Q: How do I see the individual ingredient list for each soap selection?
A: We now have the ingredients listed together on the Ingredients and Product Info Page
Q: Are ALL of your soaps natural? Which ones are and aren't?
A: No, not all of them. All of the "Natural Classics" are natural, however, many of our other soaps contain fragrances (see following questions for details on this) and a couple contain synthetic color (see colorant question below). Natural soaps are marked "ALL NATURAL" in the titles so that you can see which are "ALL NATURAL" and which are not. You can also check the ingredients which are listed for each soap. We also now have a page with the entire list of all natural selections. See below questions for an explanation of what fragrances and natural essential oils are.
All Natural Soaps Contain the words "all natural" in the title as pictured:
Soaps with "synthetic"/popular fragrances will appear like below:
Q: Are your soaps vegan?
A: Most of our soaps are vegan. Non-Vegan soaps are all the "Three Milk Soaps" (cow/goat milk) and "CinnaBee" (beeswax/honey) soap. All other products are "animal free" and thus vegan.
Q: Do you test your products on animals?
A: Absolutely not, unless you consider the owner an animal, which is a reasonable hypothesis at times.
Q: Are fragrances natural? If a soap has fragrance in it, is it natural?
A: Many companies selling handmade soap are calling their soaps "natural", and even "all natural", when fragrances are used in their products. Fragrances are not natural. Essential oils, however, are natural. When you see "fragrance" on the ingredient list, that soap is not natural and should not claimed to be. This is why we try to clearly mark what soaps are "all natural" to avoid as much confusion as possible. Our fragrance soaps are still minimally processed and handmade with all vegetable based oils which have many other benefits, but they are not "all natural". See above question for more information on fragrance and essential oil.
Q: What is the difference between a "fragrance" and an "essential oil"?
A: It seems that many people use the term "fragrance" or "scent" so frequently that it gets confusing when the terms are used more specifically when referring to soap and cosmetics. A soap could be "fragrant" (general use), yet be all natural, yet it would not have "fragrance" in it. What? Let me explain... all natural essential oils are extremely concentrated all natural fluids (oils) extracted from the plant. They are usually very "fragrant" and many can be used in soap making. When these essential oils are used, a soap can be very "fragrant" (general public use of the word) yet all natural, since natural plant fluid were used rathet than "fragrance" (specific soap maker's use of the word) which is synthetic.
So what is "fragrance" compared to essential oil?
Fragrance oils (fragrance) and essential oils are like cousins. Fragrance oils are synthetic, similar to perfumes. Some fragrance oils have natural elements while others (most fragrances) are completely synthetic. So, when you see the term "fragrance" in reference to soap, it is speaking of a synthetic fragrance, not natural essential oils. This doesn't mean that the fragrance is unhealthy, it simply means that rather than extracting the oil from a plant, chemists created the chemical in a lab. So, again, essential oils=natural, fragrance oils=synthetic
Note: Some fragrances, notably cheaper candle fragrances, have been criticized for being "unhealthy", however, any fragrance or essential oil that is burned could be unhealthy since, usually, an oil is being burned with minimal ventilation (such as inside a house). Even essential oils can become unhealthy without ventilation and even if over-used directly on the skin. Excessive use of anything can cause an unhealthy reaction from your body. There is so much "misinformation" on the internet and we recommend fully researching information before drawing conclusions.
Q: Are all essential oils extracted the same way? Are they all equally expensive?
A: The essential oil extraction process is determined by the difficulty of extraction (steam, pressed, etc.) and the price is also determined by these factors, as well as the commercial demand for the product. Many oils can be steam extracted, which is the cheapest method, but some have such a "fragile" character, that other expensive methods must be used. In either case, thousands of pounds of plants are used in making a small amount of essential oil, which can make essential oil quite expensive. However, if you take oranges, for example: the essential oil comes from the peel. Therefore, since orange peels aren't used in the making of orange juice, it would be reasonable to imagine that there is a greater abundance of orange peels than, for example, roses.
Q: Many of your soaps have coloring, is this natural color?
A: Most of our soaps contain colors from herbs and clays, not dyes. When in question, product ingredient lists show where the color came from. In some of our smaller temporary stock and special order items we also may use FDA approved synthetic dyes and ingredients will be listed as such in numeric form (example: Blue 1, Red 40). These colors are numbered according to FDA guidelines for synthetic coloring. There are currently no restrictions for naturally occuring colors from clays and herbs so only the raw ingredients are listed in the case where only natural coloring is used. So, synthetic colors will contain a number, "natural color" will contain the ingredient used. I won't get into "oxides, ultramarines and micas" here since the jury is still out on this issue. We generally will use these as "natural" as long as no dyes were added to them.
Q: Aren't soaps made with lye (sodium hydroxide), a chemical, thus technically making it synthetic?
A: Technically, yes, since a synthetic product is technically the chemical combination (synthesis) of two or more items. Thus, cooking a meal with table salt and herbs could technically be called synthetic(?) and this is why "natural" is so tricky. Soap doesn't occur in nature alone, but dough and bread don't either. It is generally the ingredients that make it natural. With handmade soap, we minimally process the ingredients by hand, not by giant machines that over process the ingredients until they are broken down to their raw chemical form (I'm making a simple "picture" here, not creating an elaborate case for natural). We would argue that this is the fundamental difference between handmade/natural and factory/large scale soap makers. In other words, one could argue all day about "natural" versus "not natural" (which would be like splitting hairs) but in the end, the process (HOW it is made) is where you will find the fundamental difference... and a really big difference it is.
