Frequently Asked Questions – Goose Ridge Soaps, LLC Skip to content

Frequently asked questions


The majority of our soaps are made using natural ingredients and essential oils. However, a couple of our recipes do contain artifical fragrances. We encourage you to thoroughly check our ingredients list before purchasing any of our products, and contact us with questions!

In soap making, glycerin-containing fats and oils are blended with lye to make soap. Glycerin is a natural emollient that attracts water from the air. In our hand made soap, the glycerin remains intact and settles between the soap molecules. This allows the soap to be both cleansing and moisturizing.

Many brand-name soaps are factory made blends of synthetic detergents, artificial fragrances, and foaming agents. Often, the naturally occuring gylcerin is skimmed off to make other products such as lotions and creams. This can leave the skin feeling dry and flaky and in need of additional products for moisture.

All our soaps are made in small batches by hand. Since they are not machine-made and machine-standardized, each batch can vary in color, texture, and design, even when we use all the same ingredients. Changes can happen when there are temperature variations during the soap making or curing process, or if we just decide to try a little different artistic technique. These visual differences are how you know you are getting a unique hand made product, and not someone else's wholesale item with our label slapped on. We take a lot of pride in our creativity!

All our soap recipes are personally developed. We choose our oil blends and other ingredients to try to impart specific properties in our soaps, and those desired properties are outlined in each product's description. None of our soaps have been tested or approved by the FDA for use in treating any condition. However, many people do find that simply making the switch from a brand name "soap" to a hand made cold process soap helps their skin considerably.

**If you do have a skin condition, please thoroughly review our ingredients list before using any of our products, and avoid ingredients that may aggravate or worsen your condition.

Soda ash is a by-product of the soap making process when some of the sodium hydroxide (lye) in the soap batter reacts with carbon dioxide in the air. This occurs inconsistently, and looks like a white powdery or chalky substance that may be present on the surface of, or even inside the bar. Soda ash is completely harmless and does not affect the performance of the soap in any way. While we take steps to try and prevent this (as it may be considered unsightly), sometimes it just happens.

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