About Handmade Soap
Why Use Handmade Soap:
Our skin is our body's largest organ and, like a sponge, absorbs things. In fact, today many medicines are given in "patch" form to be absorbed and assimilated through the skin.
This being the case, every day, people take baths or showers and lather up with commercial "soap" without any awareness of what they're actually putting onto (and, through absorption, INTO) their bodies.
In Science's attempts to recreate and to "one-up" Mother Nature, a myriad of "cleansing bars", "moisturizing bars", "beauty bars", "bath bars", "deodorizing bars" etc have become mainstream. Notice that they’re not generally named "soap". This is because they are, in fact, NOT soap.
They're simply chemical cocktails.
Good handmade soap is a gentle body cleanser created from Nature's finest ingredients - oils that, by their very nature, nourish, enrich, feed and soothe the skin.
For example: Consider the differences in the ingredients of Lilith & Eve Soap and in "The X Brand" (this is our code name for a real-life national brand believed by many to be the most gentle commercial bar):
Lilith & Eve Bar: Wise Woman Sage: Saponified oils of coconut, palm, olive, palm kernel, rice bran, grapeseed and jojoba; cocoa butter and shea butter; Pure essential oils of: sage, bergamot, lemon, pink grapefruit, litsea cubeba and lemongrass; Organic lemon peel.
The X Brand: sodium cocoyl isethionate, stearic acid, sodium tallowate, sodium isethionate, coconut acid, sodium stearate, sodium dodecylbenzonesulfonate, sodium cocoate or sodium palm kernalate, fragrance, sodium chloride, titanium dioxide, trisodium EDTA, trisodium etidronate, BHT
Pretty big difference, huh.
While the "goodness" and/or "badness" of these synthetic chemical additives is up for debate among some people, we at Lilith & Eve choose to nurture skin with Nature's already-perfect gifts and to avoid chemical concoctions.
What makes Lilith & Eve Soap different than other handmade soaps?
Just because a label reads "Handmade Soap" does not mean it is a superior product. Handmade soap can be made of used bacon grease, old motor oil, petroleum by-products and all sorts of other yucky stuff. While we seriously doubt that anyone DOES use these gross ingredients in their soaps, the base oils someone uses in their recipes DOES affect the outcome. There IS a difference in handmade soaps.
Some handmade soaps are merely "craft projects" created by some creative person who went to their local craft store or other supplier, bought a chunk of chemically-derived glycerin soap, took it home, melted it in the microwave, poured it into a mold and then put a hefty price tag on it.
Others are, indeed, "from scratch" soaps, but use only the minimum oils required (a very basic blend of Coconut, Palm and Olive Oils) to make the bar hard, sudsy and yummy-smelling. They may add a few herbs, or an essential oil or two, but still, their end product is a very basic bar that, while indeed much nicer than a commercial bath bar, just barely meets the requirements of handcrafted soap without regard for what the blend will actually DO for your skin. (As an example: A soap recipe where the combined percentage of Coconut, Palm Kernel and/or Babassu oils exceeds 30% can actually be quite drying - regardless of whatever else is added.)
Lilith & Eve soaps are unparalleled in the handmade soap industry. We create our recipes from an inventory of over 100 "base" and essential oils. Drawing on over a decade of ethnobotanical research and soapmaking experience we carefully blend the most synergistic medleys of base oils, specialty oils, butters, essential oils, herbs, extracts and more. We use only food grade ingredients (meaning that they're all safe to eat), we support fair trade, and a high percentage of our ingredients are certified organic. After years of research, we have yet to come across another company's soap that can measure up to the magic that Lilith & Eve creates. (Plus, we fill all of our products with alotta love, love, love!)
Isn't Handmade soap expensive?
No, not really. When you look past the creative ways commercial companies shape and package their detergent bars to make them seem bigger than they actually are, and compare the actual price-per-ounce of soap, you'll recognize that handmade soap is priced very competitively. Considering, also, the quality of the soap and the overall cost reduction you may experience by minimizing your requirement for creams and lotions, it's possible that Lilith & Eve Soap can actually provide you savings.
What about Lye? Isn't that some pretty nasty stuff?
