Hello again and happy new year! I've made the decision to move to a made to order format for our soaps. In order to ensure that you get the best soap with the greatest possible longevity made to order is definitely the way to go. Natural soap like ours isn't designed to sit on the shelf. It's made to be used. It can go bad in the wrong conditions far too soon, and even in the best conditions has a shelf life of 6 months to 1 year. 

Why does our soap have such a short shelf life? Because natural oils go off. With the unsaponified constituents left in the soap from these high quality oils it makes them prone to going bad faster than a conventional chemical surfactant soap or soaps with additives to prolong their lives while adding nothing to the value of what it does for your skin.

Surfactants don't differentiate between our cells, or healthy oils, and dirt. This is why soaps can be stripping. Leaving your skin dry and parched. Over time, or even right away it can create problems in the dermis leaving the skin vulnerable to irritation and allergens.  I've made our soaps to be as gentle on the skin as nature can provide while giving a decent amount of time for their use before they go off. This is why I use whole natural, cold pressed and organic oils in our soaps. Leaving enough of the unsaponified parts in the soap that when it's used the soap takes what it needs from itself rather than from your skin, taking only the bad and leaving your natural dermal layers renewed and refreshed, not stripped bare. This comes with the down side that the shelf life of our soap is shorter, and I'm not willing to compromise and add preservatives. So, the decision has been made. Made to order soap will give you the best soap possible, fresh batches, made for you. It also means that there will be a minimum order of 4 bars. Half and whole loaves (12 bars) will be available, and can be split between people if you share an order. 

I have a bottle neck of how much soap I can make as just one person. So getting on our customer list and pre-ordering is a great idea! This also means that I can take special requests and I can offer a few more recipes for you to consider. I'm currently working with a Juniper, Flax Gel, and Olive Oil bar that I love which I would love to offer you guys as well.

This change will take place in February and so the format of the website will be changing too. Coming soon!

Sincerely,
Sherry / Chandler Old Mill Natural Soap Company

As a chemosensitive person one of the hardest things to manage is finding suitable personal grooming products. I ran the gamut for over a decade, and even decided to get with just shaving my hair off a few times. I think I did ok carrying the look, but having my locks back, and finally mastering making my own shampoo after becoming a soap maker myself, I feel like I have the best hair I've ever had. In the spirit of sharing great things, though I don't sell my shampoo bar yet, I thought I would share the process of making it here.

I did a lot of research into the kinds of natural herbs and oils that support the health of the hair. Finally settling on a simple combination of ingredients, some of which I also use in a conditioning wash that I make to go along with the shampoo. 

First I make the soap. Making a decoction of the herbs and other water soluble ingredients, and then I freeze it. Adding the lye to the frozen decoction prevents the caustic gasses from being created when they come into contact. Next I measure the oils, and add them to the slow cooker to melt them and eventually end up with a hot process soap. Once it jells I put it into the mould and wait for it to harden. This part can take up to 24 hours if you want to wait that long. 

Next I repeat the process with the decoction, with the same ingredients. While all of the herbs and oils went through the saponification process in the soap bar, in this part of the process they remain fully intact.

Making a double boiler with a small pot and a metal bowl I add both coconut oil and sunflower oil, grating and melting the soap back down with the oils, and then slowly add in the strained decoction until I get the viscosity I'm looking for. I use this part of the process to create a liquid soap that won't be overly alkaline and strip the hair, but rather protect it. Just the soap alone can be too stripping. This is the main reason I don't offer the shampoo bar for sale, yet.

Once all of the ingredients are melted in the bowl together I let it stay on low heat for about 20 minutes with a cover on just to let everything mingle. Once it's ready I blend it with a hand blender, and allow it to cool. I keep the extra in the fridge until it's used. It can separate a little but a good shake puts it all back in order. Now for the actual recipe... 

Sher's Shampoo Bar (3 bar batch size)

Coconut Oil 80g
Sunflower Oil 105g
Avocado Oil 20g
Cocoa Butter 15g

Liquid 71.25g (see liquid decoction recipe)
Lye 35.63g

Liquid Decoction Recipe

Distilled water
Peppermint
Hyssop
Calendula
Yerba Mate
Fenugreek
Rice
Oat
Honey (Add honey to the decoction after it's been removed from heat and strained)

Added after jell phase...
1 tsp Honey & 1 tsp Collagen powder mixed with 2 tbsp warm water (you can also mix it with the left over strained decoction as long as its warm enough to dissolve the honey and collagen)

~ Tea bags are great for making the decoction. You don't need loose herbs but they're also great if you have them. You can play with this and make your own version for what works for you, but consider the why of the above ingredients, it's a great combination!

Peppermint stimulates hair growth at the root.

Hyssop cleanses and supports the scalp as well as the hair, and has anti-inflammitory and gentle anti-fungal properties. It's also considered a spiritual herb for cleansing if you're like me and appreciate that kind of thing. 

Calendula sooths the scalp, preventing irritation from the surfactant properties of the soap.

Yerba Mate aids in stimulating and toning the scalp and has powerful anti-oxidant properties toning and purifying the hair strand.

