Ingredients in our products

Today I want to talk about some of the ingredients we use in the products we create at A Rare Treasure. Mainly the oils and butters we use in our Old-Fashioned Handcrafted Soaps (http://araretreasure.com/catalog.php?category=21).

We use a blend of quality oils and butters specifically picked for the qualities they bring to the soap bar. 100% Soy shortening makes up a large percentage of most of our bar soaps. Soy is a highly respected vegetable product known for it's emollient effect on the skin. It is a superb moisturizer, valuable in promoting good skin care, and it's antioxidant effect is said to play a role in preventing premature aging. Olive Oil is highly regarded for it's mildness and it's effect on inflamed skin. 100% Olive Oil soap is considered to be an excellent soap for babies (http://araretreasure.com/catalog.php?item=186&catid=21&ret=catalog.php%3Fpage%3D1%26category%3D21). Sunflower Oil is very high in essential fatty acids and helps to moisturize, regenerate, and condition the skin. It is considered to be good for mature, sensitive, and dry skin. Coconut Oil is very good for dry, itchy and sensitive skin and effectively adds wonderful, fluffy lather. Palm Kernel Oil adds greatly to the lathering capabilities of the soap and helps produce a very hard bar. You want a good hard bar of soap becuase it will last much longer when used. Cocoa Butter has wonderful softening properties. Castor Oil is rich in fatty acids and is very soothing to the skin. It also adds greatly to the lathering qualities of the soap. Avocado Oil is rich in vitamins A, B1, B2, Panthothenic acid, Vitamin D & E. It is a great nutrient for dry skin.

These are the basic oils and butters we use for our soaps. We strive to make a good hard, lathering, and moisturizing bar of soap. A hard bar of soap will last much longer. You want to be sure to keep your soap dry between uses, making it last as long as you can. Nothing feels as ichy as picking up a soft, mushy bar that was sitting in water. Be sure to set your bar of soap in a soap dish that has ridges to keep it up out of the draining water. Another good way to keep your soap dryer is to use one of our soap sacks (http://araretreasure.com/catalog.php?item=167&catid=7&ret=catalog.php%3Fpage%3D3%26category%3D7). These are great to put your soap in. You just bathe with it, rinse it out, and hang it up and the water will drain real nicely from your soap, keeping it dryer between uses. There is enough of a cord on it that you can put it over your wrist while in the shower to prevent dropping it.

Happy bathing,
Cindy

Old-Fashioned Handcrafted Soap

The quest to fashion my own bar of Old-Fashioned Handcrafted Soap is what set me on my journey, which eventually led to A Rare Treasure.com. The technical definition of true soap is "the result of a chemical reaction (saponification) between a fatty acid and an alkali solution”. My soap is the result of the saponification process of the vegetable oils and butters I choose to use and a lye/water solution. In the finished product there is no free lye - it is all combined into the resulting soap. I also design my formulas in a way that not all of the oils saponify but are left to act as moisturizers for the skin. Correctly made and cured homemade soap is milder than anything you can buy commercially. I mostly use synthetic fragrance oils to scent my soap but do create some using essential oils which creates a 100% “natural” bar of soap. Patchouli is one of my best sellers and I use essential oil to create it. I also choose my oils and butters by considering the properties they bring to the finished product. I strive to create a bar of soap that will lather well, clean and moisturize the skin, and leave you feeling pampered.
The majority of the cleaning products on the market today are actually detergents of some type. Even commercial bar soaps commonly contain all or part detergents.
I have been enraptured by watching the saponification process from the very first batch of soap I made. I see a noticeable difference in my skin since I started using my first bar. While I create many different products now, my Old-Fashioned Handcrafted Soap is my “first love” in this business.
You can check out our current offering of Old-Fashioned Handcrafted Soap here: http://araretreasure.com/catalog.php?category=21. While you might find many Out of Stock, rest assured that the New Year will find me feverishly renewing my stock.
Until next time,
Cindy

My First Post

I have never blogged before so this is a whole new experience. I hope to be able to provide information for my customers about the products I create. Up first on the list will be soap. Old-fashioned handcrafted soap is what started my venture into the world of soap, lotions, creams, etc. My next entry will be about soap and my first attempts to make it.