Frequently Asked Questions

What is soap & how does it work? 

Soap has been around for hundreds of years, there are various theories on how it was discovered. Most involve animal fats dripping onto the embers of a fire and then being used to wash clothes. 

Soap is a combination of lye (an alkaline, we use sodium hydroxide mixed with water to create lye) with animal fats or vegetable oils (acidic) These combine and neutralize each other in a process known as saponification. Many cleaning bars and gels are in fact detergents and not soaps at all as they are manufactured using petroleum distillates rather than oils.

 Soap works by combining with water to attract dirt molecules. Water molecules on their own are too close together and resist being broken down. A soap molecule attracts water at one end of the molecule and repels it at the other end. The repelling ends break up the surface tension of the water which makes it spread out and wet more efficiently while the other end of the molecule attaches itself to dirt and removes it as the first end is pulled to the water.  

 Soap is produced in several different ways:

 The cold process method, this is still commonly used by handmade soap makers. The oils are warmed and mixed with the lye, saponification takes several days and the glycerin which is a natural by-product of the saponification process remains in the soap. All our soap bars are made using this process.

 The boiled method, steam is used through the mixture and then salt is added making the soap rise leaving the glycerin at the bottom which is then sold separately.

 The continuous process, soap is manufactured under pressure causing immediate saponification again very often the glycerin is separated out. This is the most common method of making mass produced soaps they are often produced mainly from chemicals rather than natural products. Although they may work well, they can be very abrasive and by removing the glycerin you lose the natural emollient.

Natural Products

What do we mean by natural products? Is it no chemicals?  Well no, everything is a chemical so the definition of natural is blurred, hence check the ingredients before you buy when looking at cosmetics. Check out the ingredients on most manufactured soaps, they are often nothing more than chemicals.  However, they can still claim they are natural. They may wash you but what else do they do to your skin. Our soaps are made using the traditional cold process which means they all use only natural vegetable oils for their base oils. Many of our soaps use essential oils for their fragrance or scent.  What is an essential oil?  It is a natural oil distilled from a plant. Others may use manufactured fragrance oils, we prefer to make all our soaps with essential oils but it limits what you can make, so we do make some soaps using fragrance oils. Then there is the color.  Whilst some soap makers rely on colors to make them sexy, we try to keep to natural products in our colors.  We realize they may not look as exciting as some soaps you can buy out there but then why would you want to put more chemicals on your skin.

Why Use Handmade Soap?

If you care about your body then you should take care what you put on it.  The chemicals in manufactured bars or gels may work in cleaning you but if you use harsher foreign substances, it may alter the body's chemical balance and remove our skin of its natural defenses. Using the cold process insures you get the benefit of a slow saponification process leaving in all the glycerin.

If you care about the environment then putting more detergents into dirt water will do nothing to help restore natures balance. Handmade soaps like ours use natural plant oils that when used will biodegrade and cause minimal environmental impact.

If you are fed up with a mass produced world, we still make all our soaps in small batches ourselves.  We make them here in the USA and we hand-cut and shape every bar and hand-wrap every one with pride.

If you care about animals, we don’t use animal fats at Hidden Valley Farms.  We use only high quality vegetable oils but not all handmade soaps are made using vegetable oils so if you care about animals, check before you buy.

If you like variety, from scrub soaps to fruit soaps to pure olive oil soaps, most handmade soaps are made using nature's best products. We grind oats and use peel from fruits, we chop berries and cactus and use natural herbs to make a product that adds to the natural oils of the skin rather than destroy those oils.

What are Kind Skin Soaps?
Unfortunately allergies seem more and more common these days. Within my family, we have relatives that suffer from dreadful eczema and have been on many different prescribed medications.  Like many others, they have found our kind skin soaps a gentle natural alternative. There is no cure for everyone, some people have reactions to some essential oils, others to colors or lye. Have a look at our kind skin section, we have products there that are gentle and kind.  Our simple soap and olive oil soap use no essential oils or colorings. If you think you may benefit from one of these soaps then why not try one of our samples.  We would recommend you always do a test on a small area of skin first in order to see if you have a reaction. If you know that you are allergic to lye then our soaps are not for you, as all of them are made using lye in the saponification process.

How long does soap last and how should I keep it?
Soap will last an awful long time if un-used, however it will lose its fragrance and color and should therefore be used within 12 months. If you have some really old soap of ours hidden away in the bathroom you can still use it, it will still work effectively as a soap bar. Soap is best stored out of direct light so keep it in its wrapping.  It can cope with extreme temperatures but prefers dry conditions. Once in use, it's best kept in a soap dish that drains out water at the bottom. Leaving it in a dish with water will cause it to go mushy on the bottom.

Why are some soaps hard and some lather better than others?
What we look for as soap makers is a hard soap that lathers really well when you use it. However, as with most things in life, there are trade-offs. If it lathers more, it will not last as long. The lather of soap depends upon the oils used, the more saturated in oil, the less lather you will get. Our pure olive oil soap gives a lovely lather but is not as hard as other bars we make. If you want a hard soap, try our scrub soaps like gardeners - great for cutting through the dirt!

How long does our soap take to make?
We make the soap in small batches.  After it is poured in the mould, it cools and continues to saponify for a few days. We then cut it and let it dry out for around three weeks, we are then ready to wrap and ship. Here in Arizona, where our main office is located, the air is so dry which really helps the drying out process which then helps make a nice hard bar.

Why are our bars different on each order?
The colors and bars vary all the time because they are handmade.  We adjust each batch (about 90 bars) as we are making it in order to try to achieve the best saponification. The coloring is always amazing to me and after many interesting results, I decided to put my wife totally in charge of that part of the operation!  It is always amazing to us to see how very different the soap colors are at the end of our soapmaking process when compared to the color of the batches when we begin making it.