What if I told you that sheep milk soap is even better than goat milk soap? Goat milk soap is popular because it is moisturizing and excellent for your skin. Now imagine, taking all that goat milk goodness and doubling it. Sheep milk has twice the nutrient concentration found in goat milk. Because of all those concentrated nutrients, sheep milk makes some amazingly nourishing soap for your skin.
Lets explore the benefits of sheep milk soap
Milk soaps are deeply nourishing, gentle, and wonderful for sensitive skin due to all the vitamins, minerals, saturated and unsaturated fats present in the milk. This is true whether the milk is from cows, goats, or sheep. The difference is that sheep milk is more concentrated. There is more goodness and less water in sheep milk. That translates into more moisturizing benefits to your skin.
Moisturizing fats, vitamins, and minerals
The fats present in the soap are largely responsible for its moisturizing abilities. Sheep milk contains 6% fat or more while goat milk has less than 4%. That means the same volume of sheep milk has almost twice the moisturizing nourishment for your skin. All these medium branched chain fatty acids are concentrated goodness for your skin.
Additionally sheep milk has twice as much protein, plus more vitamins A, B, and E, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium. That’s a powerhouse of nutrition for your thirsty skin all packaged into one unassuming bar of soap. All this protein and these vitamins can help to revitalize tired skin.
Another difference between sheep and goat milk is that sheep milk has more lactose, and is less acidic than goat milk. This translates into a less irritating soap perfect for those with sensitive skin.
Sheep milk is a good exfoliant for radiant skin
Sheep milk contains lactic acid. It is an alpha hydroxyl acid that offers unparalleled benefits to the skin. The lactic acid in sheep milk is a natural, gentle exfoliant which will remove dead skin cells and brighten skin. Lactic acid use in a beauty regimen can result in fewer lines and wrinkles. It can help fade age spots, and is mild enough for use on sensitive skin.
Not only that, but lactic acid and other compounds in sheep milk have been shown to have anti-inflamatory, anti-bacterial, and anti-viral properties. As a result it can reduce redness, irritation and dryness which is great for people with sensitive skin.
Our soap has a built in antibacterial loofah
We offer our soap as optionally felted. Felted soap is something most people probably haven’t heard of. If you have never used felted soap you will definitely want to try it out.
Felted soap is made using wool that our dairy sheep happily provide. We take the wool and wrap it around the bar of soap. The wool is then moistened and rubbed to allow the fibers to mat together permanently. Simple as that. As you use the bar of soap the wool continues to felt and shrinks with the bar of soap. When the bar of soap is gone you are left with a little ball of 100% recyclable wool that you can put on your compost pile.
Felted soap is 100% natural, and wonderful for gently exfoliating skin. Each felted bar of soap has an antibacterial washcloth built in. The felting will produce a rich creamy lather and help make the bar of soap last longer. Plus the felting makes the soap grippy, so you won’t have to chase your bar of soap around the shower.
But the goodness in our soap doesn’t stop there
We have carefully chosen to use tallow rather than vegetable oils to make our sheep milk soaps.
Tallow is a wonderful ingredient for soaps for many of the same reasons milk is. It is gentle and moisturizing. In fact, no plant oil can moisturize skin like tallow does! Tallow has traditionally been used as a moisturizer and has been used and loved for that purpose for centuries. Soap was made for personal hygiene from animal fats all the way back in the Roman Empire.
Why is tallow so good for your skin?
Tallow is an awesome moisturizer because it is an animal fat. That’s the key. You are an animal not a plant. Because tallow has a very similar fat content to our skin it is very easy for our skin to absorb and utilize. The composition of fatty acids found in tallow almost perfectly matches the composition of our cell membranes. It also helps to maintain moisture by creating a film that helps prevent evaporation of the moisture in your skin.
Another benefit tallow can provide is supporting healthy skin pH. Your skin is slightly acidic and needs to stay that way to be healthy. This acidity, created by microflora, helps to protect your skin against pathogens. Skin care products such as tallow which contain triglycerides positively benefit your skin microflora and help maintain its health.
An added bonus to using tallow to make soap is that tallow is a byproduct of the food industry. Tallow soap is better for your skin and better for the environment than plant oils like palm oil. Using tallow to make soap is taking a product that is often wasted and up cycling it into something amazing. By using tallow soap you are reducing the pollution associated with food production.
If we have convinced you to try out our soap, our felted and regular soaps can be found in our shop. Or, you can learn more about the benefits of sheep milk here.