I'm often asked what's the difference between shop bought soaps and handmade soaps and why should people buy handmade, especially in this economy. Below is an article I wrote some time ago that explains exactly why you should treat yourself to a little practical luxury, especially in these days of stresses and strains.
Why Buy Handmade Soap?
It's a good question - why should you pay €5 for a bar of soap when
you can go to the nearest Lidl or Euro Store and buy 10 bars of their
cheap soap for that price?
Ask yourself "How highly do I value my skin?". Did you know that
your skin is the largest organ in your body? In an adult, it covers
3,000 square inches and without it, the body cannot survive. It's something you wear everyday, people see it all the time, you eat, breathe and sleep in it .. so why wouldn't you value it? It's with you from birth to death and all occasions in between.
Let's look at the El Cheapo brand of soap you can buy in your local
supermarket or Euro Store - many of the industrial manufactured soaps are made with
harsh chemicals that can strip your skin of it's natural moisturisers.
How often do you use a soap that smells really nice but makes your skin
really rough, dry and red afterwards? Too often?
On the other hand, artisan handmade soap is designed for various skin
types by the choice of oils and additives used. For example, Olive Oil
is a superb oil for making soap and has been traditionally used for
years in Castile soap - why? Because it is excellent for your skin; it's
a natural humectant (that is, it draws moisture from environment, into
your skin).
Other oils are particularly good for dry, sensitive or mature
skins and additives such as clays and a clever blend of essential oils
can really help oily skins. Every single bar of handmade soap contains
natural glycerine - this is produced as a result of the chemical
reactions that take place when soap is made and it is an amazing
ingredient as it, again, draws moisture from the air into your skin.
Remember the El Cheapo brand you were thinking of buying? Well, the
manufacturers of that are watching their bottom line all the time -
pound for pound, glycerine costs more than soap, so they cleverly remove
it from the industrially made soap and sell it on to cosmetic
manufacturers making a nice big profit - after all, they've made soap
and glycerine so they have two products to sell. They've sold the
glycerine to companies that make lotion ... you know, the exact same
lotion you have to use after using the soap because it makes your hands
so dry.. do you hear their ching ching as the dollar signs pop up in
their eyes?! Are you beginning to wonder if El Cheapo really is such a
bargain after all?
All our handmade soaps retain all their skin loving glycerine so,
whilst the soap cleanses, it also helps to moisturise and condition your
skin. I wouldn't know how to remove it even if I wanted... but I
don't, I like it in there, it loves me, it loves my skin.
So, you might be wondering how handmade soap is actually made ...
here comes the science bit - to make soap, you need oils and/or butters,
liquid and lye. What is lye? Lye is an alkaline that, when it comes
into contact with the fatty acids present in the oil blend, will cause a
chemical reaction called saponification - this is what turns the
oils/water/lye combo into soap. Will the lye burn your skin? Absolutely
not - in fact, it's not even present in the final soap - the full
chemical reaction will have changed the basic oil/water/lye combination
into soap (this is why you don't see lye written as part of the
ingredients because it's not there in the final product).
For handmade soaps, the oils/butters combination chosen is very
interesting - a clever soap designer can create a formulation to
increase a soaps conditioning power, cleansing power, hardness and
bubble factor. They can adjust a recipe to suit any skin type - not
only that, but they can add other ingredients that boosts the soap
performance.
Additives
such as herbal infusions, the use of milks/creams as the liquid
portion, clays etc will each add their own unique features to the soap.
In this way, you are actually purchasing a designer item - designed
with you in mind! We only choose the highest quality pure skin-loving
oils for use in our soaps (after all, we use them too and we love having
good skin).
Oils such as Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Apricot Kernel Oil, Rice Bran
Oil, Avocado Oil and Sweet Almond Oil are used along with rich butters
such as Shea and Cocoa Butters that help to enhance the moisturizing
capabilities of the soap. We do use Palm Oil but only use a variety that comes from a sustainable source.
We fragrance our soaps with a blend of Essential Oils and Fragrance
Oils (these are synthetic aromatic oils that often contain essential
oils as their basis). Some people worry about the use of "synthetic"
fragrance oils but be assured that all the oils and colours we use are
specifically designed for cosmetic use and are totally skin safe. Plus there's no doubt there's more chemicals in the expensive bottle of perfume you have standing in your bathroom.
We often choose additives such as Coconut Milk, Buttermilk, Fresh
Dairy Cream and, always, always, always use our favourite pure wild silk to include in our soaps -
these add an extra luxury element and are hugely moisturising. And,
you'll have noticed that we also like to use some very natural
ingredients from our own kitchen storecupboards such as various milks,
oats, carrots, lavender, poppy seeds etc because they all add their own
beauty to the soaps.
Once you've decided that your skin is worth it, make sure to take
care of your handmade soap - keep it stored out of water on a soap dish
or soap drainer and use a natural sea sponge, cotton washcloth or shower
scrubby to get biggest bubbles ever from your soap - this helps foam it
up even more which means you end up using less than if you just rubbed
it directly on your body. Loving your soap means it'll last longer and
that means value for money!
So... do you still fancy buying the El Cheapo brand of, ahem, soap or
do you want to venture into the heady world of handmade, artisan
products - products I like to think of as practical art, designed and
handmade, produced with care and attention and a loving respect for not
only the product but the customer too?
When you think about it, €5 for sheer luxury ingredients and a once
off piece of useable designer art is such a bargain... maybe you should
buy lots?!!
