FAQ

This is actually a relatively common question. Our soaps are meant for the whole body, but if you only want to use them on your hands we are just fine with that. the formula was created to be non drying and offer a lot of things detergent bars rob you of. Right now we sell two soap products and they have very different uses.

Bar soap - As long as you have water, some lather making apparatus (a loofa, towel, hand, your body hair, the wall, a soap saver.. what ever your creativity allows), there's really no wrong way to suds up. Just don't eat the bars.

Dish soap - Our solid dish soap is made to cut grease. Because of this you will may want to wear those pink dish washing gloves, unless you love dry hands, and honestly if you do we're okay with that. Wet the sisal brush under running water and swirl around on top of the solid dish soap a few turns until you get just enough where the tips of the brush are coated. Wet your pan or dish and scrub. If you made some fantastic and greasy meat loaf you may need to repeat. Rinse all product off. We have created it not to leave soap residue after, however, oils from cooking naturally leave residue, so make sure to wash and rinse completely.

Grab a snack this one is going to be a long-winded deep dive.

If it makes you feel better, we can't pronounce half of them either. But the FDA (Food & Drug Administration) and MoCra (The Modernization of Cosmetic Regulations Act of 2022) has very strict formatting guidelines for listing ingredients in the things that you use on the daily. And while true soap, like the kind we make, does not require any ingredients to be listed on the label (pretty sketch right?), we don't feel comfortable with that. Our soaps use superb food grade quality raw materials (please don't eat the bars) and we want to let you know of all that goodness. We have done a lot of research (actual research) into our choice of constituents. If we were to tell you our soaps were nondrying, moisturizing, good for most skin types, life changing, and could treat some skin conditions, we'd be considered a cosmetic and would be required to list all of our ingredients. But we are just humble natural soap.

Remember the story of how we decided to make soaps because we were in Hawaii? If not, its buried somewhere in the depths of the FAQs.. good luck. Anyway, we suspected a soap we loved had propylene glycol (PG) in it. But because it is a true soap and PG is used solely in the processing, they could claim it was an incidental ingredient and have chosen not to list it. All speculation of course. But we felt cheated, and we can't rest our heads thinking someone else would feel the same way. So we'll break down almost every ingredient for you. You'll need to look up the essential oils and botanical on your own. But emails us if you need help.

Ingredients:

Olea Europaea Fruit Oil - This is just your plain olive oil. We use it because it is expensive and you deserve it. Just kidding, we use it because it is one of theeee best oils to use to produce a mild, nourishing, and moisturizing bar. But really it is very expensive to use in soap which is one of the reasons people settle for lard, palm oil, sunflower oil, or large amounts of coconut oil. True Castile soap uses 100% olive oil, and is frickin amazing, but also takes a year to cure. Ain't nobody got time for that! We can barely survive the 5-6 week cure time already. We use over 40% of this stuff in our recipe because we want you to feel expensive.

Butyrospermum Parkii - Better known as the pronounceable ingredient Shea Butter. Shea butter is known for its high concentration of vitamins A, E, and essential fatty acids. Fatty acids help moisturize and condition. We love it because it makes our bars hard (nobody loves a soft bar) while producing a creamy later. We love shea butter so much that we have one of the highest concentrations compared to other soap companies. We use more than 25% in each bar, and she's pricey. That's why other companies charge a premium for a shea butter soap. Ours were born that way. We also don't want to sacrifice quality for a few bucks.

Cocos Nucifera - Coconut Oil, extra virgin and organic. Just like the kind you eat. In fact we have been known to raid the left over jars at night. But please do not eat our soap, it definitely does not taste like coconut oil. Coconut oil is used in soap because it is relatively inexpensive and is a powerhouse at cleaning and producing bubbles. We love bubbles, we want bubbles on everything. We even like it when kids run around with bubble makers, or stores have bubble machines, or foam parties, or overflowing washer machines, or... we digress. Let's just say we love bubbles. There is no better soap ingredient to make bubbles than coconut oil. But coconut oil can be very stripping. That's why we have found a perfect balance and it's not our first or even our second ingredient. The kind of coconut oil we use is not the cheap overly processed industrial quality.

Aqua - Water. We're sure you figured that one out on your own.

