10 Reasons To Use Natural Soap

1. Handmade Natural Soap is Actually Soap

As you stroll down the aisles of the supermarket or drug store you will see an assortment of body cleansers to choose from that are labeled as body bars, body washes, cleansing bars, skincare bars, deodorant soaps, and even beauty bars. They are nothing more than detergents in disguise.

Most of the soap you purchase today is a commercially manufactured chemical cocktail of ingredients. It is not natural and is not even really “soap.” 

Here is what the FDA has to say:

“Today there are very few true soaps on the market. Most body cleansers, both liquid and solid, are actually synthetic detergent products. Detergent cleansers are popular because they make suds easily in water and don't form gummy deposits. Some of these detergent products are actually marketed as "soap" but are not true soap according to the regulatory definition of the word.” Source

At one time all soap was handmade. The traditional soapmaking method was and still is, called the cold process method. 

2. Natural Soap is Made With Natural Ingredients

 The very best reason to use natural soap is the ingredients. A product is only as good as the ingredients used to make it.

Each of our soap bar recipes begins with a special blend of nutrient-rich, skin-nourishing certified organic oils. 

We use more costly organic virgin, unrefined oils, and butters whenever possible because they are less refined preserving more of their inherent nutrients.

Inspired by our love of gardening we then make each soap bar unique by adding a variety of organic butters, purifying natural clays, organic herbs, seeds, grains, spices, flowers, vegetables, fruits, chocolate, and pure essential oils to provide natural color, aromatherapy, texture, and gentle exfoliation. 

The result of our painstakingly, meticulous soap-making process is a mild, rich, moisturizing soap that feels creamy in your hands, offers a magnificent long-lasting lather, and leaves your skin clean, soft, silky, and radiantly healthy.

Our handmade natural soaps are made in small batches with materials found in nature, like pure plant-based oils, oats, honey, and goat milk.

The end result is a safe and gentle product that is perfect for your skin.

Your skin will notice the difference!

3. Natural Soap Is NOT Made With...

Our soap bars contain only the ingredients that they need—no extra preservatives that liquid body washes or commercial bar "soaps" require to increase their shelf life to years, and no foam boosters to make them lather.

Natural soaps contain:

no synthetic ingredients

no artificial fragrances or perfumes

no artificial colors

no detergents

no synthetic preservatives

 Commercial bar soaps and even some sold as "natural" are Syndet bars. Syndet is a blended word made by combining the words “synthetic” and “detergent.” Note that many of the newer shampoo bars on the market are actually syndets, not natural soap-based shampoo. 

Gentle, skin safe ingredients mean that natural soap will not dry out skin or lead to the skin irritation often seen with synthetic ingredients.

I often tell people that while we use awesome ingredients in our natural soaps, I believe that what is NOT in our soap is just as important!

Why would you want to bathe with agricultural ingredients like plant oils that have been doused in chemicals?

If commercial "soaps" add oils and butters to their bars, they are often ultra-refined.

Unrefined, virgin oils and butters are much more expensive, and due to their natural scents and rich profiles, they are much more difficult to work with when formulating soap and other skincare products. 

Thus, while a product will tout that it is made with shea butter, olive, or natural plant oils, these ingredients have been so refined that they no longer provide the "advertised" skincare benefits.  

4. Natural Soaps Are Moisturizing

Sadly many people have the misguided perception that all bar soaps will dry your skin. The problem is that most commercial bar “soaps” are detergents and not real soap.

There are three main reasons why natural soaps are moisturizing. 

Of course, it's the ingredients!

Natural soap made of pure ingredients derived directly from nature is a rare find these days.

The strong detergents in commercial soaps may be great for dishes and laundry, but they strip natural skin oils which dry the skin and may contribute to irritated skin conditions like eczema.

Natural Soaps are Superfatted

Our soap bars are formulated with lots of extra plant oils and butters in a process called "superfatting." 

