OK, maybe it doesn't keep you up at night, BUT since you're our friend, we do think you might be interested in learning how handcrafted soap is made!
To start...why should I buy handcrafted soap?
So I was thinking that you (my dedicated Farmer’s Body family) probably already realize that “handcrafted" soap is crafted or created by hand (obvs).
But what exactly does that mean?
- Handcrafted soap is made by a person (me!) instead of a machine.
- The process is overseen by a person (also, me!) instead of a computer.
- Mechanized equipment is used minimally with handcrafted soap.
So, what’s the big deal? Why would I want to buy handcrafted soap when it’s more expensive?
Gasp! Did we just admit our products are more expensive than Walmart products?
Why yes, yes we did...and we're going to explain why and why it matters!
Our handcrafted soap is made of natural ingredients that are gentle on your skin.
Ingredients that you can pronounce.
Ingredients that you can recognize.
Ingredients that fit on our tiny soap label because there are so few of them.
Most of our soaps have fewer than 15 ingredients and again, these are ingredients you already know and use (and most of them you can even EAT), like olive oil, coconut oil, and water.
But don't eat soap, ok?
Okay, so what about those commercial soaps? Don’t they have natural ingredients, too? I mean, Target carries them and we do love Target (Hey Target, want to carry Farmer's Body products??).
So. Many. Great. Questions.
Have you looked at the ingredients on that commercial bar of soap you grabbed from Target/Safeway/King Soopers/Market Basket/Publix/Meijer/Piggly Wiggly/Hannaford/Price Chopper/HEB? (What? I've lived a lot of places and shopped at a lot of grocery stores).
Because I’m guessing that if you did or have, you know that those ingredients are much more difficult to pronounce or even to decipher exactly what they are.
Those ingredients can either dry out or create too much oil on your skin. Many of those ingredients are detergents or harsh chemicals.
So why are they even used?
Short answer: they make them much cheaper to produce and sell.
Our handcrafted soaps don’t contain detergents or other harsh chemicals that will dry out your skin. This makes it more expensive to produce, but much better for skin.
Wait! I'm a smart cookie. That label says "Sodium Hydroxide" ... isn't that Lye?
Look at you, you label-reading smartie! Yes, it is. But we still aren't "lye-in" to ya...
Let's do a little chemistry. Sodium hydroxide is a strong base (or alkaline). It reacts through a process called saponification with the fatty acids in the oils to create fatty acid salts commonly known as "soap."
I use that good old UNC chemistry degree to calculate exactly how much lye to add to my oils so that there is ZERO lye left at the end of the reaction.
In fact, I use what's called a "super-fat" process to enhance the performance of my soaps. It ensures absolutely no lye left in the bars.
Our labels list every ingredient used in the production of our soap, so lye gets a label cameo even though it is no longer lye at the end of the show.
In the olden days, lye was produced from wood ash. Today, we use lab-produced lye because wood ash lye contains impurities that are not always safe (although you better believe I saw those giant ash piles from the garn- the wood burning stove that heats our entire community- and the gears in my brain were turning...)
ALL ingredients in our handcrafted soaps are thoughtfully and intentionally added to create maximum benefit to your skin.
Plus, what could be better than knowing that the handcrafted soap you buy from Farmer’s Body is made by me and not a machine or computer?!
I am in my studio delicately combining those natural ingredients to produce the best possible results for your skin.
So, go ahead and give it a try if you haven’t already.
I think you'll like what you find!