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It’s been an interesting time for our Castile Goat Milk Soap. This little unassuming soap tended to get ignored at the farmers markets. Customers would come up to our booth asking for a mild soap that was good for sensitive skin and then get a bit of a wondering eye… or nose rather… when they start smelling all of our other fantastic soaps that contain scents. Our Peppermint Eucalyptus Goat Milk Soap tended to steal the attention from most of the other soaps. I get it… the Peppermint Eucalyptus is my favorite as well, but if you have extremely sensitive skin our Castile is probably a better fit. It may be unscented but it’s an outstanding bar of soap and it has really come into its own over the last few years as customers have had to read the descriptions on our website and make decisions based on their needs rather than their noses.

Our Castile Goat Milk Soap is actually the first bar of soap we made for our business. It seemed like an easy place to start, a relatively simple recipe to design. However when you are dealing with chemistry nothing is easy. Little changes make a big difference in the final outcome of the soap. So it took us months to feel like we had a recipe that we really loved.

Traditionally Castile is a soap that is made of a single vegetable oil, like olive oil. Most of the soaps you find on the shelves are not traditional Castile (y’all all know who I’m talking about), but a bar of soap made only of a single oil is not a well rounded bar of soap and doesn’t give you the best results. When we started to develop our Castile we set out to create an unscented goat milk soap bar that would be good for customers with sensitive skin. We knew while a single oil, olive oil, would get us close we needed to round out the bar with something a little extra.

Olive oil creates a wonderful soft, lotion-like, lather but lacks the bubbles that people expect from soap. It can also make a soap that is very soft, so soft that it will wash away too quickly. To combat both of these problems we added a little coconut oil to the recipe to give the soap a more bubbly lather and palm oil to add more structure to the bar; to make it harder and last longer. We played with this recipe for months. The olive oil needed to be the star (aside from the goat milk, olive oil is really the star in all of our bars) so we needed to find the right balance. I strongly believe that we we landed on the perfect balance!

In the end this bar came out exactly how we wanted. It’s soft, gentle, and so luxurious that you don’t feel like you are missing out by not going with one of our scented varieties. So those of you with sensitive skin, consider adding our Castile Goat Milk Soap to your shower.

Enter Our Giveaway!

When we switched over to our new, beautiful website in 2020 we lost all the reviews that we had accumulated since we opened in 2013. At the time we decided that it made more sense to just leave the reviews off than to climb the mountain of gaining them all back. Fast forward to this year, we have had several customers ask where they could leave a review or left them scattered on Google, Facebook, or blog posts, so we decided that it was time to turn them back on. Now we are faced with the task of building back a respectable base of reviews. Here’s where you come in!

How to Enter:

In an effort to build back reviews we are running a giveaway starting today and going until May 15th, 2022. To enter all you need to do is review your favorite products. Each review counts as one entry, up to three reviews. No purchase necessary to enter! Winners will be contacted on May 16th.

Prizes:

Three reviewers will win a package that includes: 1 bar of Secret Spring Goat Milk Soap (a soap that is not available for purchase on our website), 3 Goat Milk Soap bars of their choice, and 1 Goat Milk Lotion of their choice. This package is valued at $30

One very lucky reviewer will win a package (pictured above) that includes: 1 bar of Secret Spring Goat Milk Soap, 5 Goat Milk Soap bars of their choice, and 1 Goat Milk Lotion, 1 Goat Milk Laundry Soap, 1 Dish Soap Starter Set, 1 Soap Saver Bag, and 1 Nail Brush. This package is valued at $100.

If you have reviewed items since we started to ask for them last month you are automatically entered!

Help other customers find their new favorite soap by reviewing your most loved products on our website!

Each changing season brings new needs for your skin, and while spring is a milder season, it comes with its own needs. Here are some spring products for your skin care routine!

