Frequently Asked Questions

The Consumer Product Safety Commission identifies “true soap” as “an alkali salt of fatty acids.” In plain english, soap is produced by breaking down fats (i.e. food grade oils) in a process called saponification. The end result is a product that can be combined with water to remove non-water soluble contamination (oil, grease, dirt) from skin, which we call soap.

Many hygiene products (i.e. most body washes) are not true soap, and instead are usually classified as “detergent” or “cleanser” made from synthetic ingredients. “Cold process” refers to the method by which the soap is made, meaning that it is made from raw ingredients and not from a pre-mixed soap base. Think of it as Mom’s homemade cookies versus frozen cookie dough.

The short answer is: No. There is no lye in our finished soap bars. Lye, or sodium hydroxide, is a pure and precisely measurable form of caustic soda. This makes it ideal for safely converting oils into soap through saponification. All of our core ingredients, including the lye, are food grade. We use the same grade lye used to cure olives and bake pretzels!

We don’t use any color additives in our soaps, natural or synthetic. Minor differences in the color of soap bars are due to the qualities of the ingredients used to make them. All ingredients serve a purpose, nothing is simply for show!

All of our scented soaps are scented using essential oils. Not all essential oils are created equally, some even contain synthetic ingredients to cheaply enhance the fragrant quality or the color of the oil. We only use pure essential oils that are either therapeutic-grade or food-grade. It’s amazing what you can do with simple, natural ingredients!

Micropothecary is artisan owned and operated, which means minimum drag and maximum value. Every bar is handcrafted in small batches by the same people who designed the recipe. There are no middlemen, no factory lines, and no corporate overhead—just a small team obsessed with making the best soap possible and getting it directly to you at a fair price.

In short, no. Castile soap is a traditional soap product that is made exclusively from olive oil. There are relatively few true castile soaps on the market today, as many people find the bars to be “slimy” or leave undesirable residue. While olive oil is the main ingredient by volume in our soap bars, the use of other oils makes them castile-like, but not true castile soap.