Why are homemade goats milk soaps good for your skin?

 Homemade Goats Milk Glycerin Soaps

Are All Glycerin Soaps the Same?

Our goats milk glycerin soaps are handmade from an all natural goats milk soap base so you can be confident your skin will stay clean and nourished, not dry.  Not all glycerin soaps are made with an all natural base.  A lot of cheaper soap bases are made with lots of harmful chemicals and are no better than what you buy in the store.  Some are purchased from local craft stores and are loaded with toxic chemicals. 

Quality Matters

We think quality is more important than purchasing a cheaper soap base.  Our glycerin soaps contain no SLS, propylene glycol, sulfates, petroleum, or surfactants and contain only the highest quality ingredients.  Make sure you read the ingredient listing of homemade soaps you buy.  If the seller won't disclose the ingredients, there's probably a reason.  We proudly list all of our ingredients on each product listing.  If you ever have any questions about our products, just ask.
 
Why Use Goats Milk in Soap?

Goats milk is known to have wonderful effects on your skin.  It has many skin-loving vitamins such as A, D, B-6, B-12, trigylcerides, and natural emolients making for healthy and soft skin.  The gentle exfoliating properties of alpha-hydroxy acids contained in goats milk help to slough off dead skin cells and leave smooth new cells behind.  This rejuvenates your skin, helping to reduce wrinkles and signs of aging. 

Goats milk has the proteins of milk products that help to protect our skin from invading bacteria and chemicals.  Goats milk has healing properties for skin conditions such as psoriasis, eczema and acne, and general relief for itchy, dry, and damaged skin. 

Our Ingredients

Our goats milk glycerin soap base contains coconut oil, palm oil, and safflower oil which makes for a nice, long-lasting hard bar.  Glycerin soap has glycerin (as does all true homemade soap) which is a humectant and draws moisture from the air onto your skin.  Our soap also contains goats milk and you can read about it's benefits above.  Water and sodium hydroxide (lye) are essential for making the oils turn into soap.  There is no such thing as a lye free soap, unless it's not true soap, but a chemical laden bar instead.  Sorbitol is a naturally occurring ingredient found in many edible fruits and berries, corn, even seaweed and is used because of its outstanding moisturizing properties. Sorbitol also provides clarity and translucency to our glycerin bar soaps.  Sorbitan oleate is an emulsifier made from a vegetable source.  Soybean protein, made from soybeans is used as a conditioner.  Our colorings used are oxides, micas, pigments, or natural colorings.  If a soap lists fragrance as an ingredient, it is a fragrance oil.  If it lists essential oil, then it's an essential oil.

Thanks for stopping by!

Melissa
Ginger Grey Soaps
Check out our goats milk glycerin soaps on Etsy
Also check us out at www.gingergreysoaps.com

Are homemade glycerin soaps good and are they all the same in quality and ingredients? Are they really lye free?

Homemade Glycerin Soaps

Are All Glycerin Soaps the Same?

Our regular and goats milk glycerin soaps are handmade from an all natural soap base so you can be confident your skin will stay clean and nourished, not dry and damaged.  Not all glycerin soaps are made with an all natural base.  A lot of cheaper soap bases are made with lots of harmful chemicals and are no better than what you buy in the store.  Some are purchased from local craft stores and are loaded with toxic chemicals. 

Quality Matters

We think quality is more important than purchasing a cheaper soap base.  Our glycerin soaps contain no SLS, propylene glycol, sulfates, petroleum, or surfactants and contain only the highest quality ingredients.  Make sure you read the ingredient listing of homemade soaps you buy.  If the seller won't disclose the ingredients, there's probably a reason.  We proudly list all of our ingredients on each product listing.   

