What's the big deal about goat's milk? And it IS a big deal! Goat's milk has long been used as a moisturizing treatment for dry, itchy skin. Think Cleopatra! It's also extremely beneficial for conditions such as eczema, psoriasis and dermatitis. It is absolutely loaded with great stuff, including Vitamin A, Vitamins B-1, B-3 and B-12, Biotin, Pantothenic Acid, Choline, Calcium, Phosphorous, naturally occurring sodium, Potassium, Magnesium, and many other trace elements. The ph of goat's milk is very close to that of human skin, and this helps your skin maintain its healthy barrier to environmental bacteria. Goat milk casein is similar to that of human milk and is more easily digestible than cow's milk for many people. Your skin is your largest organ and it absorbs much of what it comes in contact with. It makes sense to soak up some goat's milk! ...I can already tell a difference in my skin! I'm a skin cancer survivor and my skin stays very dry and patchy. But, in just the week that I've been using your products, I actually look normal again. I can't wait to see what my dermatologist thinks.Sincerely, Ginny Spurlock
How do you make your soap? We've created a separate page for this question, with lots of pictures to show you exactly what we do. Click here to see!
Do your soaps, shampoos, or any other products you make or sell contain SLS, also known as Sodium Laurel Sulfate or Sodium Laureth Sulfate? No. We have never used that ingredient in any of our products.
Do your soaps contain lye? Thanks for
asking! Soap making is an unfamiliar process these days and, for some,
carries unpleasant memories of "grandma's" harsh concoctions. The short
answer is no, our soaps don't contain lye. The long answer is yes, our
soaps start off with lye as one of the ingredients, but the
saponification process we use combines it in a chemical reaction with
the fats and oils and converts it
all to soap.
The lye that "grandma" used was manually
extracted from wood ashes and was far from a consistent product. (The
strength of it could vary from batch to batch, due to technique and even
the type of wood that was burned.) The amount of fat added was left to
guesswork. Too much fat resulted in a soft, greasy mess and too little
made a harsh, skin burning product.
The lye we use is produced by controlled,
modern scientific methods and has a consistent ph value. Our precise
recipes are super-fatted, meaning they contain more than enough fats and
oils to turn each and every molecule of lye to soap and provide
moisturizing properties besides. In addition, we test each batch of
soap for ph levels, to ensure successful curing and safety.
The soaps
you purchase from us contain absolutely no lye.
How should I store my soap? Soap only gets better as it ages. Store it in a cool, dry well-ventilated place and it will continue to dry. The drier it it is, the longer it will last when you use it! Which moisturizer is best for me?Moisturizer is a matter of personal preference depending on skin type and condition, as well as season and daily environment. All of our moisturizing creams, butters and oils contain only natural ingredients which can be applied to your skin anywhere on your body. For example, you could try melting some Triple Butter Cream between your palms and smoothing it over your face, spreading the rest over your hands. Massage a bit Body Butter into your cuticles, elbows or heels. Float a few teaspoons of Bath and Body Oil on top of your bath water to easily distribute a thin layer over your whole body. Or substitute other creams, lotions or oils depending on how dry your skin is, and use as needed.
Here's a list of our products in order of "light" to "heavy", though you can apply more or less of each of them to adjust to your skin's needs on a given day:
Face Oil or Bath and Body Oil (They both contain Grapeseed and Jojoba oils, the Face Oil also has Apricot Oil while the Bath and Body Oil contains Sweet Almond Oil.)
Which product is best as an all over body moisturizer?Most of our customers find that after switching to our soaps, their need
for moisturizers decreases dramatically. We recommend the Bath and
Body Oils for an all over moisturizer, with the Moisturizing Shea Butter
Cream for drier areas (like your legs after shaving, for example.)
Apply the Body Oil right after a shower, or float a few teaspoons in a
bath for the easiest, most thorough coverage. If you have particularly
dry spots, like your heels or elbows, the Body Butters are great.
Help! My cream is grainy, not smooth! Please keep your creams cool! We use no preservatives or stabilizers in any of our Whipped Shea Butters, Shea Butter Lotions or Triple Butter Creams, which limits us to using only butters and oils in our ingredients. Butters will only hold so much oil in suspension and are still then very thick, which is why we put everything in a blender and whip it to incorporate some air and lighten it up. If they get too warm they will melt again, lose the air bubbles and get grainy due to the different melting points of the different butters.
They will still work on your skin the same way, however. You may just need to hold some in your hands a little longer to soften it up to an easily spreadable consistency. You can try to whip your butter, cream or lotion again if you like, keeping in mind that while all the oils and butters are edible, the scent oils could stick in your blender and we can't recommend eating fragrance oils. Either wash your blender very well afterward, or there are low cost blenders available and you may want to get one and save your kitchen blender for food. Warm the product until it is like very soft butter but don't let it melt, and then whip it. (You could also use a hand whisk or electric beater.)
We are dedicated to providing our customers with healthy nourishing products and are struggling with the issue of preservatives and stabilizers. They would allow us to use thinner liquids (fresh milk etc.) and would improve the keeping power of the consistency, but we insist on finding acceptable, natural healthy ingredients.
Here's some feedback from a customer who chose to re-whip her cream:
Success! I melted down the creams then whipped them again. I probably melted them too much and I only used a hand whisk so they didn't whip up lovely and light like you get them - but they are now very usable, still have their lovely scents and moisturizing properties. I did a bit of an experiment. I put one of the whipped creams in the freezer for about 10 - 15 after mellting it down and then whipped it. That one was fluffier. I have my best friend visiting from Ontario. We haven't seen one another since I started using your products. She commented on how great my skin looks and how I look younger (we are the same age) - you can expect an order from her when she gets home. Karen Whitehead, Australia. Do your products contain preservatives? Other than those using Vitamin E, only one. Our Goat's Milk Cream, due to the possibility of bacterial growth in the fresh unsaponified goat's milk, contains a food-grade, paraben- and formaldehyde-free, FDA and globally approved preservative, derived from natural sources such as grapefruit and sage and clearly listed in the ingredients. We do not, and will not, use chemicals to improve purely cosmetic characteristics of our products (see "Help! My cream is grainy, not smooth!) We do, and will, ensure that all of our products are healthy, beneficial and safe. What's the full story of your shipping charges? We ship our packages via Canada Post or Purolator at a flat rate of $15 within the Maritimes, $20 within the rest of Canada and $25 to the United States, with free shipping on minimum orders of $150 within Canada and $180 to the U.S. Soap is dense and heavy, and even the very smallest soap orders we have sent out have often cost us well over $20. To send only a single body butter weighing less than 30 grams in a small bubble envelope to an address only twenty minutes away in Charlottetown still costs us about $15.00. Overall, we do not make a profit from our shipping charges. The great thing about placing larger orders is the added value you get from letting your soap cure longer! (See the question about storing soap.)
Do I need to calculate exchange rates to U.S. dollars? All of our prices are listed in Canadian dollars. Because the exchange rate fluctuates on a daily basis and because your credit card company may not process your charges on the exact day you place your order, we are not able to calculate the cost of your order in U.S. or any other funds. You can, however, do an internet search for "exchange rates" and find websites that will do the calculations for you using current rates.
