M'Liss here- the owner of Birch & Bay and Eureka! I'd love to share with you a little about how we make soap at Birch & Bay and how you can DIY your own!
Soap making can be a bit of a process- but the good news is if you love to DIY, it's a very fun and rewarding activity that you can do with just household ingredients.
A basic soap recipe can be made just with lye, water, coconut oil, and olive oil! Can you believe it's that easy?
Here at Birch & Bay we get a little more involved to make the soap pretty and perfectly giftable
We use cosmetic grade micas- the color pigments used in face powder and eye shadows. These are lab-made cosmetic grade pigments. They are lab made to ensure purity to make sure there are no trace elements that may cause any health issues. Fun fact though, these micas used to be directly mined from the earth to be put in makeup until the FDA caught wind that there was some lead tainting in those cosmetics from the mica. Now, all of the cosmetic pigments you use and see now are lab made to ensure that everyone stays safe. Yay science!
We also love to use garden grown flowers and herbs to add something beautiful and natural in and on top of soap! We use home grown rosemary, lavender, cornflowers, calendula petals, and rose petals. A simple white creamy soap with a sprinkle of beautiful flowers on it, is truly a think of beauty in my opinion.
Other additives are thrown in when we want to add something different. My husband's hunting soap is made with charcoal to fight odor when he goes out hunting. Sometimes I'll throw in a few handfuls of poppyseed as a light exfoliant or to add some texture to your bar of soap. I even use a fondant mat to stamp the outsides of our Cedar Amber soap to make it look like a tree!
We also use phalate and paraben-free fragrance oils. Fragrance oils are used to create some of the best smelling things you love- from candles and shampoo to cosmetics, moisturizer, and toothpaste. I choose to not use essential oils in my products for various reasons- but we'll save that conversation for another day. Fragrance oils from a vetted supplier are very safe and give you a wide array of fragrant options for your soap.
So if you have ever thought about making your own soap I say DO IT! It's super easy once you have a proven recipe and made sure your safety precautions are in place. And there are so many things you can use to customize it and make it your own, beautiful, functional piece of handmade art.
