The cold temperatures have arrived and with the harsh conditions often comes skin dryness and irritation. Your winter skin needs some extra care, so here are a few tip for keeping your skin hydrated and healthy during the chilly season.
In the bustling world of mass-produced products, there's something inherently charming and satisfying about using handcrafted goods. Crooked Chimney Farm takes pride in creating unique and high-quality soaps using traditional methods. In this blog post, we'll take a captivating journey through the intricate process of crafting Crooked Chimney Farm soap, from the carefully chosen ingredients to the final cutting and curing.
Ingredients
At the heart of every exceptional soap lies a combination of carefully selected ingredients. Crooked Chimney Farm Soap prioritizes natural and nourishing elements that benefit both the skin and the environment. A blend of high-quality oils such as olive oil, coconut oil, and shea butter forms the base of the soap, ensuring a rich and luxurious lather that cleanses without stripping the skin of its natural moisture. Additional botanical elements like essential oils and herbs are incorporated to enhance the soap's unique qualities. Of course the star ingredient is goat milk from our very own happy (and somewhat spoiled) herd of Lamancha and Alpine goats.
Process
The cold process soap-making journey begins with the careful measurement and mixing of oils with goat milk and lye, a process known as saponification. This chemical reaction transforms these ingredients into soap, creating a perfect balance between cleansing power and skin-loving properties.
Once the soap mixture reaches the desired consistency, it's time to infuse it with fragrances and additional natural elements. Essential oils, fragrance oils, clays and botanicals are added to evoke delightful scents, colors, and textures that connect users to the beauty of nature.
Design
This stage is where our creativity truly shines. The soap “batter” is hand-poured into carefully chosen molds that shape the soap into loaves. The loaf is designed using intricate swirls, layers, and even embedding botanicals within the soap create a little work of art in every bar.
Cutting and Curing
After pouring and molding, the soap is left to cure, a critical step in ensuring the soap's longevity and quality. During the curing process, excess water evaporates, resulting in a harder and longer-lasting bar of soap. The soap is carefully cut into individual bars, each one a unique piece of art. These bars are then allowed to continue curing for several weeks, until they have reached their optimal state for use.
Crooked Chimney Farm soap is more than just a cleansing product; it's a testament to the dedication and artistry that goes into crafting handmade goods. From the thoughtful selection of natural ingredients to the meticulous process of creating designs and allowing the soap to cure, every step is a labor of passion. So, the next time you reach for a bar of Crooked Chimney Farm soap, remember the journey that went into creating this small but meaningful luxury.
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Fragrance oils Vs Essential Oils...this is a bit of a hot topic in the soaping world.
Some soap makers prefer to stick with one option and others, like myself will use a combination of the two.
While I can’t argue that one is superior to the other, I can go through some of the advantages and disadvantages to each.
]]>Some soap makers prefer to stick with one option and others, like myself will use a combination of the two.
While I can’t argue that one is superior to the other, I can go through some of the advantages and disadvantages to each.
Let’s start with essential oils. What is an essential oil? Essential oils are natural chemical compounds that are extracted from different parts of plants, usually through distillation or pressing.
A major advantage to using essential oils is that they are derived from a natural source. There is a growing demand for all natural cosmetics and beauty products.
However, FDA doesn’t have regulations defining “natural” in cosmetics so while you can call your soap “all natural” bear in mind that it doesn’t actually hold any weight.
Second, a pro to using essential oils is the aromatherapy benefits they provide. For instance, the calming effects of lavender oil or the anti fungal properties of tea tree oil. You wouldn’t get those same benefits from the synthetic version of those oils.
***However, you need to be careful in making any health claims or claims about your soap affecting the structure or function of the body, disease prevention (like cures headaches) or therapeutic claims about your soap because once you do, it’s now considered a “drug” by the FDA and must follow FDA regulations and guidelines for drugs.
Now let's take a look at fragrance oils. Fragrance oils, also known as aroma oils, are a synthetic mixture of aroma compounds. Sometimes these are made up of essential oils, natural extracts, and synthesized versions of naturally occurring aroma chemicals.
Fragrance oils often contain aroma chemicals that are also found in essential oils.
A major pro to using fragrance oils in soap is that they are usually significantly cheaper than essential oils. This is because they don’t require a large amount of plant matter to make.
In addition, fragrance oils typically last longer and generally have a stronger scent compared to essential oils. Due to their volatile nature, essential oils do tend to fade much quicker in soap, and they tend to have a more mild scent. Furthermore, fragrance oils produce consistent results from batch to batch as long as the formulation stays the same. However, results can differ with essential oils as they change from crop to crop, time of year, growing conditions and location etc.
Last, the main reason why I use fragrance oils in my soap is because there are more options. Because you’re not limited to naturally aroma producing sources, the fragrance possibilities are endless.
For example, there is no such thing as strawberry essential oil, so if you want to make a strawberry scented soap, you have to use a fragrance oil. There are also so many fun fragrances like pina coladas, hot fudge sundae or campfire s’mores that you wouldn't be able to achieve from essential oils.