The movie Fight Club did an excellent job of making lye look really scary. As the "magic ingredient" in soap, lye is actually super cool!
It's the very thing that turns a bunch of oil into a batch of soap. This little piece of brilliant chemistry is called "saponification".
Once the proper amount of lye is fully blended with the oils in our recipes, >poof< chemistry happens, and suddenly the lye is gone . . . it is completely neutralized into skin-loving soap. (Relate this to the ingredients of a cake - once the cake is made, there are no more eggs or butter or baking powder . . . just cake). The amount of lye used in a recipe must be very carefully and specifically determined. It's based on each oil's SAP value (a measure of the average molecular weight of all the fatty acids present), specific gravity, and the ratio of each oil in the recipe as it relates to the oil blend as a whole. We at Lilith & Eve use very specific lye calculations to ensure a delicious, safe, moisturizing bar of incredible soap.
What does "superfatting" mean?
Superfatting is the practice of adding a little more oil to the batch than will saponify. These additional oils are added after the saponification process reaches completion, and they disperse into the soap in their pure form. Essentially, by superfatting our soaps, we add pure and natural skin conditioners. As a result of us doing so, many of our customers report no longer requiring lotions or creams to keep their skin dewy soft and moist.
Isn't liquid soap more moisturizing than bar soap?
No. The only significant differences between liquid and bar soaps are the type of lye used (sodium hydroxide makes solid soap and potassium hydroxide makes liquid soap), and the fact that liquid soap requires preservatives to prevent bacteria and mold. Consider this: Dish Detergent is a liquid soap - is it more moisturizing to the skin? The moisturizing ability of a soap is completely dependent on whether it's a chemical detergent formula or a true soap, the oils used to make it, and the ratio of oil to lye.
I've used handmade soap before and it left my skin dry and irritated
See our FAQ (answered above) on What makes Lilith & Eve different than other handmade soaps to understand the magic we make. Regarding the (non-Lilith & Eve) soap you've referenced: We don't know what was actually in that bar of soap, but dryness or irritation could have been caused by many factors. A craft-store melt and pour soap being marketed as "handmade" (all of these are actually very poor quality soaps), synthetic dyes or inferior fragrance oils, a too-high ratio of Coconut, Palm Kernel and/or Babassu oils, an improperly calculated lye ratio, a bar that hasn't fully cured, or a personal allergy to one (or more) of the soap's ingredients (a nut oil for example) are all possible reasons that could have happened. Lilith & Eve takes great pride in our high-grade natural ingredients and our ultra-skin-loving oil blends. We pay very close attention to ensure our bars are ALWAYS fully cured. Finally, we include all of our soaps' ingredients on our labels so our customers can personally discern if the recipe contains something they may be allergic to.
Is Lilith & Eve Soap biodegradable?
Yep - it sure is!
I bought some soap at my health food store that said it was natural, but I don't think it is...
We believe that Humanity as a whole is good, honest and well-meaning, so when answering questions like this it's not our intention to instill fear or distrust in you - merely to educate you and inspire you to be aware.
Our primary advice: READ the label ! If a company does not list their ingredients, be wary.
Even when a label is meeting full-disclosure claims, it is easy to be creative in order to mis-lead the unaware customer - and yes, unfortunately, this is legal. In short: Ask questions, do some research, inform yourself and make conscious decisions.
I've heard that a lot of handmade soap companies have been bought out by giant large-scale operations like Clorox, or are side-brands of big corporations that just label their industrial-made soap as "handmade".
While we don't concern ourselves with how other soap companies conduct their operations, Lilith & Eve is a true-blue American cottage industry. Liberty Mason, our founder and resident Soap Goddess, is a single mother of four small children, and although she makes thousands and thousands of bars of soap, each batch is small, hand measured, hand stirred, hand poured, hand cut, hand wrapped, and hand packaged-for-shipment by her . . . personally. A lot of love, life, laughter and gratitude goes into everything she creates. Our recipes are original, unique and exclusive . . . and we keep our Karma good by providing fun, rewarding jobs for local Mamas, Daddies and Go-Get-'Em Young Adults.
If your question remains unanswered, please ask us here !
