ingredients

Every soap I make includes olive oil!  My castile soap is 100% olive oil.  Olive oil creates a mild and creamy lather and is extra moisturizing to the skin.

Castor oil is useful to create moisturizing lather and assist in rinsing.  I love to use castor oil in shampoo bars.  Jojoba is a liquid plant wax that is so wonderful I want to use it in everything for skin and hair!  It helps soften and smooth dry skin, while regulating oily/acne-prone skin.  It also improves shine and conditions hair.  Sweet almond oil is high in vitamin E and is nourishing and moisturizing to skin.

Clays can serve as a natural gentle exfoliant and can remove excess oils and impurities from the skin.  Clays are great for oily skin.  There are a variety of clays that have different properties and colors, so I also like to use clays as natural colorants for my soaps.  Win win!

Sodium hydroxide, also called caustic soda or lye, is a must have ingredient in making bar soaps.  By definition, soap is what you end up with after the process of saponification which occurs when fats and oils are mixed with a highly caustic solution (i.e. lye). A chemical reaction takes place that changes both substances.  If made correctly, no lye is left in the end.  A complete molecular change has transformed it into soap!  

For a great explanation of using lye in soap, check out Simple and Natural Soapmaking by Jan Berry

Color and scent are the artful part of soap making.  I love to mix colors, try different swirls, layers and textures.  I use only natural ingredients that function both as color, but also benefit the skin.  Some of my favorites include nettle leaf powder, clays, herb leaves, alkanet root, indigo, lemon peal, and even coffee. 

This is another go to ingredient in all my soaps.  I love how coconut oil can help to create a hard bar of soap with lots of big white super-cleansing bubbles!  

Infusing oils is a process of steeping herbs in a carrier oil in order to extract the beneficial chemical compounds of the herbs into the oil which can then be absorbed through the skin.  I love to make my oils even more skin supporting by infusing herbs like calendula and chamomile to name a couple.

Oh how I love the butters!  Kokum, Mango, Cocoa, and Shea.  They are high in nutrients, nourishing, and anti-inflammatory. They help with repairing dry or damaged skin. What is not to love?

Essential oils are my favorites!  I just love them for so many uses, but especially for soaps.  They create excellent natural scents that can stand alone as single scented soap like lavender soap. Or they can be combined with other essential oils to create complimentary blends. One of my favorite soaps is my Wander Soap which is a blend of cedarwood, lavender, and patchouli. 

There are very few fragrance oils I use in my soaps and I am particular about sourcing.  I love the smell of sandalwood, but sandalwood essential oil is so expensive I couldn't afford to use it in soap.  Another reason to use fragrance oils is if the scent just doesn't exist in essential oils; like vanilla, cucumber, and strawberry.   Fragrance oils are synthetic. They’re created with a mix of aroma chemicals and natural ingredients like essential oils, extracts, and resins. There are also natural fragrance oils.  If you want to learn more about fragrance and essential oils, check out the links below.

more information about essential vs. fragrance oils Brambleberry.com

and 

what are Natural fragrance oils?

Sodium lactate is a liquid salt derived from the natural fermented sugars found in corn and beets. It is used in soap making for a variety of purposes like helping to harden the soap and make it longer lasting.​ It can also help improve texture, moisturize as a natural humectant, and can even slightly increase lather.​ 

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