Sodium Hydroxide - Here's the one that sparks most people's inquires. Sodium Hydroxide goes by many names; NaOH, caustic soda, or lye. It is used to turn oils into soap through a process of saponification. The result is a saponified oil where no lye or sodium hydroxide is left in the finalized product. You get a completely new material. One that you can shower with. You can think of it kinda like making cookies. Imagine making cookies with flour, sugar, and eggs, and having your cookies be sugar free when you're done. It makes the brain hurt right? But that is exactly what happens when fatty acids are mixed with an alkali like sodium hydroxide. In fact you can not produce soap without it. So when you have free time, check out the ingredients in some "soaps", you'll find they are actually beauty bars and not soap.

Ricinus Communis - AKA Castor oil. Not only is it great for relieving constipation, its the backbone to our suds. Castor oil when saponified helps keep those suds going and going. Its chemical makeup allows the coconut oil suds to reach their best life.

Stearic Acid - This unfortunately doesn't get a basic name. Our stearic acid is triple pressed from a vegetable-based fat source and classified as natural saturated fatty acids. It also carries Mass Balance certification from the distributor. The Mass Balance model supports sustainability throughout the entire supply chain by monitoring the trade of raw ingredients. But why do we use it? We use it to increase lather and so our bars don't disintegrate quickly, one of the few drawbacks of a natural soap. So make sure to always store yours in a dry place after you rub a dub dub time.

Sodium Citrate - No easy name on this one either. Sodium citrate has a few uses. Sodium citrate is derived from citric acid, which occurs naturally in citrus fruits like lemons and oranges. It is normally produced by neutralizing citric acid with sodium hydroxide. It is mostly used in foods to control acidity or act as a preservative. But we use it so you don't get a ton of soap scum. The truth is, natural soap comes from oils, those oils loooove to stick to things. Sodium citrate helps to bind them before they can attach. It also helps with texture, lather, and from your bars becoming rancid. Yes soap can becomes rancid. We use food grade, gluten free sodium citrate but again do not eat our bars.

Mel - That's honey to you honey. Honey has a host of beneficial qualities and we wanted every one of them in our bar because you're the bee's knees.

Zinc Oxide - Zinc oxide is known for its skin soothing properties. Maybe this is why old school diaper rash formulas were made of this stuff. While we cant make claims that it helps calm inflammation, redness, or irritation, this is why zinc oxide has been used for centuries.

Sodium Chloride - Sea salt (you get it, we get it, and our fingers hurt from typing).

That's really a personal question. But, some say we can can last forever. The truth is it can last longer if you never use it. Since we would love for you to enjoy it in your daily routine we recommend using it at least once. More if you're not in a drought ridden area like we are. We've actually tested our bars over several weeks. In an average wash it looses about 4g. That means your bar should last just about 4 weeks. If you're aiming to be next to godliness, it might last 3 weeks. Grab one of our soap saver bags and make those small pieces last as long as this reply. BTW when not in use storing it out of the water on a soap dish, like the ones we sale, will help it last longer and not get gooey.

*** we will soon be increasing our bar size to last just over a month. Look for changes to come in July.***

Well Janet, those soaps use fragrances. And why we aren't entirely against some fragrances, most have phthalates, hormone disruptors, and synthetic chemicals that can act as allergens and cause all sorts of issues. Add to that that essential oils have increased in price significantly and you get a fine balance of how much we can afford to pass the buck on to you. Now Janet if you'd like a $15 bar we are happy to do a special order, but we are tryin to keep it reasonable. We also follow strict guidelines set forth by the International Fragrance Association on usage amounts. For instance lemongrass, which so many people love, has a very low usage rate making it hard to create a scent that lingers longer than body spray in a high school classroom. And frankly, we don't always want to smell like our soap.

Sodium Hydroxide, or NaOH (thank you years of coteaching chemistry), is required to produce a true soap. Most soaps are synthetic detergents and not soap. Sodium Hydroxide, or as we like to call it, lye (sodium hydroxide is just to long to say and type, kind like this parenetical expression), has been used for centuries albeit by accident. Saponification, the process of turning our oils and butters into a cleansing power, is a chemical reaction, where all of the lye is used up in the process (if one follows good soapmaking practices, and we do!). The result is alkaline salts of fatty acids. The idea of "chemical-free" is a misnomer, because everything on this planet including humans and the air we breath is a chemical. How you use those chemicals is what can make them unsafe. We follow strict practices to insure our soaps are within a safe pH range and not lye heavy. In fact we make sure to have at least a 5% superfat so our bars feel wonderful and not stripping.

We will ship anywhere you pay us to. But mostly in the United States because filling out customs forms and standing in line at the post comes with a charge and we'd rather be making soaps.