It's important to us that you're as informed as you need to be.
Our skin is our body's largest organ and, like a sponge, absorbs things. In fact, today many medicines are given in "patch" form to be absorbed and assimilated through the skin.
This being the case, every day, people take baths or showers and lather up with commercial "soap" without any awareness of what they're actually putting onto (and, through absorption, INTO) their bodies.
In Science's attempts to recreate and to "one-up" Mother Nature, a myriad of "cleansing bars", "moisturizing bars", "beauty bars", "bath bars", "deodorizing bars" etc have become mainstream. Notice that they’re not generally named "soap". This is because they are, in fact, NOT soap.
They're simply chemical cocktails.
Good handmade soap is a gentle body cleanser created from Nature's finest ingredients - oils that, by their very nature, nourish, enrich, feed and soothe the skin.
For example: Consider the differences in the ingredients of Lilith & Eve Soap and in "The X Brand" (this is our code name for a real-life national brand believed by many to be the most gentle commercial bar):
Lilith & Eve Bar: Wise Woman Sage: Saponified oils of coconut, palm, olive, palm kernel, rice bran, grapeseed and jojoba; cocoa butter and shea butter; Pure essential oils of: sage, bergamot, lemon, pink grapefruit, litsea cubeba and lemongrass; Organic lemon peel.
The X Brand: sodium cocoyl isethionate, stearic acid, sodium tallowate, sodium isethionate, coconut acid, sodium stearate, sodium dodecylbenzonesulfonate, sodium cocoate or sodium palm kernalate, fragrance, sodium chloride, titanium dioxide, trisodium EDTA, trisodium etidronate, BHT
Pretty big difference, huh.
While the "goodness" and/or "badness" of these synthetic chemical additives is up for debate among some people, we at Lilith & Eve choose to nurture skin with Nature's already-perfect gifts and to avoid chemical concoctions.
What makes Lilith & Eve Soap different than other handmade soaps?
Just because a label reads "Handmade Soap" does not mean it is a superior product. Handmade soap can be made of used bacon grease, old motor oil, petroleum by-products and all sorts of other yucky stuff. While we seriously doubt that anyone DOES use these gross ingredients in their soaps, the base oils someone uses in their recipes DOES affect the outcome. There IS a difference in handmade soaps.
Some handmade soaps are merely "craft projects" created by some creative person who went to their local craft store or other supplier, bought a chunk of chemically-derived glycerin soap, took it home, melted it in the microwave, poured it into a mold and then put a hefty price tag on it.
Others are, indeed, "from scratch" soaps, but use only the minimum oils required (a very basic blend of Coconut, Palm and Olive Oils) to make the bar hard, sudsy and yummy-smelling. They may add a few herbs, or an essential oil or two, but still, their end product is a very basic bar that, while indeed much nicer than a commercial bath bar, just barely meets the requirements of handcrafted soap without regard for what the blend will actually DO for your skin. (As an example: A soap recipe where the combined percentage of Coconut, Palm Kernel and/or Babassu oils exceeds 30% can actually be quite drying - regardless of whatever else is added.)
Lilith & Eve soaps are unparalleled in the handmade soap industry. We create our recipes from an inventory of over 100 "base" and essential oils. Drawing on over a decade of ethnobotanical research and soapmaking experience we carefully blend the most synergistic medleys of base oils, specialty oils, butters, essential oils, herbs, extracts and more. We use only food grade ingredients (meaning that they're all safe to eat), we support fair trade, and a high percentage of our ingredients are certified organic. After years of research, we have yet to come across another company's soap that can measure up to the magic that Lilith & Eve creates. (Plus, we fill all of our products with alotta love, love, love!)
Isn't Handmade soap expensive?
No, not really. When you look past the creative ways commercial companies shape and package their detergent bars to make them seem bigger than they actually are, and compare the actual price-per-ounce of soap, you'll recognize that handmade soap is priced very competitively. Considering, also, the quality of the soap and the overall cost reduction you may experience by minimizing your requirement for creams and lotions, it's possible that Lilith & Eve Soap can actually provide you savings.
What about Lye? Isn't that some pretty nasty stuff?
