Beeswax

More in-depth information about the ingredients that I use...this time, beeswax!

Beeswax is a golden yellow wax produced in the beehive of honey bees (genus Apis). It’s made up mostly of the esters of fatty acids and is chemically very closely related to the other oils used for soap, lotions and balms.  The beeswax that I use in my products comes to me in small beads that have been cleaned of impurities and are easy to weigh and pour.

In the hive, beeswax is used by bees as the structural foundation for their honeycomb storage system. People have used beeswax for centuries for a variety of purposes. In candles, beeswax is preferred because it’s clean burning and does not produce smoke like petroleum based waxes do. The Roman Catholic Church requires that the Easter Pascal candle be made of beeswax.

It has been traditionally used in art for lost wax casting and to make beautiful Russian Pysanky eggs. For many generations, beeswax was used by bagpipers to wax the hemp that protected the joints on drone and chanter stocks. The smell of beeswax always reminds me of my early years in music.

I melt a bit of beeswax with sweet almond oil and gently rub it onto the wood in my house to protect it.  This is especially great for the cabinets near the sink that seem to always get splashed with water.

In body products, beeswax makes a wonderful, natural thickener and adds a protective barrier which locks in moisture. It also smells wonderful on its own and adds a hint of lovely amber color to products.  I use beeswax in my highland Fling Soap, and in all of the lip balms and lotion bars.  It's a wonderful, natural addition!

How does soap clean?

How does soap clean?

Soaps and detergents both do a good job of cleaning. They are “surface active” substances (surfactents), which means that they make water better at cleaning surfaces. The water is doing most of the work, and the soap/detergent is facilitating the process. They are a help because they break the surface tension of the water, which has a very high natural surface tension…think about the beautiful photos you’ve seen of a drop of rainwater sitting perfectly perched on a leaf after a rain. It’s the surface tension that keeps the droplet intact.

Soaps and detergents burst the bubble of surface tension and allow the water to permeate fibers, flushing out dirt, oil and stains. It’s a little more complicated than that, because the soap/detergent molecules also have “tails” that are lipophilic (oil-loving) and so will attach to the grease and oils that help dirt and stains adhere to surfaces. The hydrophilic “heads” of a soap molecule remain connected to the water molecules to which they are attracted and are then easily washed away with the water, taking their dirty tails with them. A soap molecule basically goes into a grimy water bath (let’s call it a dive bar), wiggles its butt, and says “come on you dirty boys, I’ve got a better party to take you to, hop a ride with me!” And like moths to a flame, the dirt particles fall prey to soap’s unavoidable attraction…or at least that’s the way it plays in my brain.

How is soap different from a detergent?

Soap and detergents both work on the same principle. The difference is in the components that make up each substance. Soaps come from naturally occurring triglycerides (fatty acids and glycrol) mixed with sodium hydroxide. Soap is biodegradable because over time it breaks back down into its original components…which came from nature to start with.

Detergents are made from propylene (which used to be burnt off as waste by the petroleum industry) and sodium hydroxide. Propylene molecules are manipulated to form a compound that will react with sulfuric acid. Next, sodium hydroxide is added to neutralize the sulfuric acid resulting in a sodium salt similar to the one found in soap.

Detergents either do not break down at all, or are broken back down into their original petrochemical ingredients and are harmful to wildlife. That being said, if you are using even true soap in a place where the “gray water” is not being treated (like when you’re camping), always be sure to dispose of the waste water thoughtfully. The bacteria that cause soaps to break down are not present in water in sufficient amounts to allow for timely degradation. Before the stuff is degraded, damage to water and life in the water will be done. The bacteria that break down soap do live in soil in much larger quantities. That means that when you wash, make sure that all your soapy rinse water ends up in soil. Only dump your waste water in the woods away from fresh water sources like lakes and rivers.

How are handcrafted soaps different from commercial soaps?

How are handcrafted soaps different from commercial soaps?

The chemical process used to make soap is dictated by nature, but the ingredients and process used by large scale commercial soapmakers is very different from handcrafted (small scale) soapmaking. The biggest difference is that most commercial soapmakers start out by using pure fatty acids (with no glycerol molecule attached), which they combine with sodium hydroxide to make soap. They do not use natural triglycerides, and so the end soap product does not have any glycerin in it. I’m not sure what a pure fatty acid looks like, and would have no idea where to buy it. I use olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil and castor oil…all of which are natural triglycerides and contain a mixture of fatty acids and glycerol.

Why is glycerol (glycerin) important?

Glycerin is a natural humectant. The molecules of a humectant love to create hydrogen bonds with water so much that they pull moisture from the air like a magnet. The water moisturizes the skin and the glycerin holds onto the moisture. This is good for your skin.

Coming up...How does soap clean?

What is Soap?

What is soap?