Superfatting is the process of adding extra fats (oils or butters) when formulating a soap recipe, so there is more fat in the mixture than the lye can react with during the chemical reaction.

This process leaves a portion of unincorporated oils in the finished soap, which ensures that our natural soap bars have superior moisturizing and emollient qualities.

Since adding extra oils and butters can decrease the shelf-life of a soap bar, commercial soaps sacrifice the moisturizing properties in favor of their "forever" shelf-life.  

Natural Soaps retain their natural Glycerin

Glycerin is not added to a natural handmade soap recipe – it is created during the natural soap making process! The chemical reaction of making soap is called saponification. Once saponification is complete, the ingredients have combined and chemically changed into soap, glycerin, and a bit of water.

Glycerin, a precious and gentle emollient, is a humectant that draws moisture from the air to the skin creating a moisturizing protective layer.

Commercial soap manufacturers remove the glycerin from their soaps for two reasons. (1) Excess glycerin decreases the shelf-life of soap and (2) they can sell it or use it in products that command a higher price like the lotion your skin needs after using their glycerin-free detergent "soap."

Think about it! Commercial soap companies remove the moisturizing ingredient (the glycerin) which in turn creates a soap that dries your skin and then they use the glycerin they removed to sell you a skin-moisturizing lotion. Quite an ingenious profit-making strategy!

Soaps without glycerin can be drying and often contribute to itchy skin. Handmade soap retains all the moisturizing natural glycerin which also helps produce a rich luxurious lather.

Thus skin-nourishing ingredients, plus superfatting and natural saponification create a soap bar full of moisturizing, natural oils, and natural glycerin.

5. Scented Natural Soap Provides Real Aromatherapy

 Scented natural soaps are made with pure essential oils, and offer aromatherapeutic benefits.

Essential oils have benefits beyond just scent. Step into the bath or shower and breathe deeply. The benefits of aromatherapy can help with everything from easing stress to invigorating your spirit.

The chemical composition of essential oils cannot be recreated in a laboratory.

Only natural botanical essential oils can cause various neurochemicals to be released in the brain which can affect the body, mind, and spirit. 

6. Natural Soap Helps Maintain Healthy Skin

 The body’s largest organ, our skin, is incredibly porous and absorbent. How we treat our skin can have a major impact on our overall health as well as the look and feel of our skin.

I cannot count how many times customers have told us that our natural soap has not only helped improve their skin but has improved their lives by relieving itchiness, dryness, and easing skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis, and acne.

Some people with sensitive skin really do not have sensitive skin at all.

Their skin is simply reacting to some chemical irritant in their soap or other skincare product. Simple natural soaps tend to be more soothing for many skin types.

Everyone wants healthy skin and your skin is not a fan of synthetic chemicals. If you struggle to find a soap that does not irritate your skin, switching to the daily use of a simple natural soap is an easy place to start. Your skin can tell the difference.

7. Natural Soap Provides Rich Lather Without Synthetic Foam Boosters

 People absolutely love bubbly lather. Although we have come to associate the cleansing properties of our soap with the amount of lather it produces, this is a misconception. Soap does not need to create a lot of lather to do its job. 

Since commercial brands make money by catering to customer demands, lots of foamy lather is an important property of any commercial cleansing personal care product.

The foam, bubbles, and lather we know and love from commercial liquid and bar soaps are produced by surfactants--synthetic foam boosters, lathering agents, and detergents.

These chemicals are often petroleum by-products like Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) and its cousins, are very inexpensive to add to body cleansing products, and are also quite drying for the skin.

A properly formulated and cured bar of natural soap needs no synthetic additives to create a lather or to clean because natural soap is a natural surfactant. So it not only makes great bubbles and lather, but it also helps clean oily dirt from your skin--naturally!

Nature’s ingredients like coconut oil, castor oil as well as the retained natural glycerin also help create a rich silky lather. The creamy silky lather from a natural soap is much richer than commercial soap.

8. Natural Soap is Economical

 Some consumers are put off by the cost of handmade soap. You probably look at a bar of natural soap and wonder why it costs more. I mean, soap is soap, right? Both bars clean your skin, right?