I do often hear concerns about fragrance oils not being safe because they are not natural. However, it's important to remember that just because something is natural, doesn’t mean its safe and just because something is synthetic, doesn’t mean it’s unsafe.
Essential oils are not chemical free. They are made up of dozens of different chemical compounds that happen to be naturally occurring in plants. Many fragrance oils contain these same chemical compounds so there is actually a lot of overlap.
I've also seen a lot of concerns about scent sensitivity when it comes to fragrance oils. However, the majority of recognized aroma chemicals most likely to be allergens are naturally occurring in plants. So as far as allergens and sensitivities go, there really isn’t a benefit to using one over the other.
So who regulations fragrance oils and essential oils?
I can only speak for the United States on this, but The FDA regulates essential oils and FOs. Per their website “all cosmetic products and ingredients must meet the same safety requirement, regardless of their source.” But also “the law does not require FDA approval before they go on the market, but they must be safe for consumers when they are used according to the labeled directions or as people customarily use them.”
There is an additional regulating body for fragrance oils, International Fragrance Association (IFRA). They have developed a code of practice that provides recommendations for best practices and guidelines for fragrance ingredient safety assessment and includes fragrance safety standards which may limit or ban the usage of certain fragrance ingredients.
However, this is a self-regulating system for the fragrance industry and also not a requirement, so it’s more like globally recognized guidelines.
Whether you should choose fragrance oils, essentials oils, or a combination of the two in your soap will depend largely on person preference.
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What exactly is super fatting? Why do soap makers do this and how much should you super fat your soap?
Superfatting, also called a lye discount, is when you either add extra oil to your recipe keeping the amount of lye the same, or use less lye/liquid and keep the oil amount the same in order to have oil “left over” after saponification.
If you were to perfectly balance your oils with the exact amount of lye needed to make an exact amount of soap, you would have no oil leftover and your superfat would be 0%.
Most soap makers intentionally use more oil than necessary in order to have a certain percentage leftover that has not been used up in the saponification process.
Why would you want to do this? Having that small amount of extra oil in your bar adds to the moisturizing ability and emollient properties of the soap.
It also provides a safety margin to insure that there is never any unreacted lye in your finished bar of soap.
How much should you superfat? Superfatting is typical done at 5-20%. I personally, prefer to superfat at 5% because I feel that it makes for a soothing bar without it being too soft or inhibiting lather. However, it does depend on your own personal preference.
How do you calculate superfat? That depends on which oils you are using in your recipe because each oil has its own “SAP Value”. The SAP value, or saponification value, is the amount of lye that it takes to turn 1 gram of oil into 1 gram of soap. SAP value charts are widely available online.
As you can imagine, this value is extremely important when it comes to formulating soap recipes. This is the reason why you can’t just substitute oils for one another without recalculating the recipe.
The equation looks like this:
(oil amount) x (SAP Value) = amount of lye needed (0% superfat)
So how does that calculation change if you want to superfat by 5%?
(lye required) x (1-.05) = New lye amount (5% superfat)
Here is an example:
I’m using 8oz of cocoa butter. The SAP value of cocoa butter is 0.137
(8oz cocoa butter) x (0.137) = 1.096oz lye (0% superfat)
1.096oz lye) x (1-.05) = 1.04oz lye (5% superfat)
Fortunately, there are several really great online soap calculators (like this one) that you can use. All you need to do is enter the amount of oils you’re using and the desired superfat percentage, and it will calculate the amount of lye needed for you.
Ever since I started making soap, I’ve gotten a lot of questions about lye. What exactly is it? Is it safe to use? Can you make soap without it? Are “all natural” soaps made with lye?
These are great questions and I had many of them myself when I was first getting started with soap making.
The short answer is yes, all soap is made with lye, even “all natural” soaps. If it’s not made with lye, then it’s not soap.
You might be checking out products in the cosmetic aisle of your local store and notice that some commercial soaps don’t have lye listed on the ingredient label. Lye can go by two different names: sodium hydroxide (solid soap) or potassium hydroxide (liquid soap).
Lye could also be hiding under a number of other names like sodium palmate (sodium hydroxide and palm oil), sodium cocoate (sodium hydroxide and coconut oil), and the list goes on for all different oils. These names indicate that the oil has been mixed with and reacted with the sodium hydroxide.
Last, it could also be listed under the blanket term “saponified oils” which again, indicates that the oils in the soap were mixed with sodium hydroxide.
There is also a possibility that the “soap” you’re looking at in the store wasn't made with lye because isn’t soap at all, but rather it’s a “chemical detergent”.
So now that we’ve established that lye is necessary for making soap, you might still be wondering…but isn’t lye caustic…I mean it’s used in drain cleaners, right?
Lye on its own is a caustic chemical, which is why soapers are extremely careful when working with it. It’s important to where long sleeves, pants, closed toed shoes, gloves, and eye protection. Alway soap in a well ventilated area or where a mask to avoid inhaling fumes.
Okay, so then how is it safe to use soap on your skin?
To answer this, you need to know the chemical reaction that takes place in the soap making process, also known as saponification.
Soap is made by mixing oils or fat with lye in liquid. Oils are made up of fatty acids and lye is a strong base. When these are balanced correctly the reaction results in an entirely new substance: soap and glycerine.
