Handmade soap & why its better than the supermarket stuff

I bet you anything that the term ‘soap free’ was conjured up by some sort of marketing team in a bid to promote body wash as a much better option over soap. I guess advertising the fact that soap free = detergent doesn’t quite have the same appeal to it. I’m not here to dis the detergent though, we all know it’s a bit drying, and not great for sensitive skin - but lets talk about handmade soap and why we should love it!

I’m not talking about the soap you find in the supermarket either- that triple milled stuff; triple milled and stripped of all it’s naturally occurring glycerine goodness - no give that one a miss too!
I’m talking about handmade soap, made the old fashioned way, but even better.

Most handmade soap is created by soap makers who develop, formulate and test their very own recipes (which they guard with their lives!) and this takes years to perfect.
A good recipe will have a mix of hard and soft oils, it will use oils that have a long shelf life, and it will have what we call a ‘superfat’ this is the % of oils in our soap that is free floating, or that haven’t been turned into soap, it’s the oils that are left over to moisturise your skin. At Black Bird Grove we use 8% superfat, so our soap is non drying & full of moisturising goodness. Each oil also has it’s own benefits - or things it adds to a soap bar, ours are full of Cocoa Butter, Shea Butter, Rice bran and Olive oil - these are conditioning, adding creaminess and glide. Then there’s Coconut oil - this is for cleansing, and Castor which adds bubbles.

And lets not forget the glycerine, this is a naturally occurring byproduct of soap and it’s gold. Glycerine is the substance that acts as a humectant - it’s the stuff that allows the skin to retain moisture, so it increases hydration, relieves dryness and refreshes the skins surface.

I’m guessing many of you have heard about lye - and I’m not gonna lie, we do use lye. In fact all soap is made with lye, it cannot be made without it.
Lye is used and added to the oils, there is a process called ‘saponification’ which is the chemical reaction between the lye and oils, this creates soap. There is no lye left in the final product - it’s really a fascinating process.

And lastly, but most definitely not least of all, there is the eco benefits of using a bar of soap. Way less packaging (ours come in a cardboard sleeve), and in many cases made with natural ingredients - better for the environment and better for you.

So in short - whats not to love about soap?