Too little glycerin and the soap becomes very harsh and drying to the skin.

Typical store-bought soaps have the glycerin removed and placed into additional products such as lotions and creams. The reason is instead of buying one product that will clean AND moisturize, (such as handmade soap) a consumer now has to buy two products to serve the same purpose, thus, an increase in profit for the company.

Reason #2: Chemical free formula

The average store bought soap contains at least 6-8 chemicals to harden the bar, improve lather, and allow the bar to dissolve quickly.  Cold Process soap is made by mixing sodium hydroxide (lye) with water, then blending it with oils, then adding essential oils and natural colorants, and finally, pouring it into molds to make it nice and pretty (of course the very simplified tutorial). The soaps then sit inside the mold for 24 hours to saponify (become soap), are removed from the mold to dry for 24 hours, then cut into bars of soap and must then air dry or “cure” for 4-6 weeks. Lye is the only chemical used in making handcrafted soap and it is required as a catalyst to bind the oils and the waters into a solid we call soap.

Reason #3: The scent is not artificial

Store bought soap is often scented with chemically created fragrances, some of which can be irritating to the skin, or cause allergic reactions.  Our soap utilizes essential oils whenever possible.  Essential oils are distillations from plants and botanicals which offer additional benefits.

Reason #4:  Your skin will know the difference and you will love how much healthier your skin feels when you use handcrafed soap.

Handmade soap preserves the integrity of the oils/fats/butters. Coconut oil goes in, saponified (made into soap) coconut oil comes out. Shea butter goes in, shea butter comes out. Because of this, the oils/fats/butters maintain their vitamins, minerals and skin-loving qualities in the final soap product.

A skilled soapmaker can modify their recipe to produce characteristics in the soap naturally instead of adding chemicals to achieve the same goal. To make a harder bar of soap, add more tallow or olive oil. To make a thick-lathering soap, add some honey. As discussed above, store-bought soap is likely to have the addition of synthetic chemicals to produce similar results and we feel, it simply is not needed.

But why take our word for it? The best way to find out is to put it to the test! Purchase a bar of handmade soap 

Handmade soap preserves the integrity of the oils/fats/butters. Coconut oil goes in, saponified (made into soap) coconut oil comes out. Shea butter goes in, shea butter comes out. Because of this, the oils/fats/butters maintain their vitamins, minerals and skin-loving qualities in the final soap product.

So try a bar of our soap and put us to the test!!!