How We Make Natural Soap & Shampoo Bars:
A Labor of Love
My journey into natural skincare began in 2001 with soap-making. I started small, with a mold that made just 8 bars, but I was instantly hooked. I quickly discovered the profound impact of natural ingredients on my skin. This experience fueled my dedication to crafting natural soaps that nourish, protect, and truly care for the skin.
Have you ever wondered how we make natural soaps without synthetic fragrances, artificial colors, or detergents?
Our soaps and shampoo bars are handcrafted in small batches using the traditional Cold Process Method.
This time-honored technique involves mixing and blending ingredients without any external heat.
True soap is born from a natural chemical process called saponification. This process involves combining an acid (the fatty acids from oils and butters) with an alkaline substance (sodium hydroxide) dissolved in a liquid. The resulting reaction transforms these ingredients into fatty acid salts (soap), glycerin, and a small amount of water. One of the most beneficial by-products of saponification is glycerin, a natural humectant that helps to moisturize and soften your skin.
Learn More Blog: The Chemistry of Natural Soap Making
Sometimes, consumers may be alarmed by ingredients like sodium hydroxide or lye in soap ingredient lists. However, these substances are essential to the soap-making process. To alleviate these concerns, some soap makers may use the words "saponified oils" rather than disclosing the use of lye. Saponified oils means that the oils have been mixed with a lye solution, so it is still the same chemical process. We believe in transparency and accurately labeling our ingredients so you can trust what you're putting on your skin.
I know you are asking . . . is there lye in my soap? The answer is NO!
But here is the important part: Real soap cannot be made without lye (sodium hydroxide). Any "lathering soap-type product" made without sodium hydroxide (lye) is not soap, it is a detergent. Detergents are fine as household cleaners, but do you really want to wash your skin with the same ingredients used to clean floors or dishes?
Rest assured, there is NO lye in a bar of Chagrin Valley Natural Soap. When saponification is complete, the lye and fat molecules have combined and chemically changed into soap and glycerin.
Learn More Blog: Is There Lye In Natural Soap? Won't It Harm My Skin?
No lye remains in a finished bar of our soap or shampoo. In the end, our natural bars are not only gentle and nourishing but also completely lye-free.
So, how can we be sure that no lye remains in our soap? We begin with a deep understanding of proper formulation, add extra oils and butters, known as superfat (see below), and inspect and test every batch. Then we use the most reassuring test of all, using the soap or shampoo bar on our own skin.
How We Formulate a Soap Recipe
In our approach to soap making, science takes center stage. While following a pre-existing recipe can yield satisfactory results, formulating an exceptional soap from scratch demands a deep understanding of the underlying chemistry.
This involves meticulously researching and balancing the complex interactions between ingredients to achieve the ideal qualities, such as rich lather, effective cleansing, and moisturizing properties.
Since an unbalanced formula can lead to poor-quality soap, it is essential to have a thorough grasp of the properties and fatty acid profiles of various soapmaking oils, as well as their individual reactions with lye.
The properties of an oil are directly tied to its fatty acid composition, and each type of fatty acid imparts unique characteristics to the soap. For instance, coconut oil owes its exceptional lathering ability to its high content of lauric acid.
With this knowledge, we carefully select the oils and butters that will work in harmony to produce a soap that meets our rigorous standards.
The base oils used in our soaps are all USDA-certified organic. Each oil is chosen for the special properties it gives to the soap. For example:
- organic olive and sunflower oils are gentle and moisturizing
- organic coconut oil provides natural cleansing and bubbly, fluffy lather
- organic sustainable palm oil creates a hard bar with creamy and conditioning lather
- organic castor oil creates a dense and creamy lather that conditions and moisturizes
To further enhance our soap creations, we incorporate natural ingredients that can modify the soap's properties, such as texture, color, scent, and skin benefits. This allows us to tailor each soap recipe to achieve specific desired features, resulting in a truly customized final product.
By prioritizing the scientific aspects of soap making, we can create natural soap recipes that not only excel in terms of performance but also provide a luxurious and nourishing experience for the skin.
The Soap Making Process
Any soap or shampoo is only as good as the ingredients used to make it!
We begin with the finest ingredients: fresh, nutrient-rich organic plant oils and botanical butters, sourced sustainably and ethically.
The plant oils and butters, gently warmed until melted, are sometimes infused with herbs, spices, or botanicals.
