A Soap By Any Other Name....
Lacey HaegenWASHING YOUR FACE WITH DETERGENT?
Raise your hand if you like a creamy, sudsy, lather when wash your face🙋♀️!? Well, there are two ways to do that: 1: wash it with soap, or 2: wash it with a foaming face wash...a.k.a. detergents + surfactants + foaming agents.
Whuuuut? Detergents + Surfactants + Foaming Agents!?
Before we had foaming face washes, and liquid cleansers in pump bottles, we had soap and cold cream to wash our faces.
In the 80's, the big-chemical companies introduced detergent based cleansers whose lather was created with surfactants and foaming agents. They really needed our buy-in (literally and figuratively), so in order to get consumers to switch from soaps and cold creams, the marketing told us that soap and cold cream would unbalance our pH and cause acne and the new cleansers leave our skin clean and refreshed, acne free, and pH balanced!
Well, we know now that detergent based cleansers can cause a lot of harm. They can disrupt the microbiome and hormones of our skin, unbalance the pH, strip the skin of natural oils, and potentially cause acne and other issues.
That is why we are a huge fan of ol' fashioned, beautiful soap and really want to overturn the myth that soap is bad for us. However, not all soap is created equally. A lot of soap is made with unsaturated fats, palm oil, glycerin, water, and fragrance, which can make it too harsh for delicate facial skin. At Beaute Nouveau, we use saturated fats: Shea Butter and Virgin Coconut Oil, and rich Goat Milk, and then we super-fat it with Almond Oil. We also use Rosewood Essential Oil. These ingredients make a rich and creamy lather that gently cleanses. Actually, the Virgin Coconut Oil is what creates the lather!
FUN FACT: The same detergents, surfactants, and foaming agents that are in mainstream foaming facial cleansers are the same as the ones in dishwashing liquid and laundry soap.
SOAP FOR THOUGHT...
DID YOU KNOW: Most mainstream luxury French skin care companies offer facial bar soaps as a very luxurious and expensive option for facial cleansing?
For example....
CHANEL's Facial Bar Soap Sublimage La Savon de Soin is $110 and includes quite a list of chemicals such as propylene glycol and phenoxyethanol (both petroleum derivatives), sodium laureth sulfate (surfactant) etc. Thank goodness there is a 'lil' shea butter and vanilla plantifolia extract though 😉.
CLE DE PEAU'S Facial Bar Soap Synactif is also $110 and has a laundry list (pun intended) of petroleum derivatives, surfactants, preservatives.
PS: soap should not need preservatives.
Chanel's other cleansers are $50 and Cle de Peau's are $75...
Isn't it interesting that their Bar Soaps are $110?
Soap for thought.
OUR SHEA MILK BAR CLEANSER
(handmade from the best ingredients for $28)
HOW WE MAKE OUR SHEA MILK SOAP
Soap making is a process that has been handed down to us from centuries of generations.
To us, there is a sacredness to it.
1. We Melt Shea Butter + Virgin Coconut Oil to liquid (These are saturated fats).
2. We blend in a mixture of Lye* + Distilled Water into the melted Shea Butter + Virgin Coconut Oil.
*When Lye + Water are mixed into with the Shea Butter + Coconut Oil, there is an instant chemical reaction called saponification. The reaction causes the mixture to increase to roughly 300 degrees F, which essentially "cooks" the oil to make it soap. During the process, these 4 individual ingredients transform into soap...meaning they are no longer what they were when we started. *Lye is what causes the reaction - it's like the magic wand that transforms oil into soap.
3. After the reaction has occurred, we blend in ice-cold Goat Milk to start the cooling process and add more fats and liquid to thin the soap.
4. Then we blend in Almond Oil to super-fat the soap, which will make the lather extra rich and creamy.
5. Finally, we blend in the Rosewood Essential Oil and pour the final mixture into our rose shaped soap mold trays where they will sit for 3-5 days to cure before we place them in their boxes.
