Value What Nature Provides
The quality of our ingredients is fundamental to what we do at You're Gorgeous Handmade Soap. The interest in the benefits that these ingredients can impart is why we became involved in the manufacture of natural handmade soap and bath products in the first place. The natural world has so much to offer and more and more amazing natural ingredients are being discovered and appreciated for their qualities all the time.
It's important to know what the products we use every day contain and we would like to inform our customers as to why we choose particular ingredients, and what their benefits are. Below you will find a list of our most used ingredients and their qualities.
Base Oils and Butters
Apricot Kernel Oil- Prunus Armeniaca - A lovely light oil which is easily absorbed by the skin. Extracted from the seeds of the Apricot fruit, it is rich in omega 9 fatty acids, making it a powerful emollient (moisturiser) Apricot Kernel oil is rich in vitamins A, B and E. Vitamin E is one of the most powerful natural antioxidants which helps to combat the formation of free radicals and prevent skin damage.
(Sweet) Almond Oil
Argan Oil
Avocado OIl
Carrot Root Oil
Castor Bean Oil
Cocoa Butter - Theobroma Cacao. A hard butter at room temperature, it's a vital ingredient in many of our products. Cocoa butter provides some UV protection, reduces premature ageing by reducing the skin's oxidative stress, and has a moisturising effect on the skin and hair. It adds hardness to our soaps and creaminess to our bath products.
Coconut Oil - Cocos nucifera. Coconut oil is great for soap making and we work it into our formulas for its profuse, quick, fluffy and stable lather. It adds hardness and helps to make our soap so long-lasting. Coconut oil in soap gives it super cleansing qualities and along with our other selected oils, helps to balance the skin's natural oils.
Grapeseed Oil
Hemp Seed Oil
Jojoba Oil
Neem Oil
Mango Butter
Olive Oil
Palm Oil - Elaeis guineensis. The Oil Palm tree is a highly productive tree, yielding at least 4 times the amount of oil than any other tree or plant. As such, it uses much less land area to produce oil. It's a highly useful oil and is used in all sorts of food and cosmetic products. This has led to massive devastation of forests and habitats as land is given over to its production. We believe the inclusion of palm oil makes absolutely the best soap and helps each bar to last a long time. For this reason we use only responsibly sourced RSPO certified oil, as recommended by the WWF. Read some more important information about palm oil in our Reading Room.
Poppy Seed Oil
Rosehip Seed Oil
Sesame Seed Oil
Shea Butter
Sunflower Oil
Natural Ingredients
Bamboo Charcoal
We use activated bamboo charcoal, an amazing substance which adsorbs (rather than absorbs) toxins and impurities from the skin. It has a surface area to weight ratio of 1200:1 and can deep clean the skin, removing bacteria without leaving a residue, making it an excellent treatment for acne.
Bicarbonate of Soda
Black Peppercorns
Citric Acid
Cocoa powder
Coconut milk powder
Coffee
Cornflour or Cornstarch
Cucumber
Clay -
Bentonite
Kaolin Clay
French Green Clay
Pink Clay
Rhassoul Clay
Dead Sea Mud
Dead Sea Salt
Goat Milk
Himalayan Salt
Honey
Oatmeal
Pumice
Sea Salt (sun dried)
Sugar
Whole Milk Powder
Vitamin E
Botanicals
Aloe Vera
Apricot stones (ground)
Almond stones (ground)
Bay Leaves
Black Walnut stones (ground)
Calendula
Chamomile
Comfrey Leaf and Root
Dill weed
Elder Flowers
Eucalyptus
Fennel Seed
Ginger Root
Green Tea
Hibiscus Flower
Jasmine Flowers
Juniper Berries
Lavender
Lemon Balm
Lemongrass
Lemon Peel
Mallow Flowers
Nettle Leaf
Orange Peel
Parsley
Peppermint
Rose buds and petals
Roships
Rosemary
Seaweed
Thyme
essential oils
Amyris
Bay West Indies
Bergamot
Cedar wood Atlas
Chamomile German Blue
Cinnamon Leaf
Citronella
Clary Sage
Clementine
Clove Bud
Coriander
Cypress
Eucalyptus Blue Gum
Eucalyptus Citriadora
Fennel Sweet
Frankincense
Geranium
Ginger
Grapefruit Pink
Juniperberry
Lavender
Lavandin
Lemongrass
Lime
Litsea Cubeba (May Chang)
Mandarin
Neroli Light
Orange Sweet
Orange Bitter
Palmarosa
Patchouli
Pepper Black
Peppermint
Petigrain
Pine Sylvestris
Rosemary
Spearmint
Tangerine
Tea Tree
Thyme
Vetiver
Ylang Ylang
Fragrance and Colour
To add more scope to our design and the types of products we can supply, we also offer products made with our all-natural ingredients, but with the addition of some gentle semi-synthetic and synthetic additives. We use mineral pigments for colour and some cosmetic dyes and glitters in very small quantities. We also have a wonderful range of amazing high quality fragrances and perfumes which we use in some of our special soaps and in our bath products. With these additions, our products are still over 95% natural. If you prefer 100% natural, just mention this to us and we will guide you to the relevant products.