Frequently Asked Questions

What are essential oils? Very simply essential oils are concentrated plant essences. Essential oils are extracted from the seeds, roots, leaves, flowers, bark, branches or whole plant. Various methods are used to obtain the plant essences; there is water distillation, water and steam distillation, cold expressed, and solvent expressed. Steam distillation is the most common method used to capture essential oils, in fact, about 80% of all the oils are produced via this method. Essential oils are used for various applications, many have proven to have antibiotic, antifungal, and antiviral properties.

How much do essential oils cost? The prices can vary widely, depending on the quality, purity and grade of the essential oils, whether they are organically grown, Wild-crafted, farm practices and where they come from.

What is the difference between essential oils and fragrance oils? They are both very different products, essential oils (EO’s) come from plants and have aromatherapy benefits, in addition to many other application for our health and well being, and fragrance oils (FO’s) are artificially produced, and have none of the therapeutic benefits.

You mention your soaps are made with saponified oils, what does saponified mean? The term saponification is the name given to the chemical reaction that occurs when vegetable oil or animal fat is mixed with sodium hydroxide (commonly known as lye). Handmade soap crafted this way retains all its natural moisturizing properties, with no lye left in the final product; only soap, glycerin and water. Commonly bought commercial soaps you buy in stores, have the glycerin removed, because it’s more profitable to sell it separately to use in other *products (*lotions, creams) that then are hailed as “putting moisture back in your skin”. Those commercial bars are made of surfactants and harsh detergents that are derived from crude *mineral oil (*motor oil). .They may look, feel, and smell good, but deteriorate skin with time. Additives to try and offset the harshness of the product are included many times. Don’t be fooled, real soap hand-milled the old fashioned way retains all the moisturizing properties of the oils used have, including the therapeutic properties of the Essential Oils we use in our soaps. Glycerin retained in handmade soap, makes a wonderful moisturizing lather. Once you use our hand-milled soap you’ll never want anything else!

Do you have any questions for us? See contact information if you’d like to send us your questions. You just may see your question and answer on our FAQ’s page!