About Bar Soap
You may be asking yourself, “Why bar soap?” If that is you, let me tell you why you should try it. First thing first…ALL soap starts with combining oils/fats and a lye-water solution. Once it is combined, it must “cure” for 6-8 weeks. Curing allows for two things.
1. Curing allows the sodium hydroxide (lye) to neutralize. Chemically speaking, it just disappears and cannot be found anymore.
2. Curing allows the water that was in the lye-water mixture to dissipate. Once this is done, what you are left with is a bar of vegetable glycerin surrounded in the oils/fats you chose for your soap in the beginning. This is why we choose only plant oils that are super healthy for your skin.
The difference in buying handcrafted soap and commercial soaps from deluxe bath and body product companies or sold to the local drug store is those companies remove the vegetable glycerin that has naturally occurred while the soap is making. They do this to be able to sell the glycerin for higher profits. Once this is done, they then add chemicals back into the soap like sodium laureate sulfate as well as parabens (both have been shown to be cancer causing). SLS and its twin sister, SLES, are esters of Sulphuric acid and create fantastic lather. What they do not tell you is how bad these chemicals are for your body. Here is a report that will show you some studies done on these chemicals.
I recently went to Walmart to find out how many bars of soap they sold. I could only find one bar. You may be thinking there are about 25 different kinds but, let me share with you a fun fact. For a bar of soap to be sold as soap, it must retain the glycerin in it otherwise it cannot legally be called soap. What I did find was about 24 “beauty bars” that had had the glycerin removed and harsh chemicals added back to them along with synthetic colors and fragrances (which wreak havoc on your hormones)…doesn’t sound like too much beauty going on to me; sounds more like profit margins.
Okay…back to my handcrafted soap. When you buy my soap, you are going to notice a huge difference with it than a beauty bar. First, the smell of essential oils is outrageous. For example, the Sweet Orange soap smells EXACTLY like a freshly peeled orange. Next, you will notice it has an excellent hand feel. It isn’t too small or too big. Thirdly, the lather is amazing, and I didn’t even have to use harsh chemicals to get it. The coconut oil gives great lather on its own without the need of other chemicals. But if I just used coconut oil alone it would be a bit drying to the skin. That is why I use olive oil. Olive oil is incredibly nourishing for all skin types. The (sustainably harvested) palm oil gives the bar a hardness that it needs to not turn to mush when it hits the water. Some people have in their minds that cold-press soap doesn’t last very long. That is true IF you let it sit in water. BUT if you let it air out in between uses it last just as long a ”beauty bar” from the store. One other thing I would like to mention is about germs. Some people feel that a bar soap has a lot more germs on it than liquid soap (actually just a detergent scented sweetly or manly). The answer to this is yes and no. Yes, bar soap could have germs on its surface. But some studies show if you wash your hands properly, those germs do not remain once you rinse with water. Another thing to mention is if you share a bar with other family members, it is no big deal. Families already share the same pathogens because they live together. Dial Soap Company did some studies on this. Read about why bar soap is just as safe from germs as liquid soap.
With all the wonderfully good for you ingredients in each of our bars, I hope you will give bar soap a try. As with any of our products, if you are not 100% satisfied, you can get your money back.
Melodie Barton