Cold Process Soap

 

HANDMADE SOAP IS MADE THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY

Our ancestors knew what they were doing, and did it for thousands of years. Why would we need to change the process? Many of you may even remember your parents or grandparents making soap the "Old-Fashioned Way". Traditionally, handmade soap is made one of two ways. Either Hot-Process or Cold Process. Both end with the same result, but the method I use at 313Body is Cold Process. With this process Lye, (Sodium Hydroxide) is mixed with water, then blended together with oils (plant based). Fragrance oils are also added for their wonderful scents and skin loving properties. The mixture is put into a mold and goes through a process called Saponification. This process takes about 24 hours. Once this step is completed, the soap is removed from the mold, cut into bars, and placed on a rack to further cure for an additional 4-6 weeks. While it is a long process, the end results are worth it.

This method is in contrast to commercial bought soap. Commercial soap is formulated especially for large scale production in factories. They use ingredients/chemicals including both Sodium Isethionate (a foam enhancer) and Dipropylene Glycol (a chemical solvent).

Soap making is almost like baking, with many making the comparison because of the time and mixing of ingredients required. It's requires a certain amount of love and attention to make every batch.

 

THE OILS USED IN HANDMADE SOAP ARE GREAT FOR YOUR SKIN!

One of the best qualities about handmade soap is the preservation of oils that go into each bar of soap. When you put in Olive Oil into the mix, Olive Oil comes out. This is the same for Coconut Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, Etc.. All the Fats, Butters, Oils maintain their skin loving qualities in the final product.

Handmade soapers like ourselves are able to modify recipes by means of different oils to produce particular characteristics and qualities in the soap without adding any chemicals. To make a harder bar of soap that will last longer we would add coconut oil. To make a soap more nourishing we would add sweet almond oil. Using multiple soaps creates a bar of soap that contains characteristics of each ingredient.

Commercial soaps use chemicals to achieve this same affect when it's not needed.