When your soap dish is full of suds with a sliver of soap floating around, you probably head to your linen closet for a new bar of LAFCO fragranced bar soap. When you slide that new bar of soap into your soap dish, you probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it. You may have spent a few minutes deciding which fragrance to use and you may have even read the list of ingredients. If you’re like most people, however, you probably don’t think about the process that took those ingredients from their raw material form and turned them into the bar of soap you use to wash and fragrance your hands.
The process to create bar soap is more complex and scientific than you might imagine. It is a process with ancient origins that has been updated with modern ingredients to create the product you know and use on a daily basis.
Before you grab that new bar of soap for the first time, take a moment to learn how it is made and see what makes LAFCO bar soap a unique and luxurious experience to use.
Read on to learn more about the soap making process and to see why LAFCO is a brand you can trust for yourself and for your family.
What Makes LAFCO Soap Unique?
If you’re simply looking for a bar of soap that will get the job done, you could pay a few dollars at the grocery store for a generic branded six-pack. You may find upon using the soap, however, that there are a few problems. It may not lather well, might fill your soap dish with messy suds and residue, and may leave your hands feeling dry.
What makes LAFCO bar soap truly unique is the fact that it is artfully handcrafted in Europe from the finest natural ingredients, it is luxuriously fragranced with essential oil-based fragrances, and dry aged for 4 weeks. This process ensures that each bar is dense, long lasting, and dries quickly after each use. Unlike many other brands’ soap products, LAFCO bar soap isn’t loaded with water that dilutes the hydrating properties and leaves behind a sudsy mess.
In addition to being gently fragranced, LAFCO bar soaps contain moisturizing natural ingredients that are good for you. Every bar contains a rich blend of extra-virgin olive and argan oils which deliver supreme moisture and vital nutrients. This soap is made entirely without palm oil and is free from parabens, sulfates, and other synthetic ingredients. Simply put, LAFCO bar soap delivers a luxurious and genuinely pure experience.
How LAFCO Soap is Made
Soap is the result of a chemical reaction called saponification that takes place between two primary ingredients: fats or oils and acid or lye (sodium hydroxide). After the chemical reaction of making soap is completed, the oil and acid molecules have combined and turned into soap and glycerine (a natural by-product of the soap making process) .
Soap is made up of molecules with two very different ends. One end of soap molecules love water – they are hydrophilic. The other end of soap molecules hate water – they are hydrophobic. The hydrophobic ends of soap molecule attach to oil and grease on the skin. Hydrophilic ends stick out into the water and get rinsed off dragging the oil with it.
A variety of natural oils can be used to make soap, each of which lends its own unique properties to the final product. The type of oil or fat used in the blend determines the feeling of the bar, the richness of the lather, and additional benefits such as hydration and antibacterial protection.
There are several different methods for making soap, but the most common methods are known as cold process and hot process. Cold process soap combines melted oils and lye without using additional heat – the saponification process itself heats the soap overnight. Hot process soap combines the oil and lye and heats the mixture to jump-start the saponification process, cooking the soap to completion.
LAFCO bar soap is made with the hot process method using a combination of extra-virgin olive oil, coconut oil, argan oil, lye, and fragrance.
Here is an overview of how hot process bar soap is made:
- Base oils and lye are combined and heated to melt them into a liquid mixture.
- Water is added to keep the mixture fluid while heating the mixture.
- As the mixture heats up, steam bubbles through the mixture, encouraging the saponification process to happen more quickly.
- The hot liquid mixture is solidified, then ground to create ribbons of soap which are then mixed and compressed by machines to make them denser
- The large soap ribbons are fed into a second machine that shapes the them into smaller pieces called soap noodles
- Fragrance oils are then added and the mixture is thoroughly tossed with metal blades until well blended. This is referred to as the milling process.
- The soap noodles are pushed through an extruding plate forming long bars that are then sliced into shorter pieces, where the bars start to take shape.
- The soap bars are loaded into a press that gives the final shape and stamps them with our “LAFCO” logo on one side and the fragrance name on the other.
- After shaping and stamping the bars are aged for 4 weeks to ensure they are dense and long-lasting
- Finally the bars of soap are packaged for sale to our customers.
Where LAFCO bar soap truly departs from the standard soap making method is in the addition of argan oil. LAFCO bar soap has an extra-virgin olive oil base, but it is “superfatted” with argan oil. The term superfatting refers to the addition of extra oil to the soap recipe during milling. Superfatting increases the moisturizing qualities of the soap, making it more beneficial to the skin.
LAFCO uses argan oil which is extracted from the nut of the fruit of the argan tree native to Morocco. Rich in fatty acids and antioxidants, argan oil is often used in skincare as an anti-aging product. The omega fatty acids found in argan oil can boost collagen production and repair the skin.
Often soap makers superfat with shea butter, a fat extracted from the nut of the African shea tree. It is dense and adds creaminess to soap, however compared to argan oil, it lacks the high high amounts of essential fatty acids and antioxidants needed for optimal skin care
6 LAFCO Soap Fragrances To Try
If you’re looking for a natural bar soap that does more than just clean your skin, LAFCO has the perfect solution. LAFCO bar soap is artisanally crafted from natural ingredients proven to deliver superior moisture and gentle cleansing. Every bar is dry aged and quadruple milled and scented with perfume-grade essential oil-based fragrances. Plus, LAFCO soaps are hypoallergenic, vegan, cruelty free, and made without BHT, sulfates, parabens, and other synthetic ingredients.
Choose from the following six fragrances in 4.5-ounce or 8.5-ounce bars:
- Fresh Cut Gardenia – Breathe deeply the refreshing scent of gardenia, orange blossom, and ylang ylang followed by the subtle scents of pineapple, cedar, and green notes.
- Marine – This marine-scented fragrance includes wet floral notes of water lily, sea jasmine, and rose paired with the clean scent of bergamot and jasmine.
- Chamomile Lavender – Relax in understated luxury with the crisp scent of bergamot paired with the warmth of chamomile, all finished with an undertone of lavender, sage, and eucalyptus.
- Champagne – Rich and luxurious, this scent features sparkling notes of grapefruit, Tuscan lemon, and ginger calmed by the floral scents of neroli and rose.
- Sea and Dune – Fresh and invigorating, the scent of watery blue lotus and beech grass give way to notes of amber with a hint of ginger spice.
- Feu de Bois – Reminiscent of a winter night spent by the fire, this fragrance combines the smokiness of frankincense with cozy notes of sandalwood, leather, and pine.
With a variety of fragrances to choose from, LAFCO bar soap delivers a truly unique experience. You’ll enjoy the luxurious feel of a rich, creamy lather that leaves your skin moisturized and gently fragranced. Choose your favorite scent or use the LAFCO Fragrance Finder to select the fragrance that perfectly suits you. Once you receive your LAFCO soap, store it on a surface that doesn’t retain water so your soap dries after each use, ensuring long-lasting luxury with each bar.