Educational Series: Bar Soaps

Welcome to our new educational series, where you can learn more about the making of Rainwater Farm and our products.

Chances are that we have been passionate about making soap as long as you have known us, but that has not always been the case. A couple years before Rainwater Farm started in 1992, we had a family friend visiting, and when she left, she left behind a bar of handmade soap. Although I thought it rather unusual, curiosity won the day and I decided to try it out. After using it, I realized I could never go back. This led to trying to find the perfect soap recipe through books, trial and error, and advice from my friend who had left the bar behind. After asking many questions of my friend, she finally relented and gave me her recipe for soap. What began as a small endeavor to make good quality products for my family and friends quickly grew into a business of selling my products to members of the community.

Fast forward all these years, and we now ship products on a daily basis all over the country. Although we make a wide range of products now, still in my basement, bar soap, specifically Oatmeal Lavender Bar Soap, will always hold a special place in our business and hearts since it was the first of our products that we made.

What makes our bar soap different from products that you can buy in the store? I'm glad you asked. The base of our bar soap is fats and lye, whereas the "soaps" (they're actually detergents) that you buy in the store are made from a variety of chemicals that are harmful to your skin. These chemicals are not only harmful for your skin, but they also strip your skin of its natural oils, therefore drying out your skin and often causing irritation. Another difference between our bar soaps and products found in stores is that our products are made using only essential oils, no synthetic fragrances. To contrast, almost all products found in stores include synthetic fragrances, which studies have found to be harmful to the human body. Even many products advertising to be made with essential oils will often include minute amounts of essential oils and large amounts of synthetic fragrances, therefore still causing harmful effects to the body and far outweighing any potential benefits of the essential oils in the product.

Here at Rainwater Farm, we vow to always use the highest of quality in ingredients and to never knowingly mislead our customers in any way, especially when it comes to the health and safety of your skin and body.