"It is such a pity that one cannot buy them in Europe, though. The people here should see what a good soap is. They spend a lot of money on silly big 'natural Provençe' names when it comes to beauty products."
Ayse Ozler, Mechelen, Belgium
All Vegetable Base
The excellence of our soaps comes from the integrity of our basic ingredients. We use only food-grade oils to nourish your skin. By blending four base oils—olive, rice bran, palm kernel, and soy—we handcraft a bar of soap that's moisturizing, long-lasting, and luxuriously lathering.
Real Soap
This type of soap making is alternately called cold process soap, lye soap, or since we use olive and all vegetable oils, Castile soap.
No Lye Remains in Soap
To convert the oils into soap, we need to add lye, sodium hydroxide. Don’t fear; there is no lye left in finished bars. The vegetable oils, which are fatty acids, react with the lye, which is basic. They neutralize each other and form a salt. The salt is called soap. Basic chemistry.
Glycerin Moisturizes
During the process, glycerin is formed from triglycerides. The glycerin is a natural by-product of cold process soap making. It composes about 8% of each bar. Glycerin feels silky smooth on your skin. It’s a humectant, gathering moisture from the air.
You Can Pronounce Our Ingredients
We use no synthetic preservatives, no petroleum products, no triclosan, no phthalates, no formaldehyde, no artificial colorants or dyes… The list of what we don’t include is frightening.
We add to our basic soap recipe one or more oils and/or butters to moisturize your skin. This is called “superfatting.”
We also offer oils and butters to use as moisturizers. You'll find them more effective than conventional lotions.
The aromas in Herbaria soaps and products come from essential oils derived from plants. We are careful to select oils from sustainable plants, avoiding those from endangered species such as sandalwood or rosewood. Read more about the benefits of essential oils.
The primary texture we add to our soaps is oatmeal. It is unsurpassed for exfoliating and soothing your skin. As for colorants, we choose herbs and clays, no synthetic colorants.