While I may agree that both bars clean the skin, the similarity goes no further. Simply put, commercial soaps contain synthetic ingredients that are very cheap to produce in a lab.

But here are some things to think about!

Commercial soap companies do not want extra oils or glycerin in their soaps because they decrease shelf-life. Without these extra oils to moisturize your skin, you must reach for that bottle of lotion!

9. Natural Soap Has a Smaller Environmental Impact

 Knowing that our actions have a profound impact on the world around us, The Bathing Bee has always strived to be different. We want to be better. I find it odd that a product we use to keep our bodies clean is doing quite the opposite for our environment.

10. You Are Supporting A Small Business

 If you are reading this blog I do not have to convince you that shopping small business is important. Your purchase really does make a difference.

When you buy a handmade bar of natural soap, you are supporting a small business that truly cares about and believes in the products they make.

According to the Small Business Association, “America’s 30 million small businesses are the engine of job creation and economic growth in this country, creating nearly two out of every three new jobs in the United States and employing over half the nation’s workforce.”

Small businesses are run by people - not by boards or stockholders.

They are often entrepreneurs who bring a creative freshness into an otherwise regimented world.  

At The Bathing Bee We create small batch handcrafted natural soap and oversee the entire process to ensure maximum freshness, consistency, and perfection. Think of it as pure nutrition for your skin!

We do it all ourselves--from start to finish--from our hands to your hands--from our family to yours! 

Thank you!

Before I conclude I would like to add one final reason to the question of "Why You Should Switch To Natural Soap Bars." The simplest answer is, Why Not?

Conclusion

From its composition, to its benefits for the skin and health, to its impact on the environment, natural soap is very different from commercial soap. 

The level of care and attention that goes into producing a batch of cold process natural soap is unparalleled in commercial soaps. The goals and mission of a small business are also quite different from those of a large corporation.

Natural soaps are really soap. The recipes use sustainable, environmentally friendly natural and organic ingredients in an age-old process to produce a great lathering mild soap that promotes healthy skin.  

Indulge your senses in natural aromatherapy, moisturize your skin, and feel good about what you put on your skin. 

Embrace a very simple pleasure of life by using a bar of handmade natural soap. This small change will not only leave your skin beautifully conditioned but will also help make our planet a bit happier!

Your skin will notice the difference and your skin will thank you. 

Bee well world 🐝

Declining Bee Species and Why We Need To Protect Them

                          Facts About Bees

• There are more than 20,000 distinct bee species around the world, and more than 4,000 in the U.S. alone. Bees exist in all types of climates around the world, from forests in Europe to deserts in Africa, even in the Arctic Circle. 

• Worldwide, bee populations are in decline. Many factors such as pests, diseases, viruses, monocultures, and molds each have their own effects, but unfortunately, they often intensify the effects of each other. Over the last decade, multiple reports have indicated that multiple beehives in the U.S. and Europe have suffered hive losses of at least 30%, sometimes higher. 

• Wild native bees are also disappearing. For example, in Northern Wisconsin, the most abundant bumblebee in the mid-1990s was the yellow-banded bumblebee. However, in the 2000s the species did not even compromise 1% of the bumblebee population. In fact, one in four wild bee species in the U.S. is at risk of extinction. 

• The rusty patched bumblebee was recently added to the U.S. endangered species list by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, after having declined by 87% in just the last twenty years.

Why We Need To Protect Bees 

Role In The Ecosystem: Bees are a keystone species; if bees die off it will end most life. In nature, various animals depend on bees for their survival because their food sources- nuts, berries, seeds, and fruits- rely on insect pollination.

Pollination also allows floral growth, which provides habitats for animals, including other insects and birds. Lastly, bees themselves, and the honey they produce, are a source of food for many animals.      

