Why not tear-free?

Natural soaps are never “tear-free”...they are slightly alkaline, which irritates eyes, so when advertisers refer to “tear-free” or “pH balanced” soaps, they’re actually describing detergents and synthetic chemicals used to bring down the pH level to match the skin’s acid mantle. So while these synthetic detergents can match the pH of your skin, they can cause other issues like: allergic reactions, strip skin of its natural fatty acids, and even harm skin‘s capacity to regulate its own pH levels. But natural soap, with a mildly alkaline pH, can be extremely gentle and healthy for the skin, so please take care to keep eyes closed.

The Chemistry of Soap

To create the best quality bar of soap, we use the cold process method. Passed down through generations, this method creates gentle soaps with vegetable oils/butters (and lye) that cure over 4 weeks and produce a long-lasting bar with ultimate moisturization.

The chemical reaction of making soap, called saponification, is complete, so the lye and oil molecules have combined and transformed into soap and glycerin. The lye (sodium hydroxide) is used up in the saponification process to turn oil into soap. While all real soap must be made with lye, no lye remains in our finished soaps after saponification. Many people think that there are lye alternatives to making soap like glycerin soap and melt-and-pour soap, but in fact these types were created from lye as well, since glycerin is a natural by-product of saponification.

So that's why, at Havana Soap Company, our aim is to produce beautifully crafted, gentle and moisturizing soaps using high quality natural ingredients, and wherever possible, locally sourced ingredients.