River County Soapworks produces high quality soap and toiletries that are both pleasing to the senses and terrific for your skin. I invite you to try our products.
It’s common for me to get asked about making handmade soap when I’m out and about at markets and fairs selling the handmade soaps that we make. Sometimes it’s from people wanting to try their own hand at it. For those of you interested in making their own handmade soap bars or who have just made the grand leap into soap making and are overwhelmed by all the lingo, here are some of the more common handmade soap terms translated just for you!
CP = Cold Process
HP = Hot Process Soap
CPOP = Cold Process Oven Process
CPHP = Cold Process Hot Process
CS/CSDBHP = Closed System/Closed System Double Boiler Hot Process
Curing = Amount of time needed for batch to complete the saponification process and “dry” out.
DW/DWCP = Discounted Water Cold Process Soap
DOS = Dreaded Orange Spots (you don’t wanna go there)
DH = Direct Heat
DB = Double Boiler
EO/EO’s = Essential Oils
FO/FO’s = Fragrance Oils
FP = Flashpoint ( the lowest temperature a flammable liquid can form an ignitable mixture in air)
GM/GMS = Goat Milk Soap
OHP= Oven Hot Process
Sap Values = Saponification Values
Saponification = The chemical reaction between oils/butters and lye to make soap
INCI = International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients
KOH = Potassium Hydroxide (used to make Liquid Soap)
NaOH= Sodium Hydroxide (used to make Handmade Soap Bars)
MSDS = Material Safety Data Sheet
MP/M&P = Melt and Pour Soap
SUPERFAT = The amount of fat left over after saponification
SEIZE = When a fragrance oil OR essential oil speeds up the saponification process so fast that you have instant soap on a stick! This is NOT FUN!
TRACE = Point where you can dribble your batch onto it’s self and show a trace either lightly or heavily.
ROE = Rosemary Oleresin Extract (an antioxidant).
GSE = Grapefruit Seed Extract (an antioxidant).
REBATCHING = A method of turning imperfect and ugly batches of soap into new batches by shredding, melting and adding liquid/oils, and remolding. In a nutshell. A whole lot of work!
Well…yesterday, I opened up my laptop and could not get the darned thing to start up properly. Nothing, nada, zip! As I’m sitting there with the laptop on my lap trying to get the screen to come on, I’m thinking of about all the essential oil recipes for my handmade soaps, documents for my wholesale soap accounts, photos for the website, saponification tables for my workshop and just about all the pertinent information I need to function while making handmade soap! While this is all rapidly going through my mind, I remember the slip drives I purchased to back up all my information but those were still sitting on my desk. By now, I’m starting to sweat with anxiety! Yes, dripping! I get dressed and take a drive down to the computer shop I use to fix all my screw ups. I walk in and the nice young man asks me what the problem is. I proceed to tell him in a panic that the laptop won’t start up and I need it because I’ve got a lot of important information on it regarding my handmade soap company!!! He opens it, presses the start button and voila, the laptop miraculously turns on. I’m standing there dumbfounded. Apparently, the dork that I am did not press the start button hard enough. So today, I am backing up all my files and vowing to do this on a weekly basis. Yes I am!
It’s my belief that packaging and presentation is almost as important as the quality of the handmade soap being offered to our wholesale soap customers. That’s why I went to the expense of having custom made soap boxes made to fit our handmade soap bars. Not only do these boxes allow our wholesale soap orders to arrive in pristine condition at the retailers place of business but also prevents damage by all the handling the handmade soaps receive prior to purchase by individual customers. The soaps display neatly on the shelf and the boxes protect the handmade soap bars from from all the handling that they receive. No more dinged up and too loose cigar bands!
Over the winter I loss my beautiful mare Sasha in a tragic accident. It was heartbreaking for me and my husband in his infinite wisdom brought home a alpine goat named Emily to keep our little shetland pony Snuffy company not to mention give me something else to focus on. Now all my customers who know me first hand and have always looked at the goat milk soaps in my handmade soap collection and asked the question “Do you have your own goats?”, know that I never wanted goats. No way, no how! Absolutely not! Yes, I do make quite a bit of goat milk soap in addition to my shea butter handmade soap bars but goats are mischievous and gregarious creatures and I didn’t want the hassle. Boy has time changed my tune! Little Miss Emily dropped a baby one evening and my husband knew that anything that has fur on it and especially a baby fur animal just warms my heart. I wondered why he kept saying “You know, Emily sure is getting round.” He knew that goat was pregnant when he brought her home! I am now officially and happily attached to my little goat herd. They are so much fun and a delight to interact with. Snuffy is the big boss now and baby loves to jump on him and run circles around him. He has a lot of patience with her and everyone has settled right in. No, I still don’t have any intention of milking goats to make handmade bar soap with. I will still buy my goat milk in bulk. There isn’t enough hours in the day. After all, we are a “artisan” handmade soap company which basically means I do everything. LOL!
Emily & Baby
Our Baby a bit bigger. She grows really, really fast!
And..this is one of my favorites. Before I took this photo the baby was jumping on Snuffy. She got tired and layed down near him for a snooze!
