The Beauty of Handcrafted Soap

Handcrafted soap is, quite simply, useful art. My soaps are beautiful things for everyday living. Each batch is created from scratch, using my own recipes developed from my eight years of soapmaking. I combine artistry and chemistry to create extraordinary products that simply and naturally pamper skin. I have studied the qualities and benefits of natural oils, essential oils, and botanicals. My soaps nourish, protect, and restore skin, scalp, and hair to their natural beauty - soft, moisturized, and healthy.

Commercial soaps typically contain chemical additives, preservatives and artificial fragrances that can damage, irritate and dry your skin. Even commercial soap labeled as “unscented” often has a “masking fragrance” added. Even worse, most commercial soap manufacturers strip their soap of its moisturizing glycerin, a natural by-product of the soap-making process. After repeated use, your skin will dry out, or your skin will try to overcompensate and produce too much oil, and you will never feel truly clean. My natural handcrafted soap will leave you clean while restoring the moisture to your skin. You’ll notice the difference the first time you use them – and you may find after a short time that you don’t need hand and body lotion to moisturize your skin.

Natural soap is made by a process called saponification – the chemical reaction that takes place when oils, lye (sodium hydroxide), and water are combined. When the saponification process is complete, the result is soap and glycerin. No lye remains in the final product. All natural soap retains the moisturizing benefits of glycerin. Additionally, I superfat my soaps, using 10% more oils than necessary to convert all of the lye, to increase the moisturizing effect and make them even more luxurious.

Unlike some other natural soapmakers, I never use synthetic fragrances or perfumes, added colorants, or animal fats. I use only essential oils to scent my soaps, and two varieties are completely without added scents. Some natural soapmakers color their products with iron oxides. While technically a natural product, I am not convinced that iron oxides are truly safe for use on human skin, and I believe that coloring soap is unnecessary. All of my soaps are the natural color of the oils used to create them.

The fun for me is experimenting with different recipes and ingredients, and sharing my soaps with others.

I hope you’ll try them.

-Gracia Swensen

• Each bar is hand cut, so small variations in size are normal.
• Recyclable packaging.
• No minimum order.
• Biodegradable
• No animal fats – only vegetable and nut oils
• Scented with pure essential oils
• No artificial colors or iron oxides
• Long-lasting
• Handcrafted in Duluth, MN
• Wholesale pricing available. See the Contact page for more information.