A calendula is a flower that looks similar to what many might call a marigold - though they aren’t the same thing. It is also the flower at the top of this page - a picture I took of one of my own calendula flowers. See my “About Us” page for my story about how it is that calendulas turned into a soap business. 

Calendula (calendula officinalis) come from the “Asteraceae” family, and has relatives like yarrow, chamomile, echinacea, and arnica (all of which also grow in my garden). Calendula - like its relatives - has a long history of use for both culinary and medicinal properties. It is known to be helpful for skin injuries / issues, as well as keeping skin healthy and strong. Some studies have shown it to help heal wounds and decrease inflammation. 

While I won’t claim any of those benefits make it through the saponification process, I will tell you that the beautiful orange color of the calendula petal holds up beautifully in soaps and you will find it in many of mine as both decoration on top and within the bar. Ground calendula powder also adds a lovely natural orange tint to any bar.

We don’t have a physical storefront at this time. However, we do have free local delivery within 10 miles of SouthGlenn mall in Centennial, CO, and $4 flat-rate shipping across Colorado.

Come see us in person at upcoming local events listed at the bottom of the About Us page.

Short answer? It depends! Truly, it depends on a variety of factors - such as how often you use it, how much you use, what kind of bar you purchased, and how you store it. Wait - storage? There’s a proper way to store a soap bar? Yes!

Soap bars prefer to stay dry in between uses. If they sit on a shower shelf with no air underneath them, or in a soap dish with no drain holes, they will get soggy / mushy and will not last as long. When the bars are soft, you will notice you use more even though that doesn’t really create more lather or get you any cleaner. Ideally your soap should sit on something that allows it to drain and dry off between uses, and stay dry (out of the shower spray). I hope to have soap dishes and travel containers on my site in the future.

I make all the soaps on this website myself, by hand, using a variety of natural ingredients. These consist of a number of oils (such as olive oil), fats (such as tallow), natural butters (like cocoa butter), liquids (generally water but sometimes goat milk, juices, etc), clays, essential oils, and other dried botanicals. I plan to list all of my normal ingredients on a separate page in the near future, with some general information about each. You can always find the full ingredient list for each product on the product page.

If you have specific allergies or sensitivities, definitely read the list of ingredients for each soap, or send me a note if you are unsure. I always recommend trying a test patch and waiting a day to look for any skin reaction, before you lather up your entire lovely self. While most of my products are scented only with essential oils (which are natural), and some bars are unscented - every once in a while I will throw in a soap scented with a “fragrance oil”. These are *not natural, and I would recommend avoiding them or testing carefully first if you have a history of sensitive skin. If you have specific requests/concerns, please see the “Custom Orders” page or send me a note. I am more than happy to make soaps on-demand to accommodate your preferences or skin sensitivities!

All of my ingredients are natural, with the exception of an occasional “fragrance oil”. As mentioned in the question above about making soaps - my soaps are crafted with oils, butters, fats, clays, liquids that you could drink (juice, milk, water), some common baking ingredients (cocoa, spices, etc), and sometimes mixed with some botanicals (dried herbs, roots etc). All of these are natural, and many of the botanicals come from my own garden. All of the color you see is achieved with natural additives - which is why you will not see super bright or neon colors in my soaps. If I ever decide to opt for non-natural colors in the future, they will be clearly noted so that you can avoid them should you so choose. The only “non-natural” item I occasionally sell now are soaps scented with “fragrance oils”, and these are clearly noted as such.

No, not necessarily. If I can source them easily without a significant difference in price, I will go for organic. More often than not, organic comes at a price tag I would not want to pass on to my customers for a rinse-off product. All ingredients are cosmetic or food-grade, so they are perfectly safe. If I expand into skin care products that you would leave on, I will use organic ingredients.

Yes, my soaps are made with lye (sodium hydroxide), which may sound scary. It is important to understand that while lye is used in the soap-making process, it is not present in the final soap bars that are offered for sale. To expand further - the chemical reaction that happens during soap-making (called “saponification”) is the fats or oils I mentioned above (fatty acids) reacting with lye (a base) and turning into soap. By the time it’s done, there is no lye - it’s soap!

Besides having a blast with my creative side, I really love that bar soaps helped reduce the amount of plastic in my house. Since I have switched to my own soap bars for body, face and hair, the only plastic in my shower is my toothpaste (and that’s getting replaced by a more natural option after I get through the pandemic box from Costco). In comparison, most body washes come in a plastic bottle, with a product that is mostly water, and preservatives to keep it from growing mold. 

In addition, I am making every effort to make my packaging/labels environmentally friendly.  All orders will arrive in a recyclable cardboard box (or kraft paper bag for local deliveries), with the soap enclosed in compostable parchment paper. I am working on new product labels that will be fully compostable.

Short answer - every business has to start somewhere. Soaps are really fun, they hold up well, and they are safe to make and use. I make other herbal-based products (lotions, salves, creams, lip balms) for myself and friends and family - but selling them quickly crosses the line into cosmetics, which requires more study to do correctly, safely, and legally.

I am still working on a few recipes to make my soaps pet-friendly (my current volunteers are dogs). Pet skin and hair pH is different than humans, and I don’t want my products causing skin reactions. While we are talking about pets, I should warn you that my soaps smell like food and some truly look good enough to eat. My own canine companions, as well as family cats and ferrets, have all tried to eat my soaps. Don’t worry - none were hurt because we caught them sniffing - but just a word of caution to keep these soaps up high and out of reach of any one (furry or human) that doesn’t know not to eat them.

Handmade soap does have a shelf life. Scents and colors will begin to fade, and eventually some oils can actually go rancid. The soap will still clean you, may lack its original carefully crafted design and may not lather as well. It varies depending on ingredients, but I generally label mine with an expiration date ~1 year after I made it.