Less than five years ago we moved from the city to our farm with five acres of pasture. We bought goats at first just to mow our grass, but as nature would have it, our goats had babies and our tiny farm grew. Soon I was watching youtube videos to learn how to milk them. Around that time, I began to hear about the moisturizing benefits of raw goat milk. I was intrigued because my own skin suffered from itchy, dry eczema. Being a girl who loves homemade beauty treatments (like conditioning hair masks made of mayo and eggs!), making my own soap using milk from our sweet goat mamas sounded exciting. I love researching so I did my best to come up with an ideal all-natural recipe that would be conditioning but cleansing and all my own.

Fast forward to today and we are the proud owners of our family business: Sweet Mamas Soap Company. The kids and I faithfully milk our goats, strain the milk, freeze it (without any added water) and mix it with just enough lye, and then the Shea butter, clay and oils. We are happy to look for ways to grow our business and keep working together as a family. And now, having numerous Saturday Markets under our belts and lot’s of customer feedback, we’ve had the joy to tweaking our recipe just a little here and little there to make it stand out from the rest.

Here are some of the things that I have done to make sure Sweet Mamas Soap is the best quality and uniquely ideal for our customers:

1. We use Nigerian Dwarf and Nubian goats, which have the highest butterfat content of all the breeds.  The rich butterfat in the milk is in addition to the butters and oils in the recipe.  Our soap cleans while moisturizing — it’s like washing with soap and applying lotion in one step!  .

2. Over time, we have seen that our customers prefer Shea Butter, because they would ask for it and they love it! So we have made Shea Butter a trademark of our soap. Shea butter is great because it is packed with vitamins and fatty acids that are nourishing and moisture-preserving. It also has many anti-inflammatory components that are helpful for eczema.

3. At first, we were using micas to color our soap, but then I learned that clay could do the same thing, but with added perks. Clay is cleansing, and makes a wonderful earthy and creamy lather that can even be used in place of shaving cream. Clay is reputed for its deep cleaning. You can feel clay draw out dirt and oils from your pores, leaving your skin clean and smooth. So I switched to using clay for color, as well as all its added benefits.

We want to make sure people are getting the best product possible that we can deliver: products that are natural and effective, but still affordable. So I have done extensive research, and am never satisfied with the status quo, which is why our customers almost always come back.