River Trip Homestead’s Soap Story
Our soap journey begins with a cute little red head with very sensitive skin. Those of you who know us might be thinking I’m talking about the man of the house. No, though Jeb is cute, he is not little nor is he sensitive. The red head I’m referring to is a bit daintier, our daughter Shea. That poor kid can’t walk down the soap isle in the grocery store without a reaction. Growing up with sensitive skin myself, I knew we needed to find a solution for her. After lots of research we decided goat’s milk was the answer. This was pretty great news for me because I grew up with pet goats and had been looking for a way to convince my wonderful husband that we needed to have a few of our own. He had some legitimate reservations, but this was my in. “Babe, think of the children!”
I bought a bunch of powdered goat’s milk, some nice butters and oils, and started experimenting. The lye portion of the process was intimidating at first, but it turns out its not nearly as scary as it seems. Gloves are key. The first batch was a simple goat’s milk, lard, and coconut oil bar. The girl gave it a test run and success! No reaction what so ever. We were rolling! The next series of batches would include clays and mica for color, phthalate free fragrance oils, essential oils, and shea butter used in addition to the lard to create a nice hard bar without the use of palm oil. These bars were aesthetically pleasing, smelled amazing and were still gentle enough for our sensitive skinned kid. It was a really huge win for us.
Next, I formulated a beard bar and apparently Jeb approved because not long after the construction of the goat barn began. I ended up with a couple baby Nigerian Dwarf goats and he had a glorious ginger face mane. This was a mutually beneficial arrangement!
The baby goats were adorable but we needed fresh milk ASAP to keep making soap. Jeb found a Nigerian/Alpine doe in milk and we brought her home. I had very little experience milking goats and she (who would come to be known as Millie) had never been milked so it was a new experience for us both. I think it went really well considering! Creating bars with the milk from our own homestead was an incredibly satisfying feeling and I was hooked.
We started gifting bars to friends and family and we got tons of really great feed back. Soap making turned out to be something I really love and have a passion for. A label was created and a business was born. River Trip Goat Soap continues to grow thanks to our awesome customers. We couldn’t be more grateful. We are so excited to see where we go from here!