Our Ingredients

Our glycerin soap base contains coconut oil, palm oil, and safflower oil which makes for a nice, long-lasting hard bar.  Glycerin soap has glycerin (as does all true homemade soap) which is a humectant and draws moisture from the air onto your skin.  Water and sodium hydroxide (lye) are essential for making the oils turn into soap.  There is no such thing as a lye free soap, unless it's not true soap, but a chemical laden bar instead.  Sorbitol is a naturally occurring ingredient found in many edible fruits and berries, corn, even seaweed and is used because of its outstanding moisturizing properties. Sorbitol also provides clarity and translucency to our glycerin bar soaps.  Sorbitan oleate is an emulsifier made from a vegetable source.  Soybean protein, made from soybeans is used as a conditioner.  Our colorings used are oxides, micas, pigments, liquid colorings, or natural colorings.  If a soap lists fragrance as an ingredient, it is a fragrance oil.  If it lists essential oil, then it's an essential oil.

Thanks for stopping by!

Melissa
Ginger Grey Soaps
Check out our glycerin soaps on Etsy
Also check us out at www.gingergreysoaps.com

Why use homemade olive oil soaps? Are all homemade soaps the same?

 Homemade Olive Oil Soaps

Our Ingredients

Ingredients really matter.  Our homemade olive oil soaps and shea butter soaps are made from scratch with skin-loving oils such as olive oil, palm oil, coconut oil, and unrefined shea butter.  Olive oil is known to be great for the skin, and our olive oil soaps have a high percentage of olive oil in them.  Coconut oil makes for a wonderful lather.  Palm oil makes for a hard bar.  We personally designed a recipe that we think makes a perfectly balanced bar of soap.  Each oil we use has different properties and with the amounts we have used this results in a hard bar with a nice, fluffy, creamy long-lasting lather and it has such a soft smooth feel due to the shea butter.  You will feel as though you've put lotion on, with your skin feeling soft and moisturized with no harmful chemicals used, unlike store-bought soap.  Everyone that has tried our olive oil soaps have fallen in love with them.  The more you use them, the better your skin feels over time.

Are All Homemade Soaps the Same?

Not all homemade soaps are created equal.  Depending on the types of oils and percentages used, you can have totally different results.  Check the ingredients before you purchase homemade soap and ask a lot of questions.  If the recipe isn't formulated right, you can end up with a soft bar, slimy bar, a bar with little lather, or not enough cleansing ability or one that cleans too much and leaves your skin dry.  If you've been disappointed in the past with a homemade soap, look no further.  You will love our olive oil soaps and the truly luxurious feel they have from our high quality ingredients.

Thanks for stopping by!

Melissa

www.gingergreysoaps.com

Homemade Lavender Soap with Essential Oils - All Natural Shea Butter Soaps

We've added a few new essential oil soaps to our line.  This one below is another lavender soap.  We already have an Oatmeal Lavender soap, which I absolutely love.  The oatmeal adds a wonderful creaminess to the lather, but the soap is uncolored and has a very simple, rustic look to it.  I really wanted a purple lavender soap seeing as how purple is my favorite color.  The color didn't turn out as purple as I would like. It's more of a pinkish purple shade, but it's really pretty and I may keep it that way since it's not your typical lavender shade.  Here it is in the mold topped with dried lavender buds, waiting to cool and then be sliced.

 I love the way it turned out.  Simple and beautiful, and the lavender essential oil smells amazing!

Thanks for stopping by!

Melissa

www.gingergreysoaps.com

Hot Process Olive Oil and Shea Butter Soaps - Brown Sugar and Fig and Lemon Spearmint

We've been really busy around here making lots of new soaps, especially our olive oil soaps with shea butter.  Our olive oil and shea butter soaps are made by the hot process technique, giving it a sweet rustic charm.  This is what it looks like once it's out of the mold and ready to cut.  I typically leave my soaps overnight and cut them first thing in the morning.

 Once they are cut, I let them dry out a little more for a few days or up to a week to harden a little bit more.  With hot process soap making, my soaps are ready to use right away and are safe and mild.  I cook them in a crockpot and I can scrape out the soap scraps from the crockpot and make a small bar out of that and use it right away.  It feels so nice and smooth and lathers excellently right away.  With cold process soap making, you have to wait 4 - 6 weeks or longer for the soaps to dry and cure, and even longer sometimes depending on the recipe or if there is a really high percentage of olive oil.

