Her World

From gift shops in Anywhere, USA to flea markets and craft shows you will find quality handmade soaps. These soaps are most likely made in small batches the “cold-processed” way which means that carefully selected fixed oils and/or butters are mixed together and melted then cooled to a special temperature. They are then mixed with an alkali (lye) solution and stirred and stirred until saponification takes place. This is very time consuming and all the right precautions must be taken when working with the lye solution. At this time essential oils or synthetic fragrances may be added to scent the soap mixture and coloring may be added in the form of herbs, spices, earth clays, micas or cosmetic grade dyes to further enhance the appearance of the soap. Soap is then poured into a mold where the mixture will continue to heat up, after about 48 hours when the “soap” has hardened it may be removed from the mold and cut into bars where it will cure for several weeks.

Some soap crafter’s use only “natural” ingredients in their soap-making process and take great pride in this. Some examples of what natural ingredients might be are; natural or organic vegetable oils, pure plant derived essential oils to scent and earth clays, herb and spices for coloring. Un-natural would be to use cosmetic grade dyes for coloring and synthetic fragrances to scent their soaps, which takes away from the “naturalness” whichever may be, proper labeling should always be exercised.

In any case handmade soaps contain the natural glycerin, a by-product from the soap-making process, this glycerin is known as a humectant and draws moisture to your skin keeping it healthy and nourished. Most commercial made detergents (soap) remove this natural glycerin during the soap-making process then sell it to further make money. Chemicals now must be added to this soap to promote moisturizing properties. Sometimes animal and petroleum products are also used in commercial soaps.

Knowing that you are using high quality soaps made with only natural products is important knowledge in the world today and is worth paying a little higher price for “handcrafted”, “handmade”, “all natural” soaps. With so many choices out there and so many different chemicals that cause irritations to your skin, illness and worse case cancer, it’s comforting to know that there is a choice to use natural products like handmade soap. In this ever changing world where you are told “this” and “that” causes cancer and then to find out later that it was something else now causing cancer, choosing to use all natural products seems to be the safest choice to make.

About the Author:

Paulette Gehrke has taken correspondence courses in herbal preperation, reflexology, accupressure and is curently enrolled at the Lakeside School of Massage Therapy. She owns and operates Natural Earth Essentials where you will find all natural handcrafted aromatherapy soaps. http://www.neesoaps.com