FAQ - What do you use to make soap?

The materials that go into our soaps are pretty simple.

We use a variety of oils and butters that you have probably heard of before, and maybe have in your house right now. These are coconut oil, palm oil, olive oil, sweet almond oil, castor oil and shea butter. We then combine sodium hydroxide (lye) and water, and mix them with the oils. Oils + lye = soap.

You can't get soap without lye. Some people have fears when they hear "lye", thinking it's some sort of evil, potentially harmful chemical that can melt your skin off. I guess you could say that it is, but only to Matt and I as the soap makers, not to you as the soap users. If, in the soap-making process, we were to splash lye on ourselves, that would be bad news for us.
For the person using our soap, however, there is no exposure to lye. Really, there is not any lye left in the finished soap. When the oils and lye come together, they go through the process of saponification. The triglycerides in the oils react with the sodium hydroxide in the lye to form glycerin and alkali salts of fatty acids. Basically, we use careful scientific calculations to make sure that the amount of lye and oils are in proper proportions to ensure that all you're left with is soap (and a little extra un-reacted oil for moisturizing purposes).

Each of the oils we use has a specific purpose in the bar of soap. Palm oil helps ensure the bar of soap will be hard and stable, coconut oil adds lather, olive oil is skin conditioning, shea butter and sweet almond oil are super moisturizing, and castor oil helps make the lather creamier.

Other additives to our soaps are for specific purposes, based on what we want each bar of soap to do.

We use essential and fragrance oils to get scent into the soap. We don't use pre-mixed blends, but prefer to use scents at their most basic level, and develop scent mixes ourselves.
In the case of our mocha scent, The Beatnik Gentleman, real fresh-brewed coffee and cocoa powder help create the aroma. They also make all of The Beatnik Gentleman soaps dark brown in color.
Likewise, in The English Gentleman, we use real black tea to add scent and color.

Other friendly additives with purpose include..
-Bentonite clay - Used in our shave soap to give slip for a razor.
-Activated charcoal - Used in our extra cleansing soaps to help draw out excess dirt and skin oil.
-Rosemary, tea tree oil, grapefruit seed extract - Used in The Robust Gentleman for exfoliation. These are also commonly used in bath products for their antimicrobial, antifungal, and astringent properties.
-Oatmeal - Used in The Early Morning Gentleman for gentle exfoliation. Also believed to help soothe dry, itchy skin.
-Coffee grounds - Used in The Culinary Gentleman to exfoliate and absorb odors.

What we don't use are any animal products or byproducts, making all of our soaps vegetarian and vegan friendly. We also don't use chemicals found in many mass produced soaps, including SLS, trisodium EDTA, and BHT.