HOW WE MAKE SOAP

The making of soap is a simple process; the chemical reaction used to make it is complex. The time-tested ingredients of soapmaking are animal or vegetable oils and lye. When acid in the form of fats or oils combines with a base solution of lye, a chemical reaction called saponification produces soap.

In the first part of the saponification process, the thin soup of base and acid, after much stirring, gradually thickens to a heavier and more uniform consistency. Contact and heat are two critical parts of the process. Constant stirring ensures thorough contact; the reaction of the acids with the base produces the heat. Our homemade soap uses the "cold process" in which no external heat is needed to drive the chemical reaction.

The soap is ready to be poured into molds when a bit of the soap, drizzled from a spoon across the surface of the mixture, leaves a trail before disappearing. When only a trace of the pattern remains, the soap is ready to be poured. This moment of readiness is known as "trace," when other ingredients can be added.

Once we pour the soap into a mold, we cover it with a sheet of cardboard or wood. The covered mold is then wrapped in several layers of thick blankets and left undisturbed for 8-24 hours. Insulation helps retain the heat that builds, aiding saponification, which continues during the soap's "curing" as it begins to harden.

Once they have set, or solidified enough to handle, our bars of soap are then removed from the mold and spread on baker's sheets lined with brown paper. Here they cure for another 3-4 weeks. During this time, the soap becomes milder, dry, and firm.

After curing, we trim each bar to remove the fine layer of ash that has formed on top. For this reason, no two bars will look exactly alike, although we try. We live in the country, and live a simple life. Brown paper, with the highest content of recycled material that we can find, is our choice for wrapping. Each square is cut, folded, and wrapped around the soap bar, which is then ready for labels and raffia bows. All of this is done lovingly by hand.

Lotions and creams undergo a simpler process without lye or saponification, using borax as an emulsifier to keep ingredients from separating, and less curing.

It is only in the last few years that soapmakers have moved beyond traditional ingredients, lye with animal fats such as tallow, or a few of the more common vegetable oils. We at Hummingbird use sodium hydroxide in distilled water and a mixture of high quality all natural oils. Our original intent was to use only vegetable oils, preferably organic. We soon learned that oils and other products sold as organic are often not truly organic, and those that are proved to be so rare that the supply was uncertain and so expensive that the price of the end product would be prohibitive for most people.

We were ready to go with all natural vegetable oils when we learned of the wonderful properties of emu oil through a local source in southern Oregon, and decided that its unique contributions warranted an exception. While our products are not organic or all vegetable, they are made from the highest quality natural ingredients available, with no artificial ingredients. Our commitment to quality is one of the foundations of our business philosophy.

The choices of ingredients today are endless, although many of the more appealing oils are quite expensive. This often requires limiting their use to small amounts added at trace. Oils added at this point do not saponify to the same extent as basic oils in the original mix, but tend to remain in their original form in the soap to act as emollient ingredients in a superfatted soap.

Superfatted soaps can be produced by adding oils at trace, or by using less lye than needed to saponify all the oils in the original mix; and some natural oils contain a high percentage of oils that cannot saponify. No matter how they are produced, superfatted soaps contain unsaponified oils such as glycerin, sweet almond oil, avocado oil, and often more, retaining their moisturizing and other properties for which we selected them. At Hummingbird, one of our main concerns is sensitive, compromised skin. Most of our soaps are superfatted to bring you a mild product that is cleansing but not drying, and rich with nutrients.

Healing herbs, cleansing grains, and rich emollients transform a basic bar of homemade soap to a fine cosmetic bar. At Hummingbird, we carefully choose and often grow our own nutrients. Comfrey is lovingly grown, hand picked, dried, then pulverized for our Comfrey Luxury Facial Bar. We also grow more than six types of lavender for our Simply Lavender Bath Bar. Honey from our own or neighbors' hives is warmed and added at trace to our Honey Oatmeal Gardener's Hand Scrub to offer a thin, protective layer to challenged skin. As our list of loyal customers grows, so too do the requests for nutrients.

Should a soap be scented, fragrance oils or essential oils are added after any nutrients. We at Hummingbird use no artificial fragrance oils, only the purest and finest quality essential oils, some of which are also used for aromatherapy. Essential oils were mankind's first medicines. While the FDA may not have approved them for healing purposes or endorsed historical claims of their therapeutic value, we at Hummingbird believe in their successes through the centuries. Our use of essential oils in our products is not done just to be trendy, or for the sake of fragrance alone, but after careful research and with the hope that they will heal based on the wisdom of the ages.

That is our soapmaking in a nutshell. I could elaborate and go on for pages, but I would rather encourage you to close your eyes and envision our little two-acre farmette nestled in southern Oregon's Rogue River Valley.

Picture Charlie tilling the vegetable and flower beds, digging irrigation ditches, mowing, or doing the books. I would be caring for the flowers, vegetables, fruit trees, or honey hives, or in the heart of the kitchen using everyday, not so fancy utensils, making a batch of soap or lotion. My mom wouldn't be far away. I need Mom's magic touch to stir until trace, marble the cinnamon rosemary, or tie those raffia bows. Clarissa, the artist and musician, would be printing or designing labels when she is not writing a song.  Kristen - now that's another story. How she gets away with it, I don't know, but she never seems to be around when soap is to be made or wrapped. She prefers cutting wood and using the weed eater, quoting Shakespearean insults as she goes. Kristen is always present, however, when the goods need to be tested, and boy, can she give us feedback!

It all works and comes together because love and respect are at the foundation of this enterprise, with the intention to do good. My children's music in the background, Mom constantly encouraging me with her words, "You can do it," the glorious smell of Charlie's gumbo on the stove - my husband who stands in front of, beside, and behind me in all I do.

This is Hummingbird, where our home comes to you in a bar or a jar. Welcome to the family.