Natural Soaps, Essential Oils, and Skin Care Products by Harvest Soaps

	All Natural
	Dry Skin
	Exfoliating
	Extra Moisturizing
	Men's Soap
	Most Popular
	Oily Skin
	Sensitive Skin
	Vegan
	Vegetarian

Soap Making

Step 1: The Melting of plant butters, and vegetable oils.	HarvestSoaps are made in small batches of just a few pounds with a method called Cold Process. We start by melting and mixing the plant butters, such as shea butter and cocoa butter. We then add other oils. *HarvestSoaps* only uses a variety of plant based oils, plant butters and sometimes beeswax, depending on the desired properties of the soap. Some of the oils are infused with herbs or other plant material such as Calendula flower petals for their skin care properties. Many of the herbs used in our soaps are grown in our own garden allowing us to use the freshest ingredients possible. We even use our own soap as an organic pesticide!

Step 2: The lye is dissolved in water, milk, fruit and vegetable juices, or herbal infusions. Later it is combined with the oils.	Once all the oils and butters are mixed and gently heated to about 100F, the lye is poured into the oil mixture and handstirred until the saponification process turns the mixture into a light creamy substance.

Step3: We add other good stuff like honey, goatsmilk, herbs, oatmeal, essential oils, and much much more.	At that point, we add the remaining ingredients like cucumber juice, aloe Vera, honey, ground herbs, spices, and essential oils. Essential oils not only provide a wonderful natural scent to our soaps, but they can also add many beneficial properties to the soap. Some natural scents, such as vanilla, are skin irritants, and should not be used in skin care products. Where this is the case, we use fragrance oils in place of essential oils. Fragrance oils are the only synthetically produced product used by HarvestSoaps and we clearly mark all soaps that contain fragrance oils.

Step4: When the soap is ready, it's poured into hand-carved molds...	Once all the ingredients are mixed and the saponification process has started to thicken the mixture, the soap is poured into molds to give soaps their shape. Each mold begins as a sketch that we hand carve so that every bar is a unique work of art. The bars are cut within approximately twenty-four hours of pouring and then aged for a month to ensure gentleness.

...or marbled like our Lavender Swirl soap.	Some of our soaps such as our lavender and sandalwood, are made with two different colors and then are swirled after being poured into molds. Commercial soaps are made at high temperatures so the soap can be used the same day. However, this process destroys many of the beneficial properties of the ingredients, similar to how vegetables lose their vitamins when they are cooked for too long. Cold Process soaps have to be aged for about a month before use, but they retain more of the ingredients' beneficial properties.

As you now have discovered, HarvestSoaps don't have much in common with regular store-bought soap. The main ingredient in almost all commercial soap is animal fat. HarvestSoaps are made with vegetable oils and we don't use harsh chemicals or the controversial FD&C and D&C colorants. Most of our soaps are scented with natural and pure essential oils distilled from plants rather than chemicals that can irritate your skin. We also don't extract the naturally occurring glycerin to sell it for a premium like the large companies do. In short, we don't focus on making the cheapest soap the fastest way possible. At HarvestSoaps, we're constantly striving to create the best soap for your skin, aged to guarantee a high quality bar of soap.

email:
service@harvestsoaps.com