Soap Making: What's In Your Soap?

Are all soaps the same?  No. There are many different soaps out there.

 So how do you know what you’re getting? Read the ingredients. Know what you’re putting on your skin.

There are a few different ways to make homemade bar soaps. There’s Cold Process, Hot Process and Melt & Pour. We use the Cold Process method.  To make cold process or hot process bars of soap you need Sodium Hydroxide. Without it you cannot make bar soap. Then there’s melt & pour, which is typically in a block form you can buy at craft stores or online. You melt and pour in your own molds and add your own scents and herbs.

Then there’s the question of ingredients. We feel ingredients are very important! Which is why we use Non-GMO oils and feed our goats Non-GMO grains so the milk in our products are produced from goats whose diet is carefully monitored.

Here’s a list of our ingredients:  Goats milk, olive oil, coconut oil, babassu oil, safflower oil, castor oil, organic flax oil, *sodium hydroxide, organic cane sugar and some soaps may contain the following , essential oil, fragrance oil, rose petals, lavender flowers, rosemary, spearmint, oatmeal, mango butter, cocoa butter, shea butter, aloe juice, honey, eggshells. *Sodium hydroxide is not in the finished product. We cure our soaps at least six weeks which cures the sodium hydroxide (lye) out of the soap. We source Non-GMO oils for all our products.

The average cold process and hot process soaps contain: Water, a variety of vegetable oils, and can contain a variety of butters, herbs, essential oil and/or fragrance oil and sodium hydroxide.

The average ingredients list from melt & pour: Propylene Glycol, Sorbitol, Water, Sodium Stearate, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Laurate, Glycerin, Goat Milk, Triethanolamine, Titanium Dioxide.

The typical ingredients in commercial soaps: Sodium cocoyl isethionate, stearic acid, coconut acid, sodium tallowate (animal fat), water, sodium isethionate, sodium stearate, cocamidopropyl bentaine, sodium cocoate and/or sodium palm kernelate, fragrance, sodium chloride, tetrasodium EDTA, trisodium etidronate, BHT, titanium dioxide, sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate

There are a lot of great soaps out there and some that don’t meet our standards or other soap maker standards. You just have to decide what’s right for you. If you want to stay away from Non-GMO ingredients be sure what vegetable oils are being used in your soap. Some people use tallow in their soaps. We’re not knocking the use of tallow that’s what the pioneers used for fats in their soap. One thing I would caution is where did the fat come from? Was it from animals fed a diet on Non-GMO grains? When it comes to commercial soap many use tallow and given the cheap price I would worry that the tallow came from overcrowded feed lots not fed exactly healthy. Don’t be fooled with the commercial soaps that say now 20% larger. Often they fill their soap with air to make a bigger bar. It doesn’t make the bar last longer.

We hope when you’re out there shopping for soaps we’ve helped inspire you to read the ingredients and know what you’re putting on your skin.  
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Featured Ingredient - Coconut Oil

 Coconut Oil

Origin

Coconut is a member of the palm family. The term is derived from 16^th century Poruguese and Spanish coco, meaning “head” or skull”

Coconuts are a great super food. Every part of a coconut can be used. Coconuts can be used from cooking to cleaning to cosmetics.

Cooking with coconut has many benefits. Coconut oil actually lowers cholesterol. Recent studies have shown that coconut oil helps our body metabolize cholesterol faster. If that’s not enough to convince you to switch to coconut oil in your diet, it helps with weight loss! Coconut oil helps improve thyroid function. A thyroid that isn't working properly is one of the main causes of obesity. Cultures that use coconut oil for cooking have a lower rate of obesity. Coconut oil contains healthy saturated fats that prevent foods from becoming incompletely digested.

Now, why do we use coconut oil in our soaps and body products? It’s simple really. Coconut oil is like the fountain of youth. Your skin benefits from the natural ability in coconut oil to fight free radicals. Coconut oil helps prevent wrinkles and sagging skin.  It provides our skin with a natural moisturizer and softens dry skin. The use of coconut oil in our soaps helps produce natural suds so no synthetic foaming agent in needed.

Most local grocery stores carry coconut oil. Get some and try your own homemade recipes for cooking or cosmetics. You can mix baking soda and coconut oil for toothpaste. Rub some on poison ivy to help relieve the itching. Heat a little and use as a makeup remover. Just get it a little warm rub on your finger tips and gently massage away makeup.