Ingredients I use
All bar soaps, are essentially made of just two things.
Fat and drain cleaner.
Yep, fat and drain cleaner. What makes soaps differ is the types of fat that are used. The properties of the soap depend on the type and the ratio of fats in the soap. Want a bubbly soap - use castor oil. Want a cleansing soap - use coconut oil. Want a conditioning soap - use grapeseed oil. Want a soap that feels lovely on your skin - use butters such as shea, cocoa and mango seed butter. Want a soap that does all of that - make a custom blend of oils and butters.
My soaps have all been designed to be super conditioning and will clean your skin without that drying, tight feeling that you can get after using a harsh soap. I source all of my ingredients from either supermarkets (Rice Bran oil, Grapeseed oil, Avocado oil, Coconut oil, Himalayan pink salt) or a specialty soap ingredient supplier (Shea butter, Cocoa butter, Mango Seed butter, Castor Oil, Apricot Kernal Oil, Pink clay). The drain cleaner I get from the hardware store.
I’ve also had to make some decisions over the types of oils and additives that I use, that don’t have anything to do with the oil or additive properties. I don’t use palm oil, even though it is one of the most commonly used ingredients in commercial soaps. It is very cheap to buy, but at what cost to the orangutans? My soaps are all vegan - I only use plant derived ingredients despite animal fats being great in soap. Finally, I don’t use super allergenic oils (peanut or soybean oil), additives that contain gluten (oatmeal) or lactose (animal milks) as I have great sympathy for people out there who need to avoid ingredients to make their lives less painful.
Also, just to reassure you all, there is no drain cleaner (aka caustic soda aka sodium hydroxide aka lye) left in the final soap product. I have calculated my recipes so that there is an excess of oils to drain cleaner. This means that there will always be some unsaponified (unreacted) oils left in the soap and that all of the drain cleaner will have been used up. The soaps are also cured for a minimum of 6 weeks to ensure that the saponification reaction is complete.