Spring Products for Your Skin:

• The obvious choice of products to usher in the new season that brings us new growth are our Spring scented products. They feature the wonderful scent combination of lavender and geranium. This amazing scent can be found in a soap, lotion, candle, and new this year, an essential oil roller. During these early days of spring, when we are still dealing with cold and dreary weather, this scent will help you focus on the warm days to come.
• Scrub away winter with a good exfoliation. The dry cold weather causes your skin to dry out faster. Washing away this dead, dry skin is step one for leaving winter behind. Use our All Natural Body Brush to expose your beautiful healthy skin under that winter funk.
• For many of us Spring means we are starting our gardens. If you are like me you enjoy having your bare hands in the dirt, rather than wearing gloves, but dirt leaves stains. Our Coffee Goat Milk Soap is my go to soap for removing these stains. To get the dirt out from under your nails our nail brush really comes in handy as well.
• Spring brings so many great things, but it also brings some pretty annoying things, like bugs. Our Lemongrass Green Tea Goat Milk Soap is a great soap to help ward off some of these bugs in a natural way. Our Tea Tree Essential Oil Roller will help relieve itchy skin caused by bites or poison ivy.
• Your feet have been trapped inside of shoes for months. Get them sandal ready with our Rosewood Salt Goat Milk Soap. This pumice stone like soap will give your feet an outstanding exfoliation and leave them feeling soft and healthy.

Our all natural brushes are the perfect companions to our soaps but, like any bodycare product, when not taken care of properly they can grow bacteria and do more harm than good. Taking care of your body brushes will help you get the most out of them and will allow you to have the best and safest experience possible. In this post we will teach you how to take care of your body brushes.

Taking Caring for Your Brush

First and foremost do not share your brushes. This can transfer bacteria and germs from person to person. Each member of your family should have their own brush.

1. Prepare your brush for cleaning by knocking the brush and bristles against a dry sink, followed by rubbing the bristles against a dry towel. This will help shake free much of the dry skin cells and dirt.
2. Fill a dish with enough water to just cover your bristles. Unlike many other body brushes out there, ours is conditioned to be used in water. Getting the wood wet will not ruin the brush. Add several drops (3-4) of tea tree oil to the water. The tea tree will help eliminate bacteria. If you do not have tea tree oil you can use a gentle soap, like baby shampoo. Place the bristles in the water and move the brush around, making sure the bristles touch the bottom of the bowl, for about a minute to ensure the essential oils reach every part of the bristles and to clean away any remaining dirt or skin cells.
3. Dump the water containing the tea tree or soap, rinse out the bowl, and add fresh water. Place the bristles in the fresh water and move it around for another minute to finish cleaning the bristles and rinse away the oil or soap.
4. Finally, place the brush face down on a towel to dry.

Additional Suggestions

• If you need to dry your brush more quickly you can use a hairdryer.
• Between cleanings you can spray your brush with a mixture of 3/4 cup water, 1/4 cup witch hazel, and 10 drops tea tree. This will help keep the bacteria at bay. You can also used alcohol but this should be used sparingly, as it can damage your brush.
• Store your brush in a clean and dry location.
• When picking your body brush keep one important thing in mind.. natural is better. Synthetic fibers have more hiding places for fungus and bacteria. Our brushes are made with natural bristles and FSC Certified wood.

How Often Should You Clean Your Brush

How often you clean your brush is going to depend on how often you use it. I am in the camp that says you do not need to exfoliate daily. Three to four times a week is sufficient. If this is the routine you follow, cleaning your brush once a month should be enough. If you prefer to exfoliate daily your brush should be cleaned every other week or so. However, do not feel like you need to stick to a strict schedule. If your brush looks or smells dirty between washes go ahead clean it again.

Facial brushes are an entirely different beast. Because they come in contact with more dirt and oil and because the skin on your face is more sensitive your facial brush should be cleaned weekly.

You will find lots of different suggestions for how long to keep a body or facial brush in use. They range from a month to… forever. I actually ran across a website during my research saying they have been using their brush for years. When it comes down to it no matter how well you care for brushes they do have an expiration date. All those little nooks and crannies will still hold on to some dead skin cells, bacteria, or mold. We generally suggest that you replace your brushes every three to four months.

Taking care of your body brush is important to ensure a safe experience and to extend the life of your brush. Follow the simple steps outlined in this post and your brush will help you along the path to healthy glowing skin.

There are thousands of soap companies out there. If you simply Google “Handmade Soap” or even the more specific term of “Goat Milk Soap” you are presented with page after page of soap companies trying to sell you their soap. But what makes them different? What makes our soaps different? How do you choose?