That’s why soap is perfectly safe to use on your skin, because there isn’t actually any lye in the final product.
Beginner soap makers: if you’re still a little apprehensive about handling lye, consider using a melt and pour base. These are pre-made bases that you can buy in which the saponification process has already taken place. All you need to do is heat up the base to melt it, then you can add your design and fragrance, then pour into a mold and let cool. No lye needed.
Wondering which clay is right for your skin? There’s a reason you see clay used in soaps, masks, and scrubs so often…it has a ton beneficial properties for your skin. However, not all clays are created equal. Some will be better suited for certain skin types than others.
]]>Wondering which clay is right for your skin?
Lately, I’ve been using clay as an ingredient in my handmade soaps. Not only does clay provide an array of gorgeous natural colors, but it’s also a highly effective skincare ingredient. There’s a reason you see clay used in soaps, masks, and scrubs so often…it has a ton beneficial properties for your skin.
However, not all clays are created equal. Some will be better suited for certain skin types than others. I’ve broken down some of the most commonly used clays to help you determine which is the best fit for your skin. The following is for educational purposes only and not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
Kaolin Clay
Also known as china clay, Kaolin clay is used in a variety of skincare products. This clay is traditionally white, but depending on where it’s mined, the mineral content can give it other hues like yellow, red and pink. We use a pink hued rose kaolin clay in our wild rose goat milk soap.
You may have also heard of Brazilian clays. Brazilian clays are a type of kaolin clay that are mined in Brazil. They range in color from purple to pink, yellow red, even black.
Kaolin is one of the most mildest clays. It controls excess oil without being drying which makes it ideal for all skin types, but particularly beneficial for those with sensitive or dry skin.
Bentonite Clay
This clay comes from volcanic ash and occurs in large amounts right here in the US, in Wyoming. Bentonite is typically a light grey color and has a very fine and smooth texture. This clay has excellent oil absorbing properties and is great for those with oily or acne prone skin.
French Green Clay
As the name implies, French Green clay was originally quarried in France. Its soft light green color comes from decomposed plant matter. French green clay is said to remove impurities and toxins from the skin. This is another clay with strong absorption properties, making it an ideal choice for those with oily skin.
Dead Sea Clay
Dark greenish gray in color, this clay originates from the Dead Sea in Israel, long known for healing properties of the mud. This clay has high levels of potassium, magnesium, sulfate and calcium which provide an added skin boost. Dead Sea clay is suitable for normal skin to oily skin.
Moroccan Red Clay
Moroccan red clay is mined from the Atlas mountains region in Morocco. It gets its deep red/orange color from a high iron content. This clay is beneficial to hair as well as skin because it cleanses without stripping oils or being too drying. Mild exfoliating properties help to remove dead skin cells and stimulate circulation. This clay can be used on all skin types. You can find it in our Sweet Orange Patchouli goat milk soap.
Rhassoul Clay
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Growing up with an esthetician for a mom, you learn the importance of reading the ingredient label when it comes to the products you use on your skin. After all, the skin is the body’s largest organ, but it’s often forgotten about. Most people don’t think twice about the ingredients in the soap/detergents they use on their skin every single day. Unfortunately, most commercial soaps typically contain a variety of preservatives, coloring agents, parabens, alcohol and fillers that aren’t ideal for your skin. So what's the alternative? Small batch, handcrafted goat milk soap has a lot of advantages over commercial products. Not only is it typically free of harmful ingredients, it has many beneficial properties that can help keep your skin healthy. So what are the benefits of using goat milk soap?
Goat milk soap is extremely gentle which makes it perfect for all skin types. This includes both dry and sensitive skin. It’s also commonly recommended for people who have acne, eczema, and psoriasis. It has been shown to provide relief from symptoms of these skin conditions. Goat milk’s anti-inflammatory properties can relieve irritation while also providing a nourishing cleanser for skin.
There are a ton of beneficial vitamins and minerals in goat milk soap -Vitamins A, C, and E as well as zinc and selenium to name a few. These particular vitamins act as antioxidants which help protect skin against oxidative damage. Zinc and selenium protect skin from cell damage caused by UV rays. Goat milk soap also contains several enzymes and amino acids that are important for maintaining healthy skin.
Ever experience dry, tight skin after using commercial soaps and detergents? That's because they strip away the skin’s natural oils. The high fat content in goat milk soap prevents this from happening. Fatty acids, as well as the glycerin naturally found in goat milk soap, have moisturizing properties that can help replenish dehydrated skin. The pH level of goat milk is also very similar to that of skin, making it super easy to absorb these nutrients and moisturizers.
Another one of the benefits of using goat milk soap- it's an exfoliator! Goat milk contains alpha-hydroxy acids which act as a mild exfoliant. It helps slough away dead skin cells that can build up overtime and cause clogged pores. While there are a ton of commercial exfoliators available, most of them contain much harsher acids. These can be abrasive on skin and cause redness and irritation. Goat milk soap has the ability to exfoliate gently, even on sensitive skin, and leave you with softer and smoother skin.
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