Historically, people often made soap in their backyards by combining rendered animal fats with an alkaline substance like lye to create a cleansing bar. This often coincided with animal butchering, a practical way to utilize all parts of the animal. Stories of harsh lye soap burning skin likely stemmed from the lack of precise recipes; soap making was often based on tradition and intuition, with varying results.
In contrast, modern manufacturing, while using precise recipes, often involved the removal of glycerin, a natural byproduct of saponification, for use in other products. Consequently, the resulting soap could strip the skin’s natural moisture, driving the demand for lotions and other moisturizing products.
The resurgence of handmade soap in recent years has created a thriving cottage industry, where artisans utilize soap calculators for precise lye-to-fat ratios and then “superfat” their creations with enriching ingredients such as shea butter, cocoa butter, and essential oils to produce moisturizing bars. It is a wonderful blend of tradition and modern understanding. It highlights a return to a more skin-conscious, natural approach to cleansing.
What Makes Our Soaps So Special
We craft our handmade soap one batch at a time using the traditional hot process method. We leave all of the deliciously golden glycerin in the bar and then add shea butter and essential oils after the soap has finished cooking. You’ll find that this soap has a rich lather, rinses clean and leaves your skin feeling soft.
Ingredients: Coconut oil, water, palm & soybean oil, sodium hydroxide, castor oil, stearic acid, shea butter, essential oils.
Available fragrances:
- Wild Rose-Roses & the wind in your hair
- Cowboy Campfire-Wood & earth
- Trail Ride-Tart cherries & sweet almonds
- Westerly Winds-Cinnamon & freedom
- Prairie Lavender-Spicy & bitter
The finished product.
Hollye's Hippie Homestead at the Meeteetse Mercantile 