Why Choose Dragon's Pearls Skin Care Products?

I love the process and challenge of creating skin care products with healthful benefits. It combines my interest in herbs and spices, herbal remedies, skin care, and cooking. I think of it as a magical blend of science and alchemy, with a ton of loving care thrown in.

-- Carol

About Soap

I make soap from scratch in small batches using the cold process method. Each formulation is unique, with each ingredient carefully chosen to achieve the desired soap. My soapmaking process follows a precise series of steps to ensure I make mild soap that is good for your skin.

Soap is made from three main ingredients:
Fats, Sodium Hydroxide and Distilled Water

The fats used in making soap may be animal (tallow or lard) or vegetable (oil or butter). Here at Dragon's Pearls, my handmade soaps are made primarily with high quality vegetable oils and butters, but I also occasionally use lard, which I decided to include in some formulations after testing it for performance, conditioning and color qualities. Combining these basic ingredients produces a chemical reaction called saponification, which results in soap.

Despite popular belief, you cannot make true soap without sodium hydroxide, also known as lye. When soap is properly made, the sodium hydroxide completely reacts with the fats and water, and none of it remains in the final product. The art of soapmaking is also a science in that advances in knowledge and technology have brought us to being able to determine exactly how much of each individual ingredient is required to produce soap. This knowledge and technology allows me to use only as much sodium hydroxide as is absolutely necessary, thereby producing a mild soap, unlike the harsh soap made by earlier generations of soapmakers.

Commercially manufactured soaps contain chemicals, synthetics and preservatives.

They are machine made, mass-produced, and very often, over-scented. They contain ingredients, such as detergents, that are not accommodating to skin. Most commercial manufacturers remove the glycerin from their soap and sell it, usually to cosmetic and skin care manufacturers, for use in other products. The natural glycerin in soap is important to your skin because it helps keep your skin moisturized. When you use a commercially manufactured soap, you may notice your skin feels tight, dry and/or itchy. This is from not only the removal of the natural glycerin, but also from the detergents and other chemicals commercial soaps contain. Detergents clean well (it's what they're supposed to do after all), but when it comes to skin, they clean too well, removing the protective layer of surface oils on the skin. Dragon's Pearls handmade soap gently cleans without removing these protective oils, leaving your skin feeling softer and moisturized.

Dragon's Pearls Artisan Handmade Soaps are unlike any mass-produced soap on the market (see my Ingredient Comparison Chart). My soaps retain the natural glycerin, which, along with the other high quality ingredients, provide moisturizing benefits to your skin. Dragon's Pearls makes both 100% natural and nearly natural (may contain colorant and/or fragrance) soaps. They smell genuine, like the ingredients from which they are made. They feel good when you use them. The lather is rich, dense and moisturizing, leaving an emollient film on your skin that makes it feel soft and sensuous.

Dragon's Pearls soaps are made with the very best of ingredients, and are stirred, poured, cut, and packaged by hand with pride.

About Skin Care

Today, people are concerned about their well-being and physical appearance. They want to be healthy, and to age gracefully, and to do that, good skin care is essential.

Good skin care includes choosing the best products for your skin's needs. This may mean using products that are not 100% natural. Read more about my skin care philosophy here.

Dragon's Pearls skin care products follow the same philosophy as my soaps ... the best, highest quality ingredients we can find, combined to be beneficial to your skin. I use organic and wildcrafted ingredients whenever possible, in addition to the nutritive-rich vegetable oils, butters and other additives found in my products. I carefully select ingredients to make my product formulations the best they can be, utilizing the wondrous bounty provided by Mother Nature.