Bar Soaps - general info

My bar soaps are handmade and hand cut, so no two bars will be identical. I trim the corners to give the soap a more finished look, and it also makes the bars have a nicer feel. Since I cold process my soap, it has to cure for about a month to let the excess water evaporate out. If I didn't trim the edges, they would become rather sharp as it cured, making it not have as nice a feel upon being used. So, I choose to trim it.

Each bar weighs between 3.75 and 4 oz.

When I have 10 or fewer of a particular bar, I'll post how many I have left. If it is a popular bar, then I'll be making more soon!

Other Soaps

This is a list of bar soaps I have available for sale, but don't have pictures of (yet):

Orange Citronella: a tangy blend of orange, citronella, and eucalyptus oils with flecks of dried orange peel.

French Green Clay: a more masculine scented bar with orange and cedarwood essential oils.

St. Clement's Oranges and Lemons Bar Soap

My most popular and very requested scent. Uses Tangerine, Lemon, Lemongrass and Spearmint essential oils. Pretty light orange color with orange and yellow flecks.

White Chocolate Mint Bar Soap

This bar combines cocoa butter with peppermint essential oil. The cocoa butter gives the lather a really nice feel and it's SO gentle on the skin. Plus the scent is heavenly. One customer said, "This one smells like happiness!"

Chocolate Almond Swirl Bar Soap

Almond fragrance oil and cocoa butter give this bar a really yummy scent. It is pretty too, with the chocolatey swirls. It is a very hard and cleansing bar, and lathers extremely well.

*Please note that this is the last time I will be making this particular bar soap. I make all of my products in my home and when I am mixing up a batch, the scent is very strong. My husband has a very slight nut allergy (he can eat a very small quantity on occasion, but a lot at once causes him problems) and the scent of this soap is too much for him. The lingering scent even keeps him awake the first night. So for his sake, I will not make this type of soap again. When it's gone, it's gone. Sorry! I know many of you have loved it!

Cotton and Cocoa Butter Bar Soap

My sister asked for a Clean Laundry scented soap, and this is what I created. It uses my favorite Cocoa Butter bar soap recipe and Cotton fragrance oil. It's a very pretty ivory colored bar with blue swirls.
6 bars left.

Acne/Oily Skin Bar Soap

Contains tea tree, lavender and peppermint oils, witch hazel and infused botanicals. It helps alleviate oily skin and leaves your skin feeling soft, not tight. Lathers very well. Use with my Hazelmint Toner, to help clear acne problems.

Why should I buy handmade soaps?

My handmade soaps are pure and natural and do not contain any preservatives or man-made products.

I make my bar soaps using a cold-process method, so all of the natural glycerin (which comes from the original fats and oils... coconut, palm, olive, etc.) is still intact after the soapmaking process. The glycerin is the reason cold process soaps are so gentle and moisturizing to all skin types. It doesn't dry skin out and leaves a bit of emollient behind when you use it. It can often help clear skin conditions on people who have problems with commercial products.

Glycerin is a by-product of heat processed soap, and in commercial products, they usually draw most of it out. This is why commercial soaps are more drying to the skin than the natural handmade kind. The average bar of handmade soap is approximately 75% soap compound and 25% glycerin. Your skin won't feel tight and drawn after using handmade soap... just clean and nice.

Many "soaps" you buy over the counter are not truly soap at all, but detergent bars (synthetic detergents). Real soap will be made from fats and oils such as palm, coconut, olive, etc. and sodium hydroxide (lye). The chemical process that occurs when you mix oils with a sodium hydroxide/water solution is what ultimately makes soap. Lye + oils = soap + glycerin.

Lye is necessary to make soap because a catalyst is required to convert the oil molecules to soap molecules. This process is called saponification. During the saponification reaction, the lye (a base) is neutralized as it converts the oil molecules (fatty acids) to soap molecules and glycerin. Only lye is strong enough to cleave the oil molecules into soap molecules. Even melt and pour soap was originally made using lye, although now it is generally made with synthetic degergents plus glycerin. My soap recipes use less lye than is required to convert all of the oil molecules. This ensures that the lye is completely consumed by the oils at the end of the process, leaving a nice solid bar of soap that is gentle and cleansing.

Have them Gift Wrapped!

If you are purchasing soaps for gift giving, consider letting me wrap them for you. I have a variety of paper colors and can wrap up to 3 bars together. Either send me an email or add "Notes to Seller" when you check out. Please include the following information:

1. Which bars you want wrapped and if you'd like any of them wrapped together.
2. If you have a color preference for the wrapper and tag.