Are your products all 100% natural?
Many of them are completely natural but some are 97-98% natural. The reasons for this vary but fall into three basic categories:
- We all enjoy fragrances nature has no way of recreating in a bottle. There are many wonderful essential oils but fruity scents are not among them. There is no “berry essential oil” for example. If you want your soap to smell like berries, chocolate or gardenia, the best option is a cosmetically safe fragrance oil.
- No one wants to run to their refrigerator to put on lotion. It’s not convenient and it’s definitely not soothing unless you have a sunburn. Without preservatives, any product that contains water can quickly grown some nasty bugs. This is why any liquid cosmetic you buy at the store is bound to have preservatives. We use preservatives sparingly and so far, only in our lotion. A tiny amount of preservative (about 1%) keeps the product safe to enjoy at room temperature.
- Emulsifying agents are ingredients that bond water and oil together. They are the magic ingredient that makes lotions possible. There are a few purely natural emulsifiers such as fresh eggs and borax. There are also completely synthetic petroleum based emulsifiers. We strive to strike a healthy balance with more stable plant based emulsifiers that are scientifically formulated. These are mostly natural but, just like chocolate cake, they don’t exist in their final form in nature.
How are your products eco-friendly?
There are different reason for each product but we’ll take just our soap for example:
| Commercial Soap |
Our Soap |
| Cooked and stirred in a continuous process that uses a great deal of energy. |
Warmed only to slightly above room temperature one time. The natural chemical reaction produces all the heat necessary to complete the process of saponification. |
| Made with roughly half animal fats. Animals themselves require massive amounts of petroleum just to be raised to slaughter. |
No animal fats. |
| Fragranced almost exclusively with synthetics |
Fragranced mostly naturally. |
| Adds synthetic detergents to the waterways – potentially damaging eco systems and species. |
No detergents. Soap molecules break down naturally. |
| Uses dyes for color. |
Uses minerals, micas and plant powders for color. |
| Boxed and shrink wrapped. |
Minimal or no packaging. |
Are your products safe for children?
We encourage parents to use as few skin products as possible on babies. Older children (including ours) enjoy our products but, like all skin care items, you should proceed with caution. We don’t use “tear-free” detergents so our soaps are best saved for those who won’t be tempted to eat them or stick them in their eyes.
I have sensitive skin. Will these products be ok for me?
Most often the ingredient that causes a skin sensitivity is fragrance. For this reason, many of our products will soon be available fragrance-free. About half our testers describe themselves as having sensitive skin and they’ve enjoyed great results with all our scented products. We have not conducted clinical trials. We just select our sampling of testers include people who suffer excema, extreme sensitivity and other skin conditions. We urge anyone with a sensitivity to avoid citrus and peppermint fragrances. These contain real essential oils that can tingle or irritate some skin types.
Do your products contain essential oils?
Many do. These are generally listed in the description. Others are scented with cosmetic grade fragrance oils. Some essential oils are actual powerful chemicals that you wouldn’t want to put on your skin. We only use those approved for use in cosmetics. Even so, like any fragrance, a small percentage of people may react to a few of even these approved oils.
What’s the difference between a lotion and a body butter?
It really depends on where you’re shopping. Our definition of a butter is rather strict and we use it only for products that are all oil. Unfortunately it’s also possible to somewhat mimic the “butter” consistency by adding wax to a traditional lotion formula. This allows the manufacturer to sell you something that is mostly water at a premium price. In our opinion, a real body butter contains no water. This makes them more expensive to make, but a much more concentrated form of nutrative oils. There is nothing to match a real body butter.
Do you use preservatives?
We don’t view preservatives as a panacea, throwing some into every product. We carefully weigh the options and use a small amount of preservative only in products that require it to remain safe from germs over time.
I’ve heard handmade soaps can contain a chemical called Lye? Do yours have this?
Yes. And No. Real soap (as opposed to a detergent bar) is all made in a chemical reaction that bonds oils to waters to create soap molecules. The catalyst that drives this bonding process is a chemical called sodium hydroxide. When sodium hydroxide is dissolved into water, they are together known as “lye”. The soap formula is carefully designed to consume all the sodium hydroxide plus leave a margin of safety. The end results is an entirely new kind of molecule. In simpler terms, this means every molecule of lye is paired with a molecule of oil which become a soap molecule. We formulate our soaps to have extra “free” oil molecules left over which is what makes our soaps so emollient and skin-loving.
You simply cannot make soap without a catalyst like sodium hydroxide. As soap maker’s humor goes “No Lye, No Soap. No Lie.”