                                                                                    Ecosystem Services: While bee populations decline, the production of food crops will decrease as well, as bee pollination is necessary for several important crops. Bees are responsible for pollinating 35% of agricultural production and almost 90 different commercially grown food crops in the U.S. alone. 

Economic Contribution: The global crop production pollinated by bees is valued at $577 billion. Pollinators contribute $24 billion to the U.S. agriculture industry, making a third of the food consumed by Americans. 

Threats To Bees 

Use of Pesticides: Exposure to many pesticides and herbicides can either kill the bees directly or severely weaken the health of a bee colony.  here you can find detailed information about pesticides that affect bees. Because of the harmful impact of certain pesticides in bees, the European Union has banned bee-harming pesticides and pressure is mounting across the planet for other countries to enact similar legislation. 

Climate Change: Multiple factors related to climate change affect bees, including variations in vegetation and rising temperatures, which are destroying habitat or creating inhospitable conditions for many species of bees. For example, spring flowers have been blooming earlier in the season, drastically reducing the bees chance to feed on the pollen. 

Loss of Habitat: Land use changes, habitat fragmentation, and loss of biodiversity create a lack of foraging opportunities for bees. With industrialization always on the rise, areas of natural habitats are being converted to roads and developments. This pushes the bees off their habitats which causes changes in behavior when it comes to foraging and mating. 

Agriculture Services: Monoculture farming, or planting only one crop over a large area, contributes to a loss in plant biodiversity. Without a variety of plants to either pollinate or feed on, bees are hampered in their ability to provide for their colony and the ecosystem at large. 

How To Help Bees:

• Support a ban by contacting your national legislative representative. There can be little doubt now that the worlds most widely used insecticides- neonictinoids-are harmful to bees. Neonicotinoid chemicals are absorbed in the pollen of the plants that they are sprayed on. These pesticides can cause behavioral and immune system problems among bees. The European Union realized this problem and banned these harmful pesticides in 2018. 
• Sign this pesticide pledge    
• Plant a bee-friendly garden: There are easy steps that you can take: find a nursey near you that sells native and local plants and the type of milkweed good for pollinators in your area.  Native plants are the ideal choice because they require less maintenance and t end to be heartier. 
• It is important that no pesticides or insecticides get sprayed on the garden, and particularly on the flowers. 
• Follow the instructions in this link to plant your garden. 
• Provide water to pollinators by hanging a dripping bottle or placing a small container of water out in the open preferably with small marbles for the bees to land on and not drown. Be sure to change the water 2-3 times per week during warm weather when mosquitoes are breeding. Alternatively, you can install a bird bath with some stones in it for the bees to crawl, which is always a nice feature. 

Reports 

Study Uncovers New Link between Neonictinoid Pesticide Exposure and Wild Bumblebee Decline 

-Worcester Polytechnic University  

https://www.wpi.edu/news/study-uncovers-new-link-between-neonicotinoid-pesticide-exposure-and-wild-bumblebee-decline

MUD MASK MONDAY
GOING BANANAS 

                                                          March 29, 2021 

Lets talk bananas!

I really like a good perfectly ripe yellow banana, but other than that I want nothing to do with them! No banana flavored drinks, Popsicle or candy - I just like a simple natural (perfectly ripe) banana. Usually when they get too ripe I either stash them in the freezer for smoothies, make bread or feed them to the animals outside...but now I have found one more thing to do with them - make a mash! 

Banana's are packed full of powerful nutrients that make this fruit a perfect addition to today's mask. What's so great about them? This!

Amino Acid
Nourishes skin. Strengthens connective tissue and helps maintain skin elasticity and strength. Tight skin for the win!

B-vitamins
Protect against free radicals that cause oxidation stress and premature aging.

Vitamin A
Heals dry, withered skin. Fades acne scars and dark spots. Smooths out aging skin and helps even out skin pigmentation.

Potassium
Hydrates and moisturizes dehydrated sad skin.

Lectin
Destroys bacteria that can cause acne and pimples. Again...YA!!!