The movie Fight Club did an excellent job of making lye look really scary. As the "magic ingredient" in soap, lye is actually super cool!
It's the very thing that turns a bunch of oil into a batch of soap. This little piece of brilliant chemistry is called "saponification".
Once the proper amount of lye is fully blended with the oils in our recipes, >poof< chemistry happens, and suddenly the lye is gone . . . it is completely neutralized into skin-loving soap. (Relate this to the ingredients of a cake - once the cake is made, there are no more eggs or butter or baking powder . . . just cake). The amount of lye used in a recipe must be very carefully and specifically determined. It's based on each oil's SAP value (a measure of the average molecular weight of all the fatty acids present), specific gravity, and the ratio of each oil in the recipe as it relates to the oil blend as a whole. We at Lilith & Eve use very specific lye calculations to ensure a delicious, safe, moisturizing bar of incredible soap.
What does "superfatting" mean?
Superfatting is the practice of adding a little more oil to the batch than will saponify. These additional oils are added after the saponification process reaches completion, and they disperse into the soap in their pure form. Essentially, by superfatting our soaps, we add pure and natural skin conditioners. As a result of us doing so, many of our customers report no longer requiring lotions or creams to keep their skin dewy soft and moist.
Isn't liquid soap more moisturizing than bar soap?
No. The only significant differences between liquid and bar soaps are the type of lye used (sodium hydroxide makes solid soap and potassium hydroxide makes liquid soap), and the fact that liquid soap requires preservatives to prevent bacteria and mold. Consider this: Dish Detergent is a liquid soap - is it more moisturizing to the skin? The moisturizing ability of a soap is completely dependent on whether it's a chemical detergent formula or a true soap, the oils used to make it, and the ratio of oil to lye.
I've used handmade soap before and it left my skin dry and irritated
See our FAQ (answered above) on What makes Lilith & Eve different than other handmade soaps to understand the magic we make. Regarding the (non-Lilith & Eve) soap you've referenced: We don't know what was actually in that bar of soap, but dryness or irritation could have been caused by many factors. A craft-store melt and pour soap being marketed as "handmade" (all of these are actually very poor quality soaps), synthetic dyes or inferior fragrance oils, a too-high ratio of Coconut, Palm Kernel and/or Babassu oils, an improperly calculated lye ratio, a bar that hasn't fully cured, or a personal allergy to one (or more) of the soap's ingredients (a nut oil for example) are all possible reasons that could have happened. Lilith & Eve takes great pride in our high-grade natural ingredients and our ultra-skin-loving oil blends. We pay very close attention to ensure our bars are ALWAYS fully cured. Finally, we include all of our soaps' ingredients on our labels so our customers can personally discern if the recipe contains something they may be allergic to.
Is Lilith & Eve Soap biodegradable?
Yep - it sure is!
I bought some soap at my health food store that said it was natural, but I don't think it is...
We believe that Humanity as a whole is good, honest and well-meaning, so when answering questions like this it's not our intention to instill fear or distrust in you - merely to educate you and inspire you to be aware.
Our primary advice: READ the label ! If a company does not list their ingredients, be wary.
Even when a label is meeting full-disclosure claims, it is easy to be creative in order to mis-lead the unaware customer - and yes, unfortunately, this is legal. In short: Ask questions, do some research, inform yourself and make conscious decisions.
I've heard that a lot of handmade soap companies have been bought out by giant large-scale operations like Clorox, or are side-brands of big corporations that just label their industrial-made soap as "handmade".
While we don't concern ourselves with how other soap companies conduct their operations, Lilith & Eve is a true-blue American cottage industry. Liberty Mason, our founder and resident Soap Goddess, is a single mother of four small children, and although she makes thousands and thousands of bars of soap, each batch is small, hand measured, hand stirred, hand poured, hand cut, hand wrapped, and hand packaged-for-shipment by her . . . personally. A lot of love, life, laughter and gratitude goes into everything she creates. Our recipes are original, unique and exclusive . . . and we keep our Karma good by providing fun, rewarding jobs for local Mamas, Daddies and Go-Get-'Em Young Adults.
If your question remains unanswered, please ask us here !
It's important to us that you're as informed as you need to be.