This one is scented with Brown Sugar and Fig and it is a personal favorite, it smells so good and is a Bath and Body Works type scent.  Real cinnamon and brown sugar have been added and it has these lovely brown swirls in it. The cinnamon powder is slightly scrubby too, making it a gently exfoliating soap.
It's available for purchase at Ginger Grey Soaps. 

 This is our new Lemon Spearmint soap made with lemon and spearmint essential oils.  A delicate yellow shade and topped with calendula petals.  This makes a lovely bath soap, and would be a great addition to any bathroom's decor.  It's available for purchase at Ginger Grey Soaps

Thanks for stopping by!

Melissa

www.gingergreysoaps.com

Ginger Grey Soaps - Our new homemade luxury soap store on Big Cartel

If you haven't had a chance to check out our new homemade luxury soap store, Ginger Grey Soaps, now's the time.  Here's a screen shot of it, showing some of our currently available soaps.  We're always creating new things here!  It's hosted by Big Cartel which is primarily for artists and crafters.  We also have a store on Etsy , but we really like how we can customize our own site at Big Cartel and make it more our own.  We take payments securely through Paypal and it's great for those who aren't familiar with Etsy or don't have an Etsy account.  Just go directly to our store Ginger Grey Soaps to see more of the great soaps we have available for sale.

Melissa (soap maker)

Ginger Grey Soaps

www.gingergreysoaps.com

Making Homemade All Natural Sweet Orange Lemongrass Hot Process Olive Oil Soap

Last week, I realized we only had one bar left of our Sweet Orange Lemongrass soap.  It's been very popular at the Farmer's Market because once you smell it in person, you just want to have it.  It's so sweet and citrusy and I love making it because the kitchen smells so clean and amazing afterwards.  My kids love to help with anything they can, and this day it was our son Camden's turn to help.  He got to help pour and measure the oils and put them in the crockpot. 

 The mixture has been cooked and fully turned into soap now.  The left side has been colored naturally with annatto seed powder after the cook and scented with Sweet Orange essential oil.  The right side has been colored with neon yellow pigment and scented with Lemongrass essential oil. 

 The Sweet Orange side gets dried grated orange zest and the Lemongrass side gets dried grated lemon zest.

 I randomly plop the two halves into my molds.  I made a big batch this time, so it will make 18 bars and fills a 10 inch and 8 inch loaf mold.  This is the largest size I can fit in my 6 quart crockpot without having it overflow.  Even still I have to be careful or I'll have a soap volcano all over the counter.  Been there, done that!  Atleast my crockpot and counters were squeaky clean when I was done. : )

Now just waiting for it to cool.  If I make a batch early in the morning, I can slice into it by evening already.  If I make it later in the day, I just wait until morning to slice into it when it's firmer.

  This soap is ready to use right away, but benefits by drying out for a few days to get a harder bar.  It's still fairly hard right away though.  There is no lye left in the soap and it's mild and safe to use.  In fact, I scrape out my crockpot and scrape off my mixing bowls and utensils and I have enough scraps to make a decent size bar of soap once I squish it all together (see last picture).  I have so many different soaps by the kitchen sink and in our bathrooms from scraping out everything after each soap I make. I get too much though and pass them along to friends who are more than happy to get soap scraps off my hands and into theirs.  : )

Our hot process soaps are made primarily with olive oil, then we add palm oil and coconut oil.  After the cook, we add unrefined shea butter.  It hasn't gone through the saponification process and acts as a superfat above and beyond the typical 5% superfat in homemade soap. 

Our soaps feel so luxurious on your skin and when you wash up with them, they have a long-lasting fluffy lather like no other.  When you're done washing, you feel like you have just put lotion on and your skin is so soft and silky.  I suppose it's similar to the feeling of a Dove Beauty Bar, but without all the harmful chemicals.  That's stuff isn't real soap anyways, but this is the real deal.  No chemicals here, just all natural soapy goodness and it's such a treat for your skin.  Stop by and grab a bar for yourself or as a gift!

Melissa (soap maker)

Ginger Grey Soaps

www.gingergreysoaps.com