Does Handmade Soap = Natural Soap?
Not necessarily. Handmade soap, made from scratch by a soap maker, can contain many things. But if it is SOAP, and does not contain detergent or boosters like SLS, then it is “natural soap” There’s also the discussion about whether you’re talking “natural” fragrances vs. not-so-natural scents, and what the soapmaker uses to color the soap. To my way of thinking, if the soap you’re using is (1)made from oils and butters derived from things that were once alive (plants or animals); (2) is either unscented or scented with essential oils, and (3)is colored with botanical or mineral materials or has no color added, you have all-natural soap. If you use fragrance oil, as we do in some soaps, you have natural soap scented with fragrance oil. If you use dyes, which we don’t, you have natural soap, colored with dye. Some of our soaps are all natural. We make soaps with no added color or fragrance, and some that contain only essential oils and/or natural (plant or mineral derived) colorants. But
