Natural Handcrafted Soaps
Handcrafted soapmaking at Lavande de Bois is all about bringing the
goodness of nature into your bathing ritual to revitalize mind and body.
The age old tradition of soapmaking crosses the art of combining
essential oils, herbs, and other gifts from nature to create unique
beauty and aroma in every bar of soap.
We start with our all vegetable oil soap recipe; then add
butters, clays, herbs, essential oils and other natural ingredients to
create one-of-a-kind works of handcraftsmanship and quality.
Each additive creates distinctive differences in the properties
of the soap.
At Lavande de Bois what we mean when we say handcrafted is that
excellent technique and the artistry of the soapmaker combine to create
soaps that are unique and full of naturally good aroma. Each step in the
soap making process involves the soapmaker. Each bar of soap is handmade
from scratch using raw ingredients, then hand cut, hand trimmed,
hand beveled, and hand packaged. No two soaps will ever be exact
replicas, yet the goodness in the quality and aroma of the soap will be
the same bar after bar. The inherent variations in this handcrafted
process only serve to enhance the individual beauty of our
exclusive
handcrafted soaps.
Our natural handcrafted soaps are created using the
cold process method.
Because all the naturally good for you additives are added after the lye
and vegetable oils have cooled we are able to incorporate a wide variety
of essential oils, herbs, and botanicals without exposing them to
damaging heat. Also the
naturally occurring glycerin is not removed as it often is in commercial
soapmaking. All our soaps
are superfatted, which means about 5% of the oil is intentionally left
in the soap after the process of
saponification is complete yielding
more emollient gentle bars of soap than manufactured methods.
Our basic handcrafted soap recipe
incorporates the following vegetable oils:
Olive oil
is the first listed ingredient listed on the label of every one of our
handcrafted soaps because it is so gentle for your skin!
Most of our
recipes are comprised of 38% olive oil.
Some recipes use less and when they do it’s because we’ve added
some other wonderful emollient to the soap like cocoa butter or shea
butter.
Palm and coconut oils
added for hardness, extend the life of the soap, produce large creamy
bubbles.
Castor Oil,
just a little bit, produces a wonderful creamy lather.
Our handcrafted soaps are made in
small batches. We have a
batch labeling system that enables us to look back at our soap records
and the sample we keep from each batch should any questions ever arise.
We do not use synthetic
preservatives in our handcrafted soaps.
We do add rosemary oleoresin extract, an effective all natural
anti-oxidant, to extend the shelf life of our soaps, which is 2 years.
We do not ship any handcrafted soaps that are over 9 months past
their production date unless discounted.
Most of our handcrafted soaps are shipped within 4 months of
production. Be assured that
you will receive fresh product with plenty of shelf life left.
For more information about handmade soap go to www.realhandmadesoap.com.