Our Handcrafted Soaps
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Welcome! This is where you can learn a little bit more about our soaps!
A little bit about our soapmaking:
All of our Soaps are created by our soapmakers Wendy and Sarah. They take great care in mastering beautiful products just for you! They use Phthalate Free fragrances, high quality Essential oils, and high quality fats, butters, and oils.
They embrace the spectrum world of color by using the best quality Micas, and natural colorants.
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Most of our soaps are Milk-based, meaning you receive a very creamy, harder, longer-lasting, very nourishing bar! We do not limit our horizon by only focusing on one type. We offer Coconut Milk, Oat milk, Yogurt, Goat Milk, and more.
Some soaps are good old fashion water-based! Check ingredient listings under the products to see what we mean! Sometimes, we offer Glycerin soaps! We love the many designs and techniques
you can do with glycerin soap.
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What are the Soapmaking methods? What do we use?
Today, There are four common processes with making Soap; Cold Process, Hot Process, Rebatch (French Milled), and Melt and Pour (or, Glycerin).
Melt and pour soap are pre-made, meaning all you have to do is melt it down, add scent and colorants, and then let it harden using your own molds. It’s an easy way to make soap at home without handling the more caustic chemicals (lye) or purchasing safety gear. Because it’s already been through the saponification process (the chemical reaction that makes lye safe for skin) you can enjoy your soap immediately, rather than waiting 4-6 weeks for it to completely cure.
It's a great method for beginners, and there is a large range of different melt and pour bases. Kids especially love to help make melt and pour soaps. We love Glycerin Soaps for multiple uses!
The only downside with using Melt and Pour glycerin soap has everything to do with the ingredients used to create it. Here at Bear & Bell Soapery LLC, we prefer to create customized formulas, knowing what goes into our bars for a more purposeful product.
Cold Process soapmaking is the method we mostly use for our soap bars. Cold process soap is made by combining oils, butters, and fats with a Sodium Hydroxide Solution -sometimes created with water based products or milks, creating what is known as Lye. When all combined, there is a chemical reaction that leads to the process called Saponification. Using this method, you get to form a "recipe" to your specific desires or needs - from the ingredients, to the additives. This is done through careful calculations based upon the SAP values of each applied oil, butter, fat, etc. There is a bit of math that does come with this, but in the end, you result in a unique one-of-a-kind soap that you created. Cold Process takes researching, understanding, and knowing what to avoid!
We prefer the Cold Process method for the creativity that comes with it and the science that goes into it.
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When making true soap, it is required that you wear protective gear to avoid obtaining Chemical burns from Sodium Hydroxide, which is required to make real soap.
Safety goggles, a good mask, gloves, are just some of the highly recommended gear to use when making true soap. You may see Soapmakers wear aprons, long pants with good shoes/boots, long sleeves, hair nets, and do what they see fit in order to prioritize that safety.
Here at Bear & Bell Soapery LLC, we take safety practices Required by manufacturing laws seriously.
It's incredibly important that we establish an appropriate schedule to soap by making sure those we love are safe and far away from us when we are working at the soap station. Supportive family helps make this possible.
Any soap-maker that displays a lack of safety awareness are ones we will not recommend.
Hot Process soapmaking is a method where hot oils and lye are combined to begin saponification by introducing them to heat in a Crock Pot, or a double boiler. With added heat, it will speed up the saponification process and essentially “cook” the soap -it will look like gel- before it goes into the mold. Once it is out of the mold and onto a curing rack, it sits for 4 to 6 weeks before use.
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Many of our ancestors back in the day made soap through this method, whether with a large pot outside, or in the kitchen.
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Re-batching soap is shredded soap scraps melted down, with a small amount of additional liquid, in a pot. Once it is melted, the soap becomes thick, like mashed potatoes, and then it can be slightly customized with fragrances, liquids, and color. After consistent mixing, It is then poured or scooped into a mold, and then put aside until it has re-hardened. Depending on how old the soap scraps are, French Milled soaps can be ready after it hardens.
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I hope all of this information helps our viewers understand that there are several methods of making true soap, thus the reason you may see so many different looking creations out there in the Soaping Community. We appreciate all methods, and with us, you will find through our product descriptions what method our handcrafted soaps are made through.