Our Recipe

Before we opened The Freckled Farm Soap Company we knew that we had to enter the market with a special bar of soap. You only have one opportunity to make a first impression and we wanted to stand out. So we spent a year playing with our recipe, making tiny changes at a time. Each oil plays a different role in the soap, so even the most minor adjustment can have a big impact on the final product. We ended up with a unique recipe that was all our own. A luxurious and hydrating bar soap with a rich, soft lather. A lot of thought, time, and care went into making what we believe is the perfect bar of soap. You will not find another soap company out there who has the exact same recipe as us!

Quality Ingredients

The recipe isn’t the only thing that makes us special. We don’t skimp when it comes to the quality of our ingredients either. We seek out the highest quality organic and certified sustainable oils and use only essential oils for scent. Also, unlike some soap companies that use powdered goat milk or that only use milk as a small percentage of the liquid portion of their recipe (using water to make up the difference), we use fresh raw goat milk directly from our farm and the milk makes up the entirety of the liquid content of our recipe. Quality is everything to us!

No Shortcuts Here!

We don’t take shortcuts. Our soap bars are cured for a minimum of six weeks. Curing the bar removes the water content from the soap, meaning less of the bar washes away when it is exposed to water. The longer the soap cures the longer the bar lasts in use. It’s not a process that can be rushed or effectively sped up. This means a great deal of planning has to be done to make sure a large stock of fully cured bars are always available.

Finally, once the bars are done, we bevel the edges of each bar by hand to give you a smoother feel while in use. We want the experience of using our soap to be pleasant and we want you to get a lot of use out of each bar.

Eco-Friendly

The environment is a big part of our mission. It has always been important to us to create products that are better for the environment and our customers. That is why we only use organic and certified sustainable oils. We want to create products that have a low environmental impact and give our customers an alternative to the conventional soaps they can feel good about. When it comes to our products you do not have to worry about what is going down your drain.

Kevin and I have never been into giving gifts to each other on the holidays. We are especially bad when it comes to Valentine’s Day Gifts. We try to make time for a nice date night dinner once our children have gone to bed but Valentine’s Day tends to fall right at the beginning of our kidding season. Most years we are interrupted by a laboring goat and have to set aside dinner to do our goat midwifery duties. Instead of gifts at the holidays we like to surprise each other throughout the year with little things, like candies or a used book from our favorite used book store. However, this year’s kiddings are happening later in the month of February so are going to make sure we get a nice night together. We love any opportunity to show each other how much we love one another.

We have all had a difficult few years. None of us have escaped it. It’s important to take stock in the good and show appreciation to those we love. While Valentine’s Day is a “made up”, and relatively cheesy, holiday we should take every moment we can to show the ones we love how important they are to us. Take every opportunity you can!

So instead of supporting the big candy and card companies this Valentine’s Day consider getting the person you love something that allows them to pamper themselves and support a small business at the same time. There is still plenty of time to get your order in for delivery by Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas:

Goat Milk Soap – Make every shower or bath a treat with our all natural Goat Milk Soap. Wash away a difficult day or get the needed boost to start the day off right.

Body Brushes – Our all natural body brushes are the perfect companion to our soaps. It’s a spa treatment right in your own shower.

Goat Milk Lotion – Our Goat Milk Lotion leaves your skin feeling soft and healthy. This rich and luxurious lotion is truly a delight.

Beeswax Candles – Add a few of these lovely candles around your tub to create a wonderful, relaxing ambience.

Tell someone you love that you appreciate them with the perfect pampering Valentine’s Day Gift!

Back at the beginning of 2021 we started a map project. We placed a pin on a map in the soap facility office each time we shipped an order to a new county or city within the Unites States for the first time. We started by downloading all of the locations we had shipped to since 2013 and got pinning! When I was done I found that we only had seven states where our products had not yet been shipped; Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Nebraska, North Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. Throughout the year we added pins as new locations came in. The real celebrations came when we got the opportunity to mark off a new state. By the end of the year we only had three states remaining; Nebraska, North Dakota, and Wyoming!

With only three states left it seems feasible that we should be able to reach our Map Project goal of shipping at least one order to every state within the US this year. So if you are in, or need to send a gift to, one of these three states (Nebraska, North Dakota, or Wyoming) go place an order and help us knock one more state off our list!