Today I am covering a valued question from a customer.
The soap that I normally purchase from Annie’s Goat Hill Handcrafted Soaps smells slightly different than the soap I purchased in the past. Did the recipe change?
Essential oils are natural. An essential oil can differ for various reasons. Factors that play into variances in essential oils are: the plant crop, the manufacturer (and distillation method), the region/climate the plant is harvested in, and the harvest practices.
Essential oils, like a good perfume, can age somewhat in the bottle. With good storage practices, essential oils can actually strengthen with time.
The creation of a natural soap requires careful measuring and tracking. Each recipe is followed to a “t,” using an electronic scale that weighs the ingredients to the tenth of an ounce. Even with careful measurements there are additional factors that can affect the soap from batch to batch.
- Season – humidity and temperature play a role in the soapmakers crafting practices. A difference in room temperature can greatly affect the first 12-24 hours of soap, changing the insulation needs, which could greatly affect the hardness and scent of the soap.
- Milk – varies from season to season. Have you heard the term “grass fed beef”? I can attest to grass fed milk. It is sweeter. Sweeter equates to more sugar in the soap recipe, which in turn affects the entire stability of a batch of soap.
- Age – of the actual soap bar itself. The curing process (4-6 weeks) not only allows the soap to become more mild, it also gives the soap time to harden (the moisture content in the soap drops drastically). I personally prefer an older bar of goat milk soap, especially one of my all natural soaps (some soaps contain man-made fragrances).
So…to wrap this up, with all of the careful intentions in place, natural soap can differ slightly from batch to batch!
I love questions, please keep them coming!
Annies Goat Hill Handcrafted Soaps 
Can you believe I’m down to only two or three bars of vanilla soap? I am needing to refuel my cabinets!! lol I have tried some of the others but gotta say the vanilly is my all-time favorite. 🙂 It will be interesting to see if what I order next will have been on the shelf longer… to see if there’s a noticeable difference.
Hello, Lynnanne. You may not see a difference between the vanilla soaps. The soap you will see a difference in, for sure, is the rosemary mint that you ordered. What I did not mention in my post (there is always an afterthought) is that certain essential oils are more sensitive to the elements, and to goat milk, than others are.
3 bars of soap…isn’t that nearly emergency status? Ha!
I’d say that’s coming close to emergency status!! I’m thinking about pulling in some honey and oats or whatever it is… as well as the vanilla. My aunt loves the rosemary lotion, by the way.
Honey and oatmeal. I had forgotten that the lotion went to your aunt. Glad she liked it!
Miss Mary…
I just wanted to tell you that I received my latest soap order several days ago and I LOVE the new scents I selected.
The fragrance of Lime Spearmint is sublime and the color is just gorgeous. Perfect for summer.
Sexy Little Things is so captivating. I love the natural color and the provocative scent.
Cherries and Berries is a classic that I probably never would have discovered had you not included it in my Brown Bag Special. It’s so much fun being surprised by soaps that ordinarily wouldn’t catch your eye, but become must haves.
Lavender Rosemary is subtle and rich smelling – so lovely.
But my absolute favorite is Still Waters. Oh Mary! You hit it out of the park with this one. It is amazing! The color. The scent. The lather. Don’t ever stop making this soap!
Next on my list to try is Moroccan Dreams. Can’t wait!
By the way… I gave my friend M. Simmons some of your soap as a gift this Christmas and she said she’s hooked. I almost didn’t want to tempt her because the recession has hit her family hard, but she said that if you can’t buy soap, then what can you buy? So look for her as a new customer soon.
Love you Mary. As always… you make my life so much sweeter and I am so thankful for you.
Now, here is a woman with more than 3 bars of goat milk soap!
Alix has an addiction.
Her addiction is not harmful. It is easily resolved by the site of milk soap in her bathroom!
Alix, I love the Still Waters as well. Isn’t it a fresh soap? Great to start the New Year with. I hope to be able to recreate that beautiful blue/green color!
Moroccan Dreams is not a pretty soap. It smells wonderful. Men like it (they tend to steal if from their wive’s bathrooms, ha), and many women love the soap as well. It has a great slippery, glycerin feel to its lather. Perfect for shaving. No nics, no chafing. I plan to run a deep discount on the current stock of Moroccan Dreams to clear the inventory. The new Morrocan Dreams soap will be crafted with subtle color, or none at all. When I do prepare the sale, I will send a note your way!
I am thankful for you too, always. And your reviews are very much appreciated!
Mary, even though I don’t use milk in my soaps, my experiences are the same as yours! It can sometimes be frustrating to the soapmaker but it is also one of the beauties of buying handmade soap.
As my husband says, you can get absolute consistency when you are using a commercial process like the ‘big boys’. Handmade is different – thank goodness!
As a comparison – if you bake bread or cakes, do they turn out exactly the same every time? No way!
Ann, that is a great comparison. Even if you bake bread or cakes from the box, they are never exactly the same.
I used to try to get soap bars exactly uniform. When reality hit, I realized my brand of soap represents handcrafted, primitive, from the farm…it isn’t about perfection (as a computerized machine could do), it is about an excellent product that people are happy to purchase!
This is very interesting. I bet it all has a fresh clean scent.
Hello, Stacey. Loved the story on your blog. Reminded me of visiting my grandparent’s house.