Meliora Bar Soap — Lemongrass

WHAT DOES IT REPLACE?
Soaps chock full of synthetics, soaps that harm our water ways, soaps that dry  out our skin, soaps that are made with chemicals and palm oils. Liquid soaps that ship water around the globe and are packed in plastic. 

BORING (BUT USEFUL) STUFF
Each bar is approximately 4 oz. 

INGREDIENTS

Vegetable Soap [Sodium Cocoate, Sodium Sunflowerate, Glycerin, Water, Organic Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Organic Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil], Organic Cymbopogon Flexuosus (Lemongrass) Essential Oil

NERD ALERT
Lemongrass Bath & Body Bar uses Coconut and Sunflower Seed Oils as the base vegetable oils for the soap. This combination gives us a firm bar that also lathers and cleans without drying your skin.

Sourced from Century Sun Oil out of Pulaski, WI, sunflower oil is a local alternative to the olive oil we've used for bath and body bars before.

Sodium Cocoate: This is the chemical name of saponified (that is, 'made into soap') coconut oil. It's the chemical that grabs onto both dirt and water to do the cleaning.

Sodium Sunflowerate: This is the chemical name of the saponified sunflower seed oil. 

Glycerin: This substance is chemically a type of alcohol and is naturally created when the oil is converted into soap. Glycerin is known for skin-softening abilities and is an effective solvent, meaning it can dissolve substances such as stains and dirts. 

Organic Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil and Organic Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil : There is always some coconut and sunflower seed oils left in the soap after conversion to sodium cocoate and sodium sunflowerate. This is because we use sodium hydroxide, or lye, in the conversion process. Leaving these excess oil in the soap not only ensures there is no remaining lye in the finished product, it also gives the soap its lather and moisturizing feel. Some soapmakers refer to this as 'superfatting' and more oil remaining results in a softer, more moisturizing bar.

Water: Water is used in the soapmaking process as a substance that dissolves lye and then is a medium so the lye can reach all of the oil to react. After being useful in this process, the water is allowed to evaporate from the soap over a period of several weeks, and the resulting dried bar has very little water. There is only about 5% water remaining in the finished bars, thus making them more shelf stable than a liquid soap that would require a preservative due to the high (about 60%) water.

PACKAGING
Recycled paperboard box made from a minimum of 30% post-consumer recycled content. Printed with vegatable-based inks.  Please recycle or compost.

SOURCE
Made in Chicago, Illinois.

Organic sunflower oil is a local alternative to the olive oil that soaps often use, sourced from Century Sun Oil out of Pulaski, WI. It gives the bars a soft, full lather and a brighter, whiter color without any added dyes or additives.

CERTIFICATIONS
Leaping Bunny Cruelty Free, MADE SAFE, BCorp, and 1% for the Planet.

ABOUT THE COMPANY
Kate and Mike are the proudly uncool and perpetually curious engineers who founded, own, and operate Meliora Cleaning Products. Meliora (meh-lee-OR-ah) is Latin for “better” and better is what Kate and Mike set out to do. Here's how they tell it:

Better isn’t just in our name; it is a reminder that every day we can improve on the status quo by offering cleaning products that are better for our customers and on the environment.

To have the most impact we choose to align with organizations that support what we believe and amplify our vision. Our B Corp Certification is a third-party evaluation and audit of our business practices; it highlights strengths in company ownership and governance (woman-owned), labor practices (living wages) and our product itself (low impact products and packaging). Through partnerships with 1% For the Planet and Women’s Voices for the Earth, we commit 2% of our annual revenues to environmental and charitable nonprofits.  The MADE SAFE® seal signifies that our products and ingredients have been examined for whether they build up in the environment, our bodies, and aquatic toxicity. And Leaping Bunny is the highest standard for companies that are committed to using no animal testing.  As we continue to grow, the foundations for our business must continue to meet our own expectations to be the very best company we can be. 

We Make Everything In Our Own Factory in Chicago. Our factory on the West Side of Chicago does everything from making soap to packaging finished product. Everything we make, we make ourselves and we are proud that we have developed every detail of our process.  Through understanding each cycle our product goes through we are able to examine the environmental impact each product creates, thus able to remove unnecessary waste along the way.  It is important that our workers are paid a living wage, they are integral in making improvements and introducing new products.

Their big three rules guides each new product introduction: 

• It WORKS to get your home and clothes clean
• PEOPLE-FRIENDLY, so it's ok to have around your home
• PLANET-FRIENDLY, so you can be confident that what goes down your drain won't cause any problems