Soap is simply the product that comes from mixing a mild acid (fats and oils) and a base (sodium hydroxide, also called lye) together. When combined, those two ingredients produce a basic salt (soap) and glycerin. This is not the kind of salt that you sprinkle on your eggs, but is chemically related. This process is called saponification.

What makes one soap different from another?

Soaps will have different cleaning properties and lathering capabilities, depending on the kinds of fats and oils used to make them. Oils and fats in nature are actually triglycerides, which means that there are three fatty acid molecules linked to one molecule of glycerol.

The kind of fatty acid varies, depending on the oil/fat and each one has its own personality and purpose. For example, Stearic, Ricineoleic and Palmitic fatty acids all give soap a more stable lather. Lauric and Myristic fatty acids make a fluffy soap with good cleansing properties. Linoleic and Oleic fatty acids make a nice conditioning bar. You’ll be tested on these names later. The point is, each one on its own doesn’t make a great bar of soap. In order to get all of those properties that we appreciate in good soap, they must be combined and balanced. That’s where the art and craft of soapmaking comes in. It’s like baking, you need to know the ingredients and how they will combine and react with each other to get a great end product.

Coming soon...How are handcrafted soaps different from commercial soaps?

Custom Gifts

I love it when customers come up with great ways to showcase my soap!

I did two custom orders this week that were lots of fun. One gentleman sent me the awesome artwork that you see here. The expressive line drawing of his dad makes the perfect label for special fishing soaps that can be handed out to friends and family. I hope his dad likes them!

Another order was for a woman needing office gifts for the holidays. She liked the idea of giving a corporate gift with a memorable message. The company logo was used on the tins...along with the tag line at the bottom "Everyone Else Stinks". Perfect! I'm sure all of her co-workers will love them!

Ahhh soap...so much room for humor.

Manly Man

My Dad is a manly man. There's very little on the ranch that he can't fix, build or do. I think, even though he's now approaching the age of 70, he's still probably the strongest person I know. When I was growing up I remember him stacking hay bales, one in each hand, like they were grocery bags. He could split wood with one easy swipe and could push a horse across a corral if he needed to.

His poor hands have taken a real beating over the years, as has the rest of his body. He's broken bones many times, has knee problems from horseback riding injuries and heavy lifting, has frequent pulled muscles, bruises and cuts. To help alleviate the discomfort from all of these things, and because he likes the quiet of it, my Dad likes to take baths. He's not a shower guy.

My Dad clearly deserves a nice Manly Man Soap. I have to say though, that when I was trying to decide on the actual scent for this soap, I had to diverge a bit from what my Dad would probably prefer. You see, even with all of his manly toughness, he's really a flower guy.

That's the other side to my childhood memories about him. He would take me on walks frequently to a place we call Flower Mountain. It's really just a hillside on the ranch, but it always had the best collection of spring wildflowers: Queen Anne's Lace, Yellow Bells, Spring Beauties and Dogtooth Violets. We would go and pick flowers for my Mom or my Grandma Evie. I remember my Dad's gnarly working hands holding the scissors to trim the stems before putting the wildflower bouquet in a jelly jar "vase" to be placed on my Grandma's Formica table.

If I had been choosing a scent just for him, it would probably be more of a Girlie Man scent than Manly Man, but that's an idea for a different day. Instead, I decided to use the traditional oils of clary sage, vetiver and lime. All of these essential oils were commonly used in men's fragrances before the age of synthetic smells and Irish Spring. It's a classic manly smell, hearkening back to an earlier time. It makes me think of my Grandpa...now there was another Manly Man...

Don't Smell Like Sasquatch

When I was growing up in Idaho, my stepfather taught college literature and creative writing...and dabbled in cryptozoology. Huh? What's that, you say? crypto=from the Greek meaning hidden, and zoology=the study of animal life. Now, before you think 'that man sounds like a total kook!', let me also say that he was very involved in studying local folklore, which is integrally tied to the study of mysterious creatures. Most communities have local legends about some strange sighting and his crypto group went out to investigate. I learned all the scientific and unscientific 'facts' about Ogopogo, the Pend Orielle Paddler, and of course...Bigfoot. I wouldn't say that I'm a true believer, but there's some very interesting evidence out there to support the existence of Sasquatch. And rumor has it that s/he's very SMELLY.

Fast forward to a couple of years ago when I'm sitting around the kitchen table discussing new soap ideas with my brothers. The general consensus was that if Sasquatch existed, s/he would definitely need some soap. Sasquatch Soap was born! I decided that, in keeping with the theme, it should be brown and contain woodsy essential oils (tea tree and cedarwood) and ingredients (black walnut hull powder) that would help protect from insects and to heal the cuts and bruises that would inevitably come from tromping around in the forest all day. And it is, of course, all-natural because Bigfoot cares about the earth too.

Now this isn't all to say that if you use the soap you necessarily started out smelling like Sasquatch. It's great for anyone who likes that woodsy scent and values the properties of tea tree and cedarwood oils. Who knows...maybe it actually helps keep the real Sasquatch at bay when you're adventuring in the great outdoors?

