Most handmade soap is made in small batches with natural ingredients that keep the natural glycerin component of those oils in the soap. The natural oils are combined with lye and water and some type of scent and sometimes herbs to make a natural soap. This type of soap is very moisturizing for your skin because of the natural glycerin. Large soap companies have found a way to take the glycerin out of the soap making process and turn it into a separate profit center. They leave the detergents, the preservatives and petroleum based products in the soap which can irritate your skin. Handmade soap is always going to be better than a detergent bar.

Some of the ingredients in a detergent bar are sodium chloride, polysorbate 20, PEG 12, tetrasodium EDTA, FD&C colorants, etc., these are the type of things that you usually will not get any handmade bar. These are the irritants that we are trying to avoid when we use handmade soap.

Is Handmade Soap Organic?

Many types of handmade soap are organic but not all of it is. Its best to check the ingredients to see if your bar is organic. If that is a requirement of yours the key ingredient in organic soap is essential oil. Manufactured fragrance will “disqualify” your handmade soap bar from being organic.

Are Handmade Soaps Better?

There are many good attributes to handmade soaps. The main attribute is the lack of irritation to your skin. Commercial soap sometimes known as detergent bars can be irritating to your skin they also contain many ingredients that are harmful to the environment. This would be the main advantage of getting handmade soap, you would be avoiding these ingredients.

How Long Does A Handmade Soap Bar Last?

Because handmade soap bars do not contain ingredients that harden your bar they generally last less than a commercial bar of soap. The best way to make sure that your natural handmade soap bar lasts a good long time is to keep it dry when keeping your soap in the shower. Make sure that you have a soap dish that drains the water from your bar easily and readily as this will help your bar last longer.

What Is The Best Way To Store Handmade Soap?

Handmade soap stores very well in cool dry areas. If you have several bars that you have purchased you may want to keep them in a sealed plastic container so the humidity does not affect the storage life of your handmade soap. Once you have put the soap into the shower it is best to keep it on a soap dish.

Can I Buy Handmade Soap That Does Not Contain Lye?

The soap making process for the handmade soap maker is known as saponification. This is the combination of the best soap making oils along with water and lye. These are combined in a mixing bowl and this is the process that makes soap. If you have a soap seller who claims to have soap that is not made from lye you actually have someone who has bought a soap base where the lye was added at the factory. This soap base is then melted and fragrance, herbs, colorants and everything else is added to the batch. In a secondary soap making phase the lye has already been added yet the initial phase in the factory so technically they have not added lie but there is lie in their soap. If there is no lye in their soap then it is a detergent bar. It is not real soap, it is impossible to make soap with out lye.

How Long Can You Store Handmade Soap?

Handmade soap can store for years. The enemy of handmade soap is humidity. We have found here in our workshop that all boxes of soap that were left in storage for as much as 5 years still preform magnificently! The only caveat is that they had lost some of their sent over time. We tell our customers that soap last for one year just to give them a benchmark from which to work with. The soap itself actually continues to cure with every passing day and becomes a richer and better soap.