Long Branch Soap Co.

Why Handmade Soap? Several years ago I attended a local arts and crafts show in which I was suddenly over stimulated with an array of unfamiliar but very pleasant scents and aromas. My first thought was someone is selling incense but I then noticed a tent setup with the most intriguing soaps. These were the first handmade soaps I recall seeing in my adult life. I know that sounds as though I had lived a rather sheltered life before that. Upon a closer look I discovered the most interesting thing, the ingredients listed on the back of each soap bar. The first thing I noticed was the fact that the ingredients made sense, and that they seemed to be regular household cooking oils with only a few more common ingredients as well. This suddenly reminded me of watching my relatives rendering fat on the family farm and it then came to me what they were using some of that fat for. After trying this new found love of mine, I decided to give it a try soap making on my own. After much research and planning, I decided to use the cold process method. The method of cold process is a tradition passed down through generations for those who made their own handmade products mostly for family use only. This process uses rendered animal and or plant fats/oils and incorporates them with lye. The action creates a chemical reaction called saponification which in turn creates a soapy oily batter. This mixture is then poured into some sort of mold to harden into an intended shape or form. Only after hardening will this product began to resemble the traditional soap we know. Although most of the work is done at this point, the patience of waiting for the soap to cure for an additional 5-6 weeks remains the hardest part yet. Only after this wait time and after proper PH testing can the soap be deemed safe for use. As the soap cures the moisture is evaporated leaving traditionally a hardened soap product. So what happens to that incorporated lye that caused that chemical reaction in the first place? The byproduct of the whole process is glycerin. The lye is spent during the saponification process and neutralized. Any remaining lye/moisture mixture will evaporate during the curing process, therefore your soap is completely safe to use in the most delicate of places. However, a good soap maker will always test their product before gifting or retailing to ensure that family, friends and consumers alike are getting a safe and effective cleansing product. Because handmade soap is made entirely from the most basic form, soapers can customize their product from beginning to end. Things like the amount of lather, cleansing and conditioning properties can be adjusted to define the final product thus totally catering to the most discerned customer. Because of the flexibility, handmade soaps can also be made to a certain degree 90-100% all natural.