Soap Scents

I'm going to be trying out some new scent combinations today in a batch of soap and I've been thinking about how I've learned some things over the past 17+ years regarding soap scents.

When I started in the early 1990s, I used fragrance (synthetic) oils for scent because they were so much cheaper than true essential oils and had a very strong and lasting aroma. I would use fragrances like cucumber or gardenia...copies of smells that I loved in nature. After a while, though, I found that being around the fragrance oils really started to bother me. I would get headaches if I was in a room with them for too long. It occurred to me that whatever my body was reacting negatively to from smelling the synthetic oils, would not be something I would want to keep rubbing on my skin...or have somebody else rub on their skin. And let me just say, I am NOT someone who is particularly sensitive to chemicals or allergic to things so if they bothered me they would surely bother others.

At that point I started using natural essential oils exclusively in my soaps. True essential oils come from the plants they smell like and can sometimes be VERY hard to extract. For that reason, they tend to be much more expensive than fragrance (synthetic) oils and can be more fragile when mixed with the sodium hydroxide (lye) used to make cold process soap. I found over the years that some essential oils are much sturdier than others (like patchouli), and can help to strengthen more fragile oils (like citrus or florals). I love the clean, fresh scent of orange, lemon and lime, but none of those oils fare well on their own against the lye so I always mix citrus with another oil.

I've also learned that adding a small amount of Castor oil to my essential oils before mixing them with the batch of soap will improve scent longevity. Castor oil acts as a natural scent fixative and is also a great moisturizing oil for your skin. Other natural additives like clays or herbs that are added for color can also help to soak up the essential oils and help them to hold strong against the lye during the saponification process.

The last step for me in improving the staying power of essential oils has to do with storage. Sunlight and open air can dramatically shorten the scent life of soaps. If you have purchased handcrafted soaps made with essential oils, be sure to store them (wrapped in tissue paper) in an airtight container or ziplock bag in a dark place when not in use.

Time to get to work!

Palm Oil Quandry

I have been wrestling lately with the issue of palm oil. WHAT issue with palm oil, you say? It's ridiculously complex, and I'm not joking when I say that sometimes it keeps me awake at night pondering how I should deal with it as a business owner and world citizen.

I have been making soap since the early 1990s and have used palm oil as one of my base oils for many years. Palm oil is produced primarily in SE Asia and is, in many ways, an excellent kind of vegetable oil. From a soapmaking perspective, palm oil has replaced traditional tallow in soap because it makes a very hard bar that cleans well and is also mild, yet is not animal-derived.

Many food industries use palm oil in their products. It is the oil that is most often used at movie theaters for popcorn and in many other food preparations, including fryers at many fast-food chains around the US and abroad. It's very high in saturated fats, but does not contain trans fats and does not need to be hydrogenated, since it is solid at room temperature. The palm oil industry makes claims about its health benefits based on this, but one could hardly call it healthy, since saturated fat is a major contributor to high cholesterol.

Until recently, it was the 2nd most widely used/produced vegetable oil (after soybean) in the world. Palm oil production is a basic source of income for many of the world's rural poor. The oil palm is by far the highest-yielding commercial oilseed plant, which lowers palm oil cost, comparatively. In 2004 it became the most produced oil because of the sudden interest in bio fuels as an energy source.

Because it has become so popular across many industries and demand has grown so much, its a very enticing source of income for small (and large) farmers in palm oil producing countries...often to the detriment of the land and native species. Palm oil production has been blamed for massive deforestation, wetland and peatland degradation and the rapid demise of several species, including the Sumatran Orangatan .

A joint palm oil industry and environmental organization group has formed to try to address the many issues and to make the production of palm oil both an environmentally sustainable practice and commercial industry. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) issues certifications to palm oil producers who meet certain farming requirements. Participation is voluntary and the cost of the oil is slightly higher than non-certified palm.

As a consumer and as a soapmaker it's hard for me to know what to do. I could stop using palm oil altogether in my soap. The best substitute for palm in a soap recipe is tallow (rendered beef fat). That has its own set of issues (future blog post, perhaps?). I could substitute another type of vegetable oil which has inferior properties for soapmaking, but fewer environmental impact implications. I could continue to use palm oil in my recipes and reassure myself that my comparatively tiny palm oil consumption would not have enough effect to do any real damage. Or, I could use only RSPO certified palm oil. Right now, I'm choosing the last route. I feel that there's something to be said for creating a consumer demand for the RSPO certified palm. The palm oil industry is too big and too much of a moneymaker for poor SE Asian countries (and farmers) to think that it will go away any time soon. I believe that our best bet is to encourage (if not force) regulation in farming practices and be willing to pony up the extra money to support the farmers who are trying to produce sustainably. I'll let you know if I change my mind...