Emz Blendz FAQ and HELP

Most industrially manufactured soap contains various undesirable chemicals that can irritate or dry out your skin. They often are made with animal derived fats that contribute no beneficial qualities to the skin. Emz Blendz soaps are made primarily with skin nourishing vegetable oils, which produce a hard bar of soap of luxuriant quality. They are earth friendly, enjoyable to use, and they make for charming gifts. Once you have experienced Emz handmade soap, you'll never go back to unnatural soap again!

Our soap is as good as it gets. It's freshly handcrafted right in our shop in a way that has been historically passed down throughout American History. There are several ways to make soap, but the two most common ways that crafters make soap are the "melt and pour" method and the "cold process" method. We use the "cold process" method.

Melt and pour soap, often called glycerin soap, can be opaque, colored or clear. Some specialty soaps made in this way have shapes or small toys imbedded in a clear bar of soap. This kind of soap is very popular because the soap is colorful, bright and fun. The companies that make soap in this way buy their soap ready-made in bulk form from a large manufacturer. The manufacturer formulates the soap with a solvent that allows the soap to be easily re-melted and manipulated with different colors and fragrances. The soap is clear because the manufacturer adds alcohol, glycerin, solvents, detergent foam boosters and sometimes sugar. This soap makes crafting easy and safe and can be easily found in any craft store. However, this kind of soap is not completely handcrafted or natural. The soap lasts half as long as "cold process" soap because of the solvent in it.

Cold process soap-making or kettle method soap-making (what we do) is the process making soap from scratch. Although soap can be simply made, it involves some chemistry, careful measurement and the cautious use of lye or sodium hydroxide. Traditionally, during colonial days, hardworking women made soap with rendered animal fat on the homestead. This kind of soap was functional but harsh. Today with special calculators, accurate scales and an array of natural vegetable and plant derived fats and oils, we are able to produce exceptional soap that not only cleans well, but also smells fantastic, is aesthetically pleasing and is truly good for your skin.

Soap is the neutral product created when the acids of fats or oils chemically react with organic or inorganic bases (sodium hydroxide or lye). This is called the saponification process (soap-making process), after which there is no lye present in the final bar.

A soap molecule is formed as a chain with a head and a tail. The head is drawn to water and the tail to dirt and oil. This allows the soap to connect dirt and oil to water. The water then rinses away the dirt. Soap also prevents water from beading up, allowing it to wet your skin more thoroughly.

All soap is made up of a fat combined with and alkali (lye). We take carefully selected vegetable oils and butters, known for their skin benefiting properties, and in correct proportions, mix them with lye. When the oil and lye mixture is completely emulsified, we pour the mixture into wooden molds where it sits for 18 to 24 hours. During this time it is saponifing (chemically changing into soap). The soap, now the consistency of soft cheese is cut and put on the curing shelf for 4 weeks while it hardens and mellows into a delightfully mild and creamy bar of soap.