With the summer months passing us by, the heat waves are still hanging around! After those long sun filled days, sometimes you really need to refresh. It can get really hot in Ottawa, we totally get it, it gets sweaty sometimes! Just because the sun is beating down on us out there, we don’t have to sacrifice smelling great and feeling fresh. Our handmade bar soap makes a great choice anytime of the year, but in the heat of the summer you deserve only the best bar to make you feel squeaky clean.
Our cold process soap is a cut above the rest. We make our soaps without any stripping agents or detergents. Common bar soaps often contain extra ingredients that act as detergents and can be harsh on your skin. Detergents can cause irritation and dryness, which is not very pleasant on your already sunkissed skin! Detergents and other stripping agents can also start to damage your skin’s natural barrier. This can make your skin more susceptible to toxins and bacteria that creep in and can cause long term harm. Especially in the summertime when you might be showering more often, and spending lots of time out and about, you want to keep your skin barrier strong without compromising that “scrubbed clean” feeling.
Purple Urchin soap has short ingredient lists and contains only the highest quality natural ingredients. No matter what scent you like, all of our bar soaps start with 3 common ingredients: Olive oil, coconut oil, and canola oil. These oils are the starting ingredients for saponification, the reaction that makes soap. (Interested in how saponification works? Check out our website for future blog posts on the chemistry of soap making!) But those 3 ingredients are the bulk of our bars, anything else in the ingredient lists is chosen with care to add fragrance or a light exfoliant such as poppy seeds or coffee. Nothing else, no nonsense, nothing extra. Not only are these 3 ingredients all natural, they contain compounds with awesome health benefits! Olive oil is rich in antioxidants and vitamin E which can help to prevent premature signs of aging and wrinkling on your skin. To make your skin feel soft and smooth after every wash. Coconut oil contains medium chain fatty acids which lock in moisture and keep your skin feeling supple and smooth.
Our bar soap can also be purchased in 3 ways. Our most popular option is our naked bars, with no packaging, ready to go from our store to your shower. If you are gifting one of our bars, you might choose to opt for the packaged option. All our packaged bars are hand wrapped and labeled by our staff and make a gorgeous gift. Because all our soap is hand made, some bars don’t make the cut (pun intended) and are a little too small, a little too big, or just a bit of a funky shape. We sell these soap ends in bulk at a discount, a great option if you are on a budget and don't mind a misfit bar!
Whatever option you chose, we bet you’ll be happy with our soap! Give Purple Urchin a try this summer and experience the benefits of all natural soap. And try to stay cool out there! If you can’t, at least you can stay clean!