Fenugreek has been used in Ayurvedic shampoos for thousands of years. Here it supports the hair with its ability to stimulate growth, prevent DHT (which can cause hair loss) from attaching to the hair follicle, and helps to thicken the hair.

Rice protein helps to reduce frizz, supporting the hair strand by filling in weak spots.

Oat helps prevent irritation of the scalp, reducing inflammation to help prevent hair loss and improve the quality of hair growth.

Last is honey, bringing its brightening and antioxidant properties, helping to keep the scalp calm and nourished as the soap does it's work removing the unwanted dirt and oils. 

Collagen is added with more honey after the jell phase, but for the why of it as an ingredient it's a core building block of hair nails and skin. Thickening the hair, and supporting both the follicle and scalp. I'm really glad I took the chance and decided to put it in there.

~

For me this has given my hair new life and I'm all about it now. As I was researching the various ingredients I found products with them in them, some here and some there. All mixed with chemical surfactants and irritants, fragrances, and preservatives. Some of these products were as expensive as $350 per bottle, and didn't even list the ingredients other than the one or two golden carrot ones. I can make this in my kitchen on a Sunday afternoon. It can be even more simple if you're just getting started or can't use some of the things I mentioned. Just be sure to consider the alkalinity of your end shampoo, your hair will thank you! In my opinion it's not just your hairs health that will improve, avoiding the plethora of toxic chemicals in common personal grooming products is the best way to make sure you're health is being supported wholistically by your total environment. 

When it comes to toxic load, using food grade ingredients, and the same ingredients in both soap, shampoo, and conditioning hair rinse, and many of those same things being in your actual diet, your body can relax and know that it's in an environment that it understands at the epigenetic level, and that its supported in that environment. For me as a Chemosensitive person, that's really important, but I don't think I'm that different from anyone else when it comes to that. We're all chemically sensitive at some level. 

That was a lot but I hope you can benefit from it. I think I'll save the conditioning rinse for another day!

Thanks for being here and TTYS!
​
Sincerely, Sherry
Old Mill Natural Soap Company Owner/Chandler/Soapmaker

Hello wonderful people!

My name is Sherry and I'm the owner and Chandler/Soaper behind Old Mill Natural Soap Company. Opening in the summer of 2024 I bring my experience as a chemosensitive person and chem-free advocate to soap making in every way. From the process of soap making itself to the ingredients, with a focus on fragrance free, essential oil free, chem free, dye free, natural soap. 

I started making soap because I had to, suffering for many years being chemically sensitive and trying to find commercial products that I could use. When I discovered the cold lye process for soap making I decided to finally give it a try and I've never looked back. While you can find 5 amazing soap bars here, I also make shampoo bars which I use for making my own shampoo, something I might be adding to the site in the future. Another case of me not having a choice I had to learn to make my own shampoo, and even dish soap after becoming allergic to the most common surfactant found in scent free natural and organic soap products. Even the scent free products had betrayed me, an obstacle which through Old Mill Natural Soap Co. I've turned into a stepping stone. 

While we pretty much take it for granted, soap is a big deal. With global industries of chemical surfactant soaps that are dyed and scented, filled with hardening agents and fillers, so they can reap huge profits with cheap ingredients, and it can sit on a shelf and never go bad, or vanity soaps that are more pretty than useful, and "natural soaps" that are more promises than fact... I wanted to cut through all of that and take soap back to its foundation. Something that serves a pragmatic need in a fantastic way, without compromising our health or environment. This approach effects every part of my process, including the look of the finished soap bars which don't have the aesthetic of vanity soaps, they're meant to be used, and to give you the most for your money. (Soap saving tip, cut your soap bars in half or quarters, they will go a lot farther)

I really struggled to keep the price of our bars down. Using organic, extra virgin, and pure oils which are heavy and costly when shipped, the costs can add up, so while it may seem like the price is a lot for one bar of soap if we compare it to something like a latte, the value that we get for the use and quality we get is definitely worth it. Before I made my own soap I was using a brand that was $12 a bar, while it was only 10% Olive oil, not organic, and had added glycerin rather than naturally occurring glycerin in it, and left my skin patchy and red at times. With our $10 Bare Necessities bar you get 45% Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, and Pure Cocoa Butter, with naturally occurring glycerin created in the saponification process. This kind of price and quality can only be sustained by a micro business, and being so small I don't even have to charge tax. 

I'm a bit of a post modern luddite, so at this time I don't have an online store to make purchases through, and am crazy enough to try to start a company in 2024 without social media. In order to make a purchase you can inquire with the information about which bar you're interested in and how much you would like through our contact page. I will respond to you asap. Payments are accepted through internet transfer to [email protected].

​Old Mill Natural Soap Co. is an official registered sole proprietorship in Ontario, and our bars are registered with Health Canada's cosmetics registry. I'm a one woman business, with my life partner behind me supporting me. In a world of complexity, keeping it simple and possible is what I'm pretty much all about. 

Old Mill Natural Soap Co. is a dream, a hope, and a reality all in one. Thanks for being here and being a part of it!

Sincerely, Sherry