The Science of Soap

When Keith and I took our first soap-making class, we had no idea how quickly it would snowball into an actual business. Then again, him being psychic, he possibly did. I thought, It was just going to be a fun hobby.

The idea of creating our own soap had a certain appeal to me. Being a pharmacist, I’m a scientist at heart. However, I’ve always had an artistic side as well. Soap making is a perfect way to blend those two aspects. During that class, I had flash-backs to Chemistry lab. Thoughts like: “Wow. This is an exothermic reaction” and “Oh. We’re making a water in oil emulsion” kept jumping into my head. I was totally geeking out.

Designing new soaps is exciting, because we get to be creative, yet we still need to keep in mind the ratios and proportions of the basic soap ingredients. Since saponification (the reaction that creates “soap”) is a chemical reaction between the sodium hydroxide and the fatty acids in the oils, we need to be careful not to interfere with that process.

As a scientist, I need to know that all of our add-in ingredients make logical sense, and that there is some evidence that they have a positive effect. As a Holy Fire Reiki practitioner, I also am aware of the energetic component to all of our ingredients. For these reasons, we have decided not to use any of the synthetic scents or colors that you will find in most other soaps today. Of course this means that our soaps may not look as vibrant, or smell as strongly, but they are of the highest quality.

All of our ingredients are from natural sources. If we incorporate an essential oil; it is 100% pure, organic, therapeutic grade. We realize that this increases the cost of our soap, but we feel it is well worth it in the end. When we use oatmeal, coffee, sage, or other similar ingredients, we have ground them ourselves to insure purity and freshness. Likewise; if a soap contains fruit, then we have most likely chosen fresh fruit and pureed it ourselves.

Lastly what sets Keith Mark Soap apart from other soaps on the market, is that we infuse every bar with the subtle healing energy of Holy Fire Reiki.