Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Doesn't handmade soap have lye in it?

A: We covered this in "About Our Soap", but we can never say it enough. You can't make soap without using lye. The lye saponifies, or reacts with the oils. If made properly the lye is no longer present in the final product.

Q: Can I wash my hair with handmade soap?

A: Yes and no. If you have soft water, you can wash your hair just fine with soap, handmade or otherwise. But if you have hard water, you can't. Well, you can, but you probably won't like the results. On the hair, real soap reacts with the minerals in hard water and leaves a film. It won't hurt, but your hair won't look as pretty as you would like.

Q: Can I wash my face with it?

A: Absolutely! You can use any hand-crafted soap to wash your face, just be careful of soaps containing botanicals of any kind. Additives like corn meal, pumice, loofah, or herbs can be too rough of extra delicate facial skin.

Q: Will it last a long time?

A: The most oft asked question in the soap makers' world! How long will a bar of your soap last? The number one complaint that I hear is that hand-crafted soaps just don't last long enough.

The life of your hand-crafted soap depends on how you treat it when you're not using it. I recommend that you have self-draining soap dishes, and this does not include the dent in the sink or the tray in the shower. Though they are supposed to drain, we all know that they usually don't. If you do use these soap storage areas, get yourself some soap savers. They are little plastic disks with spikes or bumps on them that keep your soap up out of the water.

Q: It smells so good, can I eat it?

A: I know. This sounds like a strange question, but I hear it all the time. My answer? It might smell good, but it tastes just like when mom used to wash your mouth out with soap.