Our Ingredients
In the spirit of education and transparency, we are happy to share what ingredients go into making our handmade soap and other super awesome bath products. Every one of our ingredients is chosen carefully, thoughtfully, and intentionally.
As always, if you have questions, we are here 100% for you. Send us an email anytime at freshasoap <at> gmail <dot> com.
Take a peek at some of our ingredients:
Lard.
Yep. THAT lard. Lard is rendered pork fat. We know that this isn’t an ingredient that our vegan friends are going to like and we fully respect that. The thing is, we also really don’t like the idea of any animal by-product being wasted. Not only is lard a sustainable product, it replaces palm oil in our handmade soaps. As it’s a hot button issue, I encourage you to read up on the environmental issues surrounding the palm oil industry. Please know it was a conscious choice on our part to use lard vs. palm oil. We source our lard from a company that has been in business for more than 100 years. It is also manufactured under USDA supervision. We trust it.
What does lard do in soap? It makes an incredibly lush bar of soap. The lather is creamy and, because it helps make a harder bar of soap, it can often last longer than many other types of soap.
Coconut Oil.
Coconut is talked about everywhere lately, isn’t it? There’s a reason coconut oil is so popular: it’s amazing! Made from coconuts (no surprises there), we choose to use organic, unrefined coconut oil.
Coconut oil is another lather-making machine. The fatty acids that make up coconut oil create the right balance of benefits for gentle, yet effective skin cleansing without the use of harsh chemicals.
Olive Oil.
Considered a “soft oil” because it always remains a liquid oil, olive oil is plentiful and has been used in soap for literally thousands of years. Olive oil is like the granddaddy of ingredients in soap making. If it was good enough to clean Egyptian royalty, it’s good enough for us! It’s another great, gentle cleanser all by itself, but in soap, creates a buttery, moisturizing lather perfect for a gentle clean.
Sodium Hydroxide.
This is caustic soda or lye. Without lye, the process of soap making (called “saponification”) would be impossible. Simply put, no lye = no soap. All true soap is made with a lye mixture (lye plus a liquid, such as distilled water) combined with fats/
Castor Seed Oil.
A mega natural humectant. Humectants attract and preserve moisture. Castor seed oil is a super ingredient for lots of soapy lather in soap and creates more moisturizing lip balms, salves, lotions, and bath
Goat Milk Powder.
This is our hands-down favorite ingredient. Often considered a luxury ingredient, we use it in nearly all of our soaps. It’s that awesome. Not only does it help make a perfect gentle cleanser for sensitive skin, it has all sorts of great science behind it. We will only use Meyenberg
Sodium Lactate + Sodium Chloride.
Simply put, sodium lactate is the sodium salt of lactic acid most often made through the natural fermentation of a sugar source like corn or beets. We use it in most of our handmade soaps because it helps produce a harder,
Sodium chloride is
Essential Oils + Fragrances.
This is where
Essential oils are naturally-derived oils extracted from herbs, plants, and flowers and there is a lot of anecdotal evidence to say that many essential oils have benefits of their own. A few of our favorites are found in our Essential Oil soaps: lavender, lemongrass, cedar, sage, eucalyptus, and peppermint. One of the biggest drawbacks to using essential oils as
Fragrance oils are synthetic, blended aroma compounds commonly found in perfumery, cosmetics, and food. Not only do they give us the opportunity to use fragrances not found in nature (like strawberry, for example), fragrance oils make it more