Vitamin C
Necessary for the production of collagen. Fights off free radicals and keeps skin oil in check

Vitamin E
Protects skin from UV damage. Slows down the process of aging. Fights free radical damage to skin cells.

Zinc
Fights acne causing germs. YA!!

Okay, Now lets talk about the other ingredients:

Honey contains antibacterial and antifungal properties that hinder bacteria that can lead to breakouts. Its anti-inflammatory properties will calm redness and irritation. Honey is also loaded with enzymes, antioxidants,  and nutrients that nourish, cleanse, and hydrate the skin. Additionally It's the perfect ingredient if you want to attract and contain moisture in the skin! 

White Kaolin Clay is the gentlest of cosmetic clays and thus great for sensitive dry skin. It doesn’t absorb so much as it does soften and with it being a finer clay it's perfect for those seeking a super smooth mask.  

Yogurt - mmmmm bacteria! Yogurt not only is good for your gut but also your skin. Not only does yogurt moisturize the skin it is also known to reduces wrinkles and fine lines, reduce dark circles, sooth sunburns and help fade blemishes and even out skin pigmentation.Try to buy Greek yogurt with the highest fat content you can find. 

Today's Mud Mask:

1 tbsp. White Clay
1/2 Ripe Banana
1 tbs Raw Honey
1 tsp. Glycerin
1 tbsp. Greek Yogurt

This mask is lovely. I used yogurt straight from the fridge and it felt gooooood. Cool and crisp with just a faint sweet honey banana scents. I mashed my mask with a facial spatula but would imagine you could get it a tad smoother using a fork (I'll try that next time) 

One thing that is lacking is the 'crust' factor - I really like a mask that dries out and gets well...all crusty! Even with the honey and white clay the banana puree and yogurt kept this mask rather wet, even after 30 minuets. 

Rinse off was easy, and my skin felt super hydrated afterwards. Not the squeeky clean feeling but soft and supple (that's the honey working its magic)

This is an easy one to do at home, all ingredients are readily available so give it a try and let me know what you think....as well as what do you do with your over ripe bananas!

See you next week! 

-Gabby 

Mud Mask Monday

MUD MASK MONDAY
** AVOCADOS**

I've always felt like Mondays were a good day to detox and get back in your rhythm. My personal Monday morning routine starts with a cup of coffee, a mud mask and a short social media scroll. After I wash my mask off I immediately feel rejuvenated and ready for the work week. My skin is happy, my spirit is lifted and my day is officially ready to start!

Most ‘mud’ masks are formulated for one of two things: Oily skin or dry skin.
Today’s mask is for those of you with skin on the dryer side. Let’s hydrate!

Avocados have a unique nutrition profile. They contain lots of fiber and are rich in vitamins and minerals, such as B-vitamins, vitamin K, potassium, copper, vitamin E and vitamin C – all which aid in healthy skin. Avocados provide an antioxidant effects that help to neutralize cell free radicals. Studies have shown that avocado can help improve skin texture, keep premature signs of aging at bay, tone facial muscles and treat dry skin.

I LOVE Avocados. I truly do and could eat them on almost anything. BUT I have a hard time keeping track of them!  I always buy them with good intent but it seems one or two always get away from me and over ripen. It’s always a bummer when you cut into an avocado and it’s brown! No need to throw them out though, try this instead!

MOISTURIZING AVOCADO FACE MASK

1 Ripe Avocado

1/2 tsp Avocado Oil

(You can skip this if you don't have any - but I highly recommend investing in some! Amazing for your skin! I've been told it's the next Coconut oil)

1 Egg White – room temperature

1 Tsp Lemon Juice

 

DIRECTION

Mix the ingredients together well. You can use the whisk to whip it if you don’t want clumps. Scoop a small amount at a time and apply evenly on clean face, avoiding the eyes....and mouth if your sipping on coffee! 

Let it dry for about 20 minutes. Rinse your face thoroughly with warm water and get ready to have an amazing day! Bee yourself, bee kind, kick ass! 

See you next Monday!