The Soap Story...

      

	7. Maritimer Men's Shaving Soap	$7.00ea for a 5oz bar
	100% Naturally:      Old-fashioned shaving Soaps are back! Handmade and individually poured with only 100% natural ingredients, our shaving soaps produce rich & frothy lather and have excellent oils & butters that exfoliate, promote new cell growth, moisturize, repair and protect masculine skin.       These soaps are not just for shaving but have colloidal oatmeal added for effective exfoliating of dead skin cells and can be used as an overall body soap in the tub or shower as well.
	Unique Blend of Ingredients:      Saponified oils of avocado, caster, coconut, olive, palm kernel, sunflower; natural butters of cocoa & shea and unbleached bees wax.      We include the essential oils of lavender (see properties below), peppermint (purifies sluggish skin and helps to clear pores), cedar wood, pine scotch & bergamot plus kaolin clay and colloidal oatmeal (see properties below)
	The Oatmeal Advantage:         Colloidal Oatmeal (Avena sativa) is a natural product which helps soothe and soften dry skin and relieve itchy skin rashes and irritations. To produce colloidal oatmeal, whole oats are very finely ground. This enables the grain to readily absorb liquid. The emollient, or skin-softening, properties of oat products come from ingredients in the oatmeal such as cellulose and fiber. Eczema (dry skin patches) will likely respond well to colloidal oatmeal bath treatments, as will skin conditions such as chickenpox, shingles, insect bites, sores, & other minor skin irritations. Oatmeal will absorb oil from the skin's surface & reduce the redness of irritated broken-out skin.
	The Lavender Touch:      We add ground lavender buds and lavender essential oil to all our soaps. Lavender is a natural antiseptic cleanser that is soothing and healing to the skin. 100% natural oils is our trademark as we do not use any artificial or synthetic ingredients, fragrances and no animal fats. To read more about lavender's many health benefits, click here.
	Handmade Perfection:      True "soap" has been made for centuries by saponifying a fat or oil with a strong alkali: sodium (for bar soap) or potassium hydroxide (for liquids and shampoos). The saponification process is a one-step reaction with no waste generated: the glycerin splits from the fatty acids; the fatty acids combine with the sodium or potassium to form "soap", while the hydroxide forms water. The result is soap, glycerin and water (no alkali remains).      Industrial manufacturers make such large quantities that they opt to use lower cost ingredients such as petroleum or hydrogenated oils, animal fats; and synthetic fragrance oils rather than costly Essential oils and true bio-oils.      Handmade soap differs from industrial soap in that, usually, an excess of fat is used in the soap to consume the alkali (super fatting), and the glycerin is NOT removed. Super-fatted soap, soap which contains excess fat, is more skin-friendly than industrial soap. In 1889, a viable way to separate the glycerin out of soap was finally implemented and today industrial manufacturers usually remove it and sell it as a by-product, which deprives the skin of the natural, moisturizing glycerin and generally leaves the skin dry. By definition these products are not "true soaps", but rather detergents as they use different chemical processes and ingredients to produce what they refer to as "soap". These soap-based products often contain the additive sodium laurel sulfate, to enhance foaming, which research has found to be harsh on skin. This product is also present in many non-soap cleaners for personal hygiene (shampoos, bath foams, toothpaste, etc.).