07/06/2025
I am going to hop on my soap box today. Almost literally. The last two weekends I have been at events selling my soaps and candles and lotions that I make. I love making soaps and things that I call an “affordable luxury”. I have spent 10 years studying my craft. Learning more about chemistry than I ever thought I would. One of my hardest questions to answer from people is if my soap is “all natural.” The words “all natural’ can be subjective if you stop and think about it. 100% purely natural is something you take from nature with minimal or no processing that changes the chemical structure of the object. Think a flower picked from the garden and placed in a vase or something like avocado oil. The flower’s structure is altered because it is no longer attached to its original source of growth and food but can be kept alive in a vase of water. Avocado oil is processed, usually by cold pressing, but is still considered 100% natural. Naturally derived means something is picked from nature and processed into a product that can be used to make other things. Wax is an easy example of this. Nature identical is something created in a lab with all the same properties and chemical structure of the natural product. Citric acid and diamonds are an example of this, and the nature identical created products can be friendlier to our natural environment with less use of natural resources important to our planet. The next question is always about lye. Please understand, true soap cannot be made without lye. It is in the very definition of soap. Other soap types of products or bars can be made using surfactants. But something must create that bubbly nature of cleansing products. The chemical process of converting lye, water, oils, and or butters into soap is called saponification. Lye, by the way, is sometimes used to make pretzels and bagels. Some soap makers, even famous main marketed ones often label their soap products as “saponified” oils. This is not a misnomer, and it’s legal because that is the definition of soap, but it does not mean that lye is not used in the process. So, are my soaps all natural? Yes, they are. I use a combination of purely natural, and naturally derived products (responsibly sourced) to make them. Fragrance and essential oils are another topic and lesson. Suffice it to say the fragrances and essentials oils I choose to use are the safest ones possible for skin use and I follow IFRA guidelines for that. And all my ingredients, including the lye, are on my labels so that my customers, friends, and family know exactly what they are getting. And no, I don’t milk rabbits for my milk soaps.
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