Ask the Soapman

Do you make or plan to make a organic hand sanitizer? -Maureen Hi Maureen. Yes indeed we have one close to launch but the factory fire this Summer set us back. Give us about 6 months or less. If you sign up for the eSpecials on the Home Page you will know as soon as we do. All the Best! Soapman   Update, here is the link to Green Cleaners Izaroma!

I want a soap that cleanses and washes off completely to remove as much bacteria as possible. – Marilu Hi Marilu, Our foaming hand soap works great and doesn’t dry you out. Try it! According to the FDA washing your hands in pure soap and water for 35 seconds washes away 99.9% of all germs. Thanks for asking! Soapman

I suspect this is on your website somewhere, but I can’t seem to find it. Do you use sodium hydroxide? If so, do you make your own from ash, or do you purchase it made by the electricity in water method? Thanks Hi Garret, Good questions! When we make bar soaps we use sodium hydroxide. When we make liquid and gel soaps we use potassium hydroxide. Paste soaps (special order) are a mixture of both types of alkali. I have made potassium carbonate from wood ashes and water and then refined that into potassium hydroxide when I was in Liberia…

How do the soaps hold up during shipping in the warm weather months? Great Question! Handmade soap melts at 128F; 53C so you should be good to go. If you live in a desert we can ship your order with a freeze-pack in it.

How can I prevent the regular castile liquid soap from clogging our regular hand soap dispensers? It doesn’t seem to like to be pumped in either non-foaming and foaming type dispensers. Thanks! Jen Hi Jen, You want to thin down your castile liquid soap for most dispensing pumps and foamers. Try 40% soap/ 60% water for your foamers. Hint: add soap to water not water to soap here You can cut you castile soap by 50% with water for your pump. All the Best! Soapman

Dear Soapman, I used to buy Insect Armor and really liked it. Then you discontinued it and came out with Camp & Garden Spray and Camp & Garden Lotion which seems to be pretty much the same thing as the original Insect Armor formula. What’s going on here? Bugged in Brattleboro. Dear Bugged, A few years back Vermont Soap was served a cease, desist and recall order from the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency. They claimed that we were selling an unregistered pesticide across State lines. “But this is a blend of all natural plant oils designed to confuse (or…

Dear Soapman, Keeping clean naturally is all well and good. But I am tired of predicting the weather by the pain in my joints. Do you have anything for achy people? Signed, The Human Barometer Dear Human, No need to hire yourself out to the Farmer’s Almanac HB. In our continuing quest to soothe the minor injustices of human existence, VT Soap now offers Old Fashioned Arnica Salve to soothe your everyday aches and stiffness. Made from certified organic coconut oil, shea butter, hemp seed oil, wintergreen oil, beeswax, arnica, St John’s wort and rosemary extracts. Every ingredient works together…

I want to make a constructive criticism (not a complaint :o). We recently purchased tooth salt, and love the product – but surely there is another way to deliver it to the toothbrush? It doesn’t ‘squeeze’ out, as mentioned in the directions; it only ‘shakes/poofs’ out like a salt shaker, and most of it ends up on the sink and not the brush. I’m sure you’ve been working on this, but just wanted to let you know our experience with it. Thank you. Yes it’s true. We OVERFILLED a couple of thousand Tooth Salts and they do not dispense properly…

Just learning about real soap & started out with Dr Bronners. TOO drying. Came across your website and ordered some stuff yesterday. Today I realized coconut oil might be irritating my already dry skin. Can coconut & palm oils become irritants? I was reading something about developing allergies to them. Do you have liquid soaps without them? Worried I’m going to have trouble with my liquid sunshine that is coming…. Does it stay in your clothes and build up? Would that dry my skin? What about residues on dishes? My new baby has some ezcema and I’m trying to resolve…

I am going to bottle both 4 and 8 ounce size bottles of the shower gel. Could you tell me how much fragrance I should put in each. I will be using both fragrance oils and essential oils. I want the scent of the gel to match the fragrance scent of the body oil and body spray that will go in the kit. Essential oils are usually added at 2% to 3% of the total. If you measure out 100g of soap gel base it makes it easier to calculate percentages first time. These are guidelines only as aesthetics and…