Your guide to buying handmade natural soap bars
How to choose a natural soap bar
Look for a cold process soap with a short ingredient list you can read: plant oils such as olive oil, clays and essential oils. Choose a scent you love, or go unscented, and check whether it’s vegan and palm-oil free if that matters to you. Handmade bars from small makers usually tell you exactly what’s inside.
Switching to handmade natural soap bars is a simple, lovely way to bring a more natural approach to your self-care routine. But how do you choose the right bar for yourself and your loved ones? Here are a few things worth knowing when you shop for natural soap, from ingredients to how it’s made.
Why choose handmade natural soap?
Ingredients you can recognise: handmade natural soaps are usually made with plant oils and butters, gentle clays, botanical extracts and essential oils, ingredients you can read on the label and understand.
Made in small batches: handmade soaps are often made and cut by hand, so every bar is slightly different, and you can usually find out exactly who made it and how.
Supporting small makers: choosing handmade often means supporting independent businesses that care about where their ingredients come from and how their soap is packaged.
The art of soap making: cold process vs melt and pour
There are two main ways to make handmade soap. Understanding them can help you choose.
Cold process soap is a traditional technique that mixes oils, lye (sodium hydroxide) and water. This reaction, called saponification, turns the oils into soap and naturally produces glycerin. Cold process soaps need to cure for several weeks so the lye has fully reacted and the soap is gentle and safe to use. Our kefir soap bars cure for about 4 weeks.
Melt and pour soap uses a ready-made soap base that’s melted, scented and set, with no curing time. It’s convenient, but the base often already contains colours, fragrances and other additives, so it’s worth checking the ingredient list.
Choosing the right natural soap bar for you
Know your skin type: do you have dry, oily or sensitive skin? Olive oil soaps and shea butter soaps are popular choices for dry skin, while charcoal and green clay bars are popular with people who have oilier skin. If you have very sensitive skin or a skin condition, patch-test first.
Read the label: handmade soap makers usually list their ingredients using INCI names (the International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients), an industry standard that uses Latin names. Don’t be put off by the scientific terms: “Olea Europaea Fruit Oil” is simply olive oil. A quick search will decode any name you don’t recognise. Every PiQi soap lists its full ingredients on its product page.
Choose a scent you love: natural soaps are often scented with essential oils. Pick one that suits your mood, like calming lavender and fresh lemongrass or citrusy may chang.
Buying for a man? See our pick of natural soap for men.
Support local makers: look for local soap makers who use good-quality, carefully sourced ingredients. You’ll get fresher soap and support small businesses in your community.
How we make PiQi soap
Our water kefir soaps are made by the cold process method in small batches in Devon, with olive oil and our own fig-infused water kefir, then cut by hand and cured for about four weeks. Every bar is vegan, palm-oil free and made without parabens, sulphates or synthetic fragrances. They’re scented only with essential oils (or not at all, in our Unscented bar), and you’ll find every ingredient listed on each product page.
We hope these tips help you find the right soap bar for your skin. Browse our handmade natural soap bars, or try three in the Discovery Pack.
