Keeping on the subject of soap, I'd like to talk about the soaps that I make myself for frog loves monkey.
Years ago, on a whim, I tried making soap. The glycerin-based melt-and-pour kind that you can pick up at pretty much any craft store. It was kind of fun and we ended up with a small stash of neat shaped and brightly colored soaps. Eventually, we used them up and went back to buying "regular" soap from the grocery store. I didn't really think much about it again until after our son was born. I'd been researching what was actually IN the soaps we were using and the ingredients lists were pretty horrifying. My husband suggested that I try making soap again. (I had no idea that he'd actually really liked the soaps I'd made that first time. That was a cool discovery!) Off to the craft store I went...and came home empty handed. Turns out the glycerin stuff that you can pick up at the craft store is pretty much garbage and just as full of scary stuff as the mainstream, chemical-laden soaps that we were trying to avoid.
Thus began an exhaustive search for GOOD glycerin-based soap ingredients.
Eventually, I stumbled across what we were looking for. (Yay!) Plant-based glycerin that wasn't stripped of all the good stuff. In fact, the company that I found added MORE glycerin to their soap base. This makes the finished soaps feel fabulous. Really luxurious. (Yay!) Everything was all-natural, vegan (with the exception of honey and goat's milk), hypo-allergenic, biodegradable, non-comedogenic, detergent free, surfactant free, sulfate free, and there was no SLS in sight. (YAY!)
I put in a small order to test out some soap just for us...and fell completely in love. After much testing, I've found a few soaps that I really, really enjoy - and enjoy making.
Across the board, the hemp soaps tend to be my favorite. The hemp oil soaps have a really nice amber color, a very light, naturally clean smell and lather beautifully. And every combination seems to make a finished soap that I (and my skin!) like. Of the hemp-based soaps, the Hemp with White Tea and Lemongrass are my favorite. After some friend and customer feedback, frog loves monkey carries two versions.
The exfoliating version has rather large chunks of dried white tea and lemongrass suspended in it as an exfoliant. I love this, but some people can find it a little off-putting. The dried leaves are somewhat large, so the soap will shed a little bit with use. It can also be a shade rough the first use. I like it. But I understand wanting the benefits of the ingredients without the exfoliants.
The non-exfoliant version tends to be somewhat lighter in color, and offers the same yummy, natural scent and rich lather without being the least bit scratchy.
These soaps are shaped to fit very nicely into the hand and weigh in between 2.6 and 3 ounces each. You can find them in the
Etsy store, or order via
email or our
Facebook page. $3 each, or less if several soaps are ordered at once.
Ingredients: Grade A extra virgin olive oil, palm oil, coconut oil, safflower oil, kosher glycerine of vegetable origin,hemp seed oil, purified water, sodium hydroxide, sorbitol (from berries), sorbitan oleate, soybean protein, dried white tea leaves, dried lemongrass, lemon oil. This is a vegan, all natural soap.
