Forgotten Soap

We just recently returned from being on vacation and guess what I forgot?  Yep...soap!  Ugh!  I had to use whatever they had in the hotels on the road.  Actually though, it was a good experience.  Honestly I hadn't used any other soap other than ours (except for a for a few awesome bars from other soap makers) for years now!  The experience was rather eye opening.  The commercial soaps that I used were so....cleansing....I guess for lack of a better word.  And....drying!  They left my skin squeaky clean.  Now that's a good thing when I'm washing dishes (except for my hands), but not in the shower.  After the shower I was left with that alligator tight skin.  Do you know what I mean?  Yuck!  And where's the lotion to get rid of that tight feeling?!?!?!  With our soaps, I haven't used lotion in years!  Even in the drying winter!  The soap (and especially the goat milk) naturally takes care of that.

I had forgotten what a difference the goat milk and the high quality oils and butters make....not to mention the natural glycerin that is left in our soaps and extracted from most commercial soaps.  Did you know that commercial "soaps" are not actually soaps?  They are classified as detergent because of the harsh cleansing, drying and non-glycerine nature of most of them.  Check them out in the stores sometimes.  Most of them will be listed as "beauty bars" or some other name that doesn't contain the word "soap".

A detergent is a surfactant that helps water and oil to combine instead of separating.  This allows a surface to be cleaned with water even if the surface contains oil.  Skin contains oil which is removed when a detergent is used.  Therefore, commercial bar soap dries out the skin because it removes the skin's natural oils that provide the body protection from weather, viruses, and bacteria.

In order for commercial bar soap to be more moisturizing than drying to the skin, other ingredients need to be added to the soap like lotion and cream.  Many commercial soap ads say “it won’t dry your skin” because they added moisturizers.  These additives also contain many harsh chemicals and chemical preservatives.

So...back home and back to ahhhh soft, moisturizing, skin nourishing and gentle soaps.  Speaking of soft:  our soaps have been a bit softer lately with the intense humidity.  People LOVE the skin softening qualities of our soaps and I began tweaking our recipes just a bit to add more of that skin softening feel--called superfatting.  But with some recipes, that just doesn't work with the humidity.  If you've ever been dissatisfied with ANY of our products, please contact us and we will make you happy!  Really! Home crafted soap may not last as long as the commercial soap, but it doesn’t contain the chemical preservatives or other harsh chemicals.  Isn't that why you buy our soap in the first place?  (**Always remember to let your soap air dry as much as possible between uses, and it will last much longer.)

What's your travel soap experience?  I'd love to know!
Happy Showering!
Janelle

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