Our soap:
Why it is different:
We are very proud of our soap ingredients. We chose the best ingredients that we feel make the best soap. Not the cheapest soap! A lot of handmade soap is made with the ‘common three’: Coconut, Palm and Olive. We use these three…but we also add: Sunflower, Sweet Almond, Castor and Shea Butter. The combination of these oils create a superior bar. We mostly scent with Essential oils. Sometimes, to achieve a certain scent we will use Fragrance.
How it is made:
Shade Mountain’s soap is handmade, from scratch, using no base. Our soaping process is extremely unique. We start with what is known as cold process technique and then move to a hot process. Very simply what that means for you (and is a super benefit for our wholesalers) is that we can make soap one day and it will be ready for the shelf in less than a week.
We take seven oils and melt them all together. Then we blend it with sodium hydroxide (yes, this is lye), then we mix it until it become like a thin cake batter. From here we add colors, scents, any additives or exfoliates and pour into a mold. Next is when the transformation happens. The oil reacts with the lye, changing complete molecular form, in a process called saponification. Oil is not oil and lye is not lye. It is now soap! You can not make true soap without lye.
Why Natural Soap:
Commercial bars and body washes are many times made with detergents. We often tell customers: detergents are great for your dishes and your laundry BUT…not your skin! Detergents strip your skin of all its natural oils and defense. Natural soap will gently but thoroughly clean your skin without stripping it of all natural oils. When ask about skin irritations, we often say: “It starts with your soap!”
Aloe Vera Based Cremes and Lotion:
We use no water in our cremes. Commercial products can be up to 85% water! Water has no therapeutic value…but aloe has amazing benefits!Aloe vera contains 75 potentially active constituents: vitamins, enzymes, minerals, sugars, lignin, saponins, salicylic acids and amino acids! These all add specific value of their own, but together: create a superior creme. These benefits include antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, wound healing, cell growth stimulant, and moisturizing.
Aloe is most commonly used as a topical treatment for cuts, burns and other wounds – and with good reason. Four experimental studies found that Aloe Vera may reduce the healing time of first or second degree burns by almost nine days, when compared to the control groups. These incredible results may be explained by the fact that Aloe speeds up skin cell reproduction by as much as eight times and penetrates the epidermis (the outer layer of skin) four times faster than water!
Essential Oils:
We are not loyal to any one brand of essential oils as we know there are many superior brands available. We buy our oils from a couple different places all of whom we have researched thoroughly. All of our Essential Oils bottled up for you to purchase are organic.
We do use Essential Oils to scent a lot of our products and many times we choose them for their therapeutic properties. Our staff are Certified Aromatherapists and have taken classes, done case studies and written papers about the safety and efficacy of Essential Oils. Essential Oils are very powerful and as such should be treated with care and caution. There is a lot of bad advice out there about how to use EO’s (for example, mixing them with water to drink.. don’t do that!). Please ask us if you have a question about how to best use the oils or which oils would be best for your circumstance.
Our blends are unique to Shade Mountain, researched and created by us!
Fragrances:
We do sparingly use fragrances because our customers ask for them. For example- there is no such thing as a cupcake essential oil… sorry! We are very transparent when using a fragrance and if you are unsure please ask. If we do use a fragrance it is a phthalate free fragrance and the safest of the fragrances you can get. If you are uncomfortable with any fragrances please let us know and we can direct you to some of our “classic” line which are only scented with essential oils.