Originally Fivery was going to be called Five & Dime, but some lucky fool owned that. So it's a play on words like most of our product descriptions and write ups. It also rhymed with a lot of our favorite shops like bakery, apothecary, creamery, drinkery, cakery, and rotisserie.

It is pronounced HAH-leh NOH-ah and is from 'Ōlelo Hawaiʻi, the Hawaiian language. Hawaii has been a sanctuary for us and the idea of creating a natural goods company was born out on a cooled lava patch (really it was). Hale Noa means a lot of things but in simple terms it is a house free of constraints, of negative energy, or bad feelings. Hale Noa felt right in protecting 'Ōlelo Hawaiʻi, and doing a small part to bring the language back into general consciousness. Through our practices and vision we have decided to protect, and help others protect, the ʻāina or land through the products we sell. And while we are not 100% where we want to be, knowing we can help create a free unrestricted space within most important place, the home, is what we work towards everyday.

That's actually a good sign. And not is hasn't been ToyStorying it up while you're at work. Sweating is a sign it's in a humid environment and that we did our job in making sure the final result had a lot of natural skin loving glycerin.

Oh our prices are anything but random. It's all intentional. The number 7 is lucky and just like you it looks great paired next to anything, so we decided to add it to all out pricing.

We have a place in our hearts for all kinds of soap. We stand by our statement of making our products accessible through price, quality, and type. We understand not everyone wants to bath in goat's milk or smear themselves with honey (maybe on a late Friday night...), but receiving certification requires a lot of time and even more money. We rather spend that time making your soap wonderful and wonderfully affordable.

We also love sandalwood. But.... "Sandalwood and other high value tree species are under significant threat from illegal harvest. Illegal logging is an increasing problem contributing to deforestation, biodiversity loss, human rights abuses and funding transnational crime. Successful prosecution of illegal logging is hindered by a lack of methods to provide evidence of the origin of timber.(https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ppp3.10349). Most sandalwood you come in contact with now is a fragrance. And while there are some good natural fragrances that smell like sandalwood, we feel using them increases the likelihood of people unsuspectingly buying something that is on the brink of extinction. We also don't think you would like the price if we did find an ethically sourced replacement. For instance our bars are $6.77 for quality essential oils with all of their testing and documents. If we used the same amount of sustainable Australian sandalwood in our soap we would need to charge $72.54. We would love to sell you a $70 bar but we can't budge on this.

That's really two questions isn't it? Just like certifying a vegan product, receiving USDA Organic certification requires a lot of time and even more money. We rather spend that time making your soap wonderful and wonderfully affordable. We have also found that "organic" doesn't always mean better quality. Many of our products are organic but have not been certified. If you'd love an all organic bar, send us a love letter through email and we'd be happy to create one for you. *** Look for changes coming in July where we are hoping top get each bar to about 70% organic***

Pink, with a touch of red, blue, yellow, green, brown, orange, and lots of black and white.

Everyone buys soap for a different reason. We actually make soap to bath with and picking out drain clogging plant material just wasn't on our horizon. If you wet the soap and throw some grass on it we hear it sticks well, but we're not sure if that's exactly what you're looking for. Send us a pic if you do. As for swirls, we can barely remember what we did this morning. Remembering a swirl combination over multiple batches is beyond our mental well being. However, we love and appreciate all the decorative tops and styles of soap. So please still support small business.

No your soap hasn't been out for a long weekend bender. That residue is called soda ash and it is common with a lot of cold process soap making, and completely harmless (don't eat it). We could give you the short of the long of it and get all sciency but it just comes from adding extra liquids. There will be more with our solid dish soaps because coconut hardens quick and so we add more water to allow us time to draw hearts in your dish before we wipe it clean and let it cure.

The honest answer is everything is a choice. While we can't make claims about our soap being moisturizing, nourishing, or solving world problems (the FDA would crash out), our soap includes olive oil, shea butter, sea salt, castor oil, and only essential oils for a reason. None of our soaps have synthetic detergents only natural legacy oils for a cleaner more eco-friendly bar.

Yes but no but yes but... It depends on which bar you've chosen to live your best life with in the bathroom. None of our bars are a truly exfoliating bar. What you might be feeling is the gentle touch of God created botanical powders. We only use natural botanicals (never micas, never synthetics.. ew) that often impart color into our soaps and these powders are used in different amounts resulting in a little bit of texture.