Dacare Essentials - Handmade Soaps

Why Buy Handmade Soap?

Many of you may wonder why you'd spend 4 - 9 dollars on a bar of handmade soap, when you can hit the local supermarket and get a stack of 6 for less money.
Fair thinking, and before I started researching, and making soap, I used to wonder that myself.

In general, commercial soap carried at most stores is full of chemical and synthetic additives that are harsh on your skin.
It can lead to irritations, rashes, dry, flaky skin - and can spell disaster on conditions like psoriasis and eczema.

Commercial soap companies also remove the natural glycerine found in the oils used in soap-making.
What is glycerine, you ask? It is a natural humectant. This means it draws water from the air, and thus allows your skin to draw in the moisture and become hydrated.
When you combine lye with fats or oils, it goes through a chemical process called saponification. This means that these two ingredients react, and make soap.
One of the by-products of this process is glycerine.
Since glycerine is a sellable commodity, they remove it for sale, or they leave just tiny trace amounts in their final product for label value, with no discernable benefit to your skin.
Commercial soap-makers add salt at a stage when cold process soap-makers pour into their moulds. The salt causes the soap to curdle and float to the top.
After skimming off the soap, they are left with glycerine (and lots of "impurities" like partially dissolved soap, extra salt, etc.).
They then separate the glycerine out by distilling it, and sell it to companies for profit.
The soap is then left with none of the natural humectant properties of glycerine maintained in handmade soap.
Oh sure, it'll clean you - but if you ever wonder why your skin feels itchy and dry after using some commercial products, you now have your answer.
Many commercial "soaps" are actually synthetic detergents made with some of the same chemicals used in garage floor cleaners and engine degreasers. Do you really want to put that on your skin?

I make soap using the cold-process method. (or RTCP which stands for room temperature cold process).
It retains all of the natural goodies, and handmade soaps can be infused with natural herbs, milks, honeys, oats and many other wonderful ingredients that serve to nurture the largest organ of the body.
In addition to that, soap-makers are also artisans. We put so much time, and creativity into each creation that you can be sure you're purchasing a true one of a kind.