Hopefully we aren't spilling too many trade secrets here, but we love sharing more about our products. Since soap and hand washing is taking center stage with the coronavirus, we thought it might be interesting to share more of how we make our most popular soap -- the Castile foaming soap. The process of making our foaming soap takes several months. Here's how it begins. It starts with organic castor oil, coconut oil, and olive oil. The oils are melted, and the sodium hydroxide (lye) and water is added. This causes a chemical reaction which saponifies the oils. We use the hot-process method and we pH test the soap to make sure all of the lye is used up in the soap-making process. So even though we have lye listed in our ingredients, there's no lye left in the final product. We dump the hot soap into a big pile and let it cool. After it's cooled, we cut it into long bars. We let the bars air out, rotating the bars as time passes. Then we feed the bars through our shredder to shred the bars of soap. This allows the soap to dry out and cure more quickly. We load the shredded soap onto large ventilated trays so the soap can continue to dry out. We rotate the trays and spread the soap around to even out the drying process. Then it's back to the shredder to chop the shredded soap into pellets. We store the soap pellets in food-safe buckets until we are ready for the final step in making the liquid soap. Finally, we dissolve the soap pellets into distilled water and add our desired essential oil or fragrance. Each fragrance reacts a little differently with the soap base. You'll notice that some soaps are darker, some are lighter. That's due to the different fragrances. The scents that contain vanilla will darken more than others, for example. Our Warm Flannel and Cocoa Butter Cashmere fragrances both contain vanilla. This darkens the final soap product.
So there you have it! We are proud of what's in our soap (and what's not!) and how the whole process works. Remember that our foaming soap refills are 25% off for the month of May -- no coupon code needed. Thank you so much for supporting our soap-making business! See you at the market!
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You might want to hang on to your empties! Our foaming soap has been popular recently, and we're learning that these bottles are a HOT commodity! We still have a supply for now, but the supply chain for these bottles is disrupted until who knows when. We want to offer more options for you in providing you with high-quality soap, especially since washing with soap and warm water is so vital right now! Even if we run out of foamer bottles, we can still make sure you have the soap you need. Foaming Soap Refill Options We are featuring our foaming soap refills this month, and will have a variety of foaming soap fragrances "on tap" at these local markets. Simply bring your empty foaming soap bottles, choose your fragrance, and we will refill them for you. An 8-ounce refill will be on sale for $3 each (25% off the regular price of $4) during the month of May. Or if you'd rather, you can also order a 64-oz foaming soap refill on our website for 25% off soap refills for the month of May. Choose the fragrance you like, then select the 64-oz size. No coupon code needed. We'll also bring a few of the 64-oz refill bottles to the local markets. Now you can enjoy your favorite foaming soap all season long! We appreciate each of you as you take care of your skin and support small businesses.
Raising little humans isn't for the faint of heart, especially during this quarantine! Mamas, we see you, we know how crazy-hard it can be, and we appreciate and value you. We understand the doubts you have... wondering if you're doing enough, being enough. If you could see yourself as we see you -- we see incredible beauty in your strength, in your vulnerability, and in your sense of community. You are uniquely suited for your people. We know that there are times when you just need a minute, and that can be hard to come by -- especially now. We've put together this gift set of simple luxuries, designed to give moms some pampering and peace. And we've made it easy for you with free shipping. We use USPS Priority Mail, so it can quickly get to its destination. We love that you have the option to personalize a hand-written note, plus you can choose from a variety of fragrances. You'll receive these five products plus free shipping for only $35.99. (When purchased individually, the items pictured here would retail for $42.95.) Click here to learn more. We will have this gift set available for purchase at the local farmer's markets as well. Wishing you all the best this Mother's Day!
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November 2022
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