The ingredients
What the oils become.
Soap is a chemical reaction, not a recipe. Oils are mixed with lye, and over the cure the two convert into soap and glycerin. Every oil becomes a soap with its own character: some cleanse, some condition, some harden the bar, some build lather. A measured surplus of oil is left uncooked on purpose, and that surplus, the superfat, is the conditioning the bars are known for. In cold process the glycerin stays in the bar, where commercial milling pulls it out to sell.
Rice bran
Going in, rice bran is a light, fast-absorbing oil, and it is the one the whole line is built around. Saponified, it becomes a mild, conditioning soap with a soft lather. Its real gift is the part that never converts: gamma-oryzanol and phytosterols ride in the unsaponifiable fraction and pass into the cured bar intact, where they keep working as antioxidants on the skin during use.
Coconut
Coconut is the cleanser and the bubbles. Its lauric acid saponifies into a hard, foaming soap that rinses clean and fast, the part of the bar that actually lifts the day away. It is kept in balance so it cleans without stripping, but it is the reason a bar lathers at all.
Olive
Olive is the old, gentle conditioner. High in oleic acid, it becomes a soft, mild soap that holds moisture against the skin and is tolerated by even reactive skin. It is the slow, forgiving half of the lather, and people have washed with it for thousands of years for a reason.
Sweet almond
Sweet almond brings oleic and linoleic acids together. Saponified, it becomes a light conditioning soap that softens without heaviness. It rounds out the olive, adding a little more slip and a gentler feel on the skin.
Castor
Castor is the lather's backbone. Its ricinoleic acid is unusual among fatty acids, and saponified it produces a dense, creamy, stable foam the other oils cannot make on their own. On hair and skin it also conditions, drawing and holding moisture. A little does a great deal of the work.
Shea
Shea is the richness, and it is in all six bars. It carries fatty acids and a generous unsaponifiable fraction, so part of it stays as butter in the cured bar, contributing the cushion and the after-feel that the higher-superfat bars are known for.
Jojoba
Jojoba is the odd one out. It is technically a liquid wax rather than an oil, and the closest thing in nature to the skin's own sebum. Because of that structure it only partly converts, and the fraction that survives absorbs cleanly, without residue or greasiness. It is what lets a rich bar stay light enough for congestion-prone skin.
Stearic acid
Stearic acid is the hardness and the staying power. A saturated fatty acid, it firms the bar and steadies the lather so it lasts. Ours is palm-free, sourced from flax and Mahua (Madhuca longifolia). Most commercial stearic acid is a palm derivative, and closing that gap is part of being palm-free all the way down.
What is left behind
None of these oils is the cheap one or the filler. Each is here for the job it does, in the proportion that lets the others do theirs. And what is left uncooked, the superfat, the retained glycerin, and the fractions that never convert, is the conditioning you feel after the rinse. I only name what genuinely survives the cure. The compounds that do not survive an alkaline process are the reason I chose an oil, not something I claim is active in the finished bar.
Every oil credited for the job it does.
Shop the bars