Next, we slowly blend the warmed oils with an alkaline lye/liquid solution, carefully crafting the perfect mix.
Our natural soap recipes often feature unique liquid ingredients, in addition to water, blended with sodium hydroxide. These liquids may include herbal teas, fruit or vegetable juices, goat milk, coconut milk, yogurt, beer, or even brewed coffee. Each carefully selected liquid adds distinct properties and benefits to our artisanal soaps.
The soap batter is mixed until it reaches the proper consistency and an emulsion is formed. An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that do not normally mix, such as oil and water.
Then, depending on the soap recipe, we add a range of beneficial ingredients, including organic essential oils, purifying clays, bamboo charcoal, chocolate, and more.
The soap mixture is then poured into insulated molds, where it sets for 2-3 days. Once set, the soap is cut into bars and allowed to naturally air cure for 8-12 weeks.
Superfat
The science of soapmaking tells us that each unique soap recipe requires a precise amount of fat (oils and butters) to ensure all the lye is converted into soap during saponification. Using this exact ratio would result in a soap with 0% superfat. This means that nearly all the oil would be consumed during the soapmaking process, leaving little to none to nourish and moisturize the skin
However, to create a milder, more nourishing soap, we use a technique called superfatting. Superfat refers to the extra amount of oil added to a soap or shampoo bar recipe that does not fully react with the lye, leaving a small amount of excess or unsaponified oil in the finished soap. This excess moisturizing oil becomes trapped between the soap molecules and is released onto the skin during washing.
The resulting soap is gentle on the skin and rich in moisturizing properties.
The ratio of fats to sodium hydroxide (lye) is critical to create a mild and gentle bar soap. So, we superfat all of our soap and shampoo bars.
If you make a laundry or dish soap, you would not want extra oil in your bar. However, superfatted body soaps and shampoos have superior moisturizing and emollient qualities.
Typically, cold-processed soapmakers aim for a 5% superfat, which means that 5% of the oils in the recipe will remain unsaponified.
We superfat our bars at a higher rate, which requires a deep understanding of soap chemistry. This expertise allows us to craft uniquely nourishing and moisturizing soaps that stand out from the rest.
The Scents & Colors of Natural Soap
Many of our soaps are unscented, yet they still boast distinct, natural aromas thanks to unrefined oils and butters, grains, flowers, spices, herbs, honey, and other natural ingredients.
For our scented soaps, we exclusively use pure, organic essential oils. We never use fragrance oils (parfum) or "nature identical" oils, ensuring that our soaps not only smell wonderful but also remain true to their natural ingredients.
Learn More Blog: Why We Use Only Real Plant Essential Oils
Our soap colors come from nature, using juices, teas, spices, botanicals, or clays to create a range of earthy hues.
Why Do Handmade Natural Soaps Need To Cure?
Saponification and Curing are not the same. Saponification, the natural process that transforms fats and lye into soap, occurs rapidly, with 98-99% of the reaction usually complete within the first 48 hours.
At this point, the soap is safe to handle and can be used after just a few days. However, the quality of this young soap will be quite disappointing. It may feel harsh on the skin, produce minimal lather, be very soft, and have a shorter lifespan compared to a fully cured bar. Patience is key, as allowing the soap to cure enables it to reach its full potential.
So What is Soap Curing?
The curing process allows time for the last bit of saponification to be completed, the water content in the soap to evaporate, and the soap's crystalline structure to develop.
The curing time for each recipe of cold-process soap is different. While some soapmakers use a 4-week cure, we believe our longer, slower curing time of 6 to 12 weeks ensures a milder, harder, longer-lasting bar with a rich lather.
Although as our soaps sit waiting for a new home, they will continue to shrink in size, this longer curing time results in a bar of soap with exceptional mildness and luxurious lather.
Our Chagrin Valley Natural Soaps & Shampoo Bars
The result of our painstaking, meticulous process is a mild, rich, moisturizing soap that feels creamy in your hands, offers a magnificent long-lasting lather, and leaves your skin clean, soft, silky, and radiantly healthy.
Our natural soap and shampoo bars, made using ingredients that are Certified Organic, non-GMO, cruelty-free, sustainably produced, and ethically traded, contain only the ingredients that they need.
Our soap and shampoo bars contain NO alcohol, detergents, sulfates, synthetic fragrances, synthetic colors, or preservatives.
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Find joy in our full range of Organic Soaps.
This blog, originally published in March 2015, has been updated.