Well, it’s the second weekend setting up a sales booth for my handmade soap company at the Portland Saturday Market and boy am I out of my comfort zone. First problem, getting there and not getting lost. 2nd problem, hauling booth, displays and product in without getting exhausted before the market opens. Third problem, how to set things up in an 8 x 8 stall instead of the standard 10 x 10. There is a huge difference between a 10 x 10 space and a 8 x 8 space. Saturday, we were going to just set tables up for the handmade soap right at the front of the booth, however, since we were sandwiched in between vendors I realized that I’d have to crawl under the tables to get out! Not fun! I improvised and set things up as best I could but didn’t have much room for my body let alone a chair, storage boxes and extra product. I also felt like I was in a cave since both vendors on either side of me had curtains up. So Saturday evening, I went home and pulled out some 2 x 4 tables, along with a couple of smaller tables and did a quick mock up of something I thought might work better. I’ve got alot of different handmade soap bars to sell and this set up worked in a way but still needs work. Customers were drawn to the handmade soaps up front but had to be shown the handmade soaps on the smaller table. Oh well….I know what I’ll be working on this week!
I had several batches of handmade soaps to make and had all my oils and lye solution measured out and sitting on the counter. Since I was making several batches of Oatmeal, Milk & Honey soap I had some oatmeal measured out. Well…I should NOT answer the telephone when I’m in the middle of making soap. I accidently knocked some of the pureed oatmeal over and it went right into a batch of oil that was meant for some shea butter soap. It crossed my mind that people have been asking for unscented soap so thinking quickly I added some more oatmeal along with some honey and decided to leave this particular batch of handmade soap unscented. Cut this morning it is looking quite nice. The smell is a natural oats & honey smell. I think I’ll call this soap Oats, Honey & Shea or it struck my mind while taking a photo that maybe just Simplicity will do
This is a common question I get about my handmade soap. I think it comes from people buying handmade soap that hasn’t been cured long enough and “melts” too soon when in use. I like all my retail and my wholesale soap customers to be happy with the handmade soap they purchase. One of the things I pride myself in is how well my handmade soap is cured. Yes you can use it after two or three weeks but it will be too soft and will melt more easily and result in not so happy customers and I want HAPPY customers. I like to give my handmade soaps a good cure on our drying racks for several weeks prior to selling them. The drying room includes the drying racks with a fan for air circulation and a dehumidifier to help remove the moisture from the air. Why go to all the trouble you ask? Well, the Pacific Northwest is wet. Not a little wet but a lot wet. Without the dehumidifier and fan we have wet soaps. Handmade soaps retain all their natural glycerin which is a humectant (attracts and holds moisture) resulting in moisture being picked up from the air and landing on the soap trying to dry out on the racks and results in sweaty soap that you have to wipe off. Trust me it is not a pretty sight. One of the benefits of handmade soap is the natural glycerin it retains so we don’t want to get rid of it. We just have to learn to work around it. The answer is air flow and low humidity in the drying room. This makes for nice hard handmade soaps which last in the bath.
In my “old” age I have got into fitness. I’ve been running and lifting weights now for about a year and a half which for me is a real milestone. Recently, I joined a “boot camp” at my gym. After running my three miles I faithfully participate in this camp. It’s a real challenge and when I’m on the third set of bear crawls I feel like I’ve lost my mind. We sweat a lot! Sometimes cry. It is pure pain. I was thinking what handmade bar soap I make that would be invigorating and refreshing after a good sweat. I’d like to give a bar of my handmade soap to my classmates. Personally, I like the Lemongrass or Peppermint & Tea Tree soap. Both of these handmade soaps get the dirt, grime, mud and sweat off nicely and the poppy seeds invigorate after a good work out. Think I’ll bring a bag of these to my next boot camp experience.
already and I’m back at the Vancouver Farmers Market selling my handmade soap along with some natural bath and body care products. It is heartwarming to me that I have customers that continue to buy handmade soap from me year after year. I really appreciate the continued support I receive from everyone and I love visiting. That just makes my week end! This year I decided to change the booth display around. It is a bit different but I think it offers more room. I make quite a variety of handmade bar soap and need all the room I can get!
The other day I was thinking about a conversation or attempted conversation I had with a customer a couple of years back regarding sodium hydroxide. I like to label my handmade soaps with all the ingredients that go into the process which of course includes sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or lye. This particular customer took one look at my ingredients listing and loudly proclaimed “You have caustic ingredients in your soap!” Of course this exclamation was made in front of a loaded booth of potential customers. Try as I may I could not get her to understand that sodium hydroxide was necessary to make handmade soap. After sensing that I was going nowhere with her I gave her a bar to try. I watched as she promptly ran to another artisan booth selling body care products and loudly declared pointing her finger at me “That woman is making soap with caustic ingredients in it!” holding my bar of soap I gave her. Listen folks handmade soap can not be made without using sodium hydroxide. Ain’t gonna happen. No way. It is part of the process. No lye and you have a runny mess of oils and water. Soap by it’s very definition is “A cleansing agent, manufactured in bars, granules, flakes, or liquid form, made from a mixture of the sodium salts of various fatty acids of natural oils and fats.” (answers.com). A true liquid soap is made using potassium hydroxide (KOH), and a cream soap is made using a combination of both sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide. I know, I know, now I’m gonna hear “BUT MY SOAP DOESN’T HAVE LYE IN IT…” If your bar soap or liquid soap doesn’t contain lye you either 1) don’t have a true soap, you have what we in the business call “a syndet” (synthetic detergent) bar, 2) your soap could refer to lye in a different way, such as “saponified oils of..” or something like “Sodium Olivate ” which is a fancy way of saying Olive Oil or 3) you have soap and your label is mysteriously missing a key ingredient. Soap is and always has been made one way and that is with either sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide or a combination of both depending on the final result wanted. The process is just a lot more refined now. Now kudos to you for reading all through this and I invite you to take a look at our artisan handmade soaps.
