As you can see from our product pages, we are not shy about sharing what ingredients are in our handmade soap; our goal is to be as transparent as possible. Every ingredient we use is high quality, and has a purpose.
This blog will provide some insight into our handmade soap recipe, and why we use the ingredients we do.
Our handmade soap recipe consists primarily of oils, distilled water, and sodium hydroxide. The main oils in our handmade soap recipe are olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil (our policy is to only use organic, responsibly-sourced and sustainable palm oil), sweet almond oil, apricot kernel oil, and castor seed oil.
Apricot kernel oil helps give our handmade soap some gentle lather, cleansing, and moisturizing power. It is light, so it helps moisturize skin without feeling greasy; it also contains vitamins A, C, E which help soften and smooth skin.
Castor seed oil helps create creamy lather, while providing conditioning and moisturizing benefits for skin.
Coconut oil is what provides most of the cleansing power in our handmade soap recipe. It provides lots of fluffy lather, and helps keep the bar from being too soft.
Distilled water is a type of purified water that has had its impurities removed through the distillation process. We use distilled water in our handmade soap recipe to avoid the presence of any undesirable minerals in our handmade soap.
Olive oil is moisturizing, and its gentle lather is creamy enough for even dry and/or sensitive skin. Used alone it isn’t the most effective at cleansing, but when used in combination with other oils it is nourishing and helps the bar feel nice against the skin.
Palm oil contributes a little bit to the bar’s lathering and conditioning power, but mostly is responsible for ensuring a hard, long-lasting bar of soap*.
Sodium hydroxide may sound scary, but it is a necessary part of our handmade soap recipe. Commonly known as lye, sodium hydroxide is responsible for creating the chemical reaction that turns the other ingredients into soap. Without lye we wouldn’t have soap! Don’t worry: the chemical reaction utilizes all of the sodium hydroxide in our handmade soap recipe, so there is none remaining in the finished product.
Sweet almond oil is a nourishing soft oil. It is gentle on skin, contains vitamins A, B, D, and E, and absorbs into the skin more quickly than other types of oils to help lock in moisture without any feeling of greasiness.
Curious about another ingredient in our handmade soap recipe? Check out our Soap Information blogs for more insight.
Want to purchase some soap made with our handmade soap recipe? Click here to shop!
*We choose to use palm oil in our handmade soap recipe instead of animal fats such as lard. Although the effects of acquiring some types palm oil can be detrimental to the environment, the palm oil used in all of our handmade soaps is certified to be organic, as well as responsibly and sustainably sourced. We encourage anyone using palm oil to only purchase from RSPO-approved vendors.