Mountain Lakes Soapworks

Whenever we visit Colorado, I use the opportunity to pick up soap from Mountain Lakes Soapworks. The owner, Jada, is a good friend of ours, and I’ve even had the chance to help her whip up a batch of soap in her kitchen, where she makes all her handcrafted soap and other products.

Mountain Lakes soaps are all natural and made with a variety of oils that deliver various benefits to the skin. For example:

• Avocado oil is extremely moisturizing and nourishing, helps rejuvenates the skin, and increases collagen. It’s also helpful for cases of eczema and psoriasis.
• Grapeseed oil is a lightweight oil that is high in vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids. It helps preserve the natural moisturize in aging skin.
• Olive oil is high in antioxidants and assists with skin cell regeneration.
• Apricot kernel oil is high in vitamins A and C and helps skin retain elasticity, clarity, and suppleness. It also helps relieve symptoms of eczema and dermatitis.
• Neem oil is a moisturizing oil that has medicinal properties: it’s naturally anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, and antiviral, and it also improves eczema and psoriasis.

Unlike some other homemade soaps, Mountain Lakes don’t contain cheap “fillers” that don’t benefit your skin. Jada decided when she first started developing her recipes that she wanted everything in her soap to serve a purpose.

The soaps come in a variety of floral and herbal fragrances. My favorites are sage and spearmint eucalyptus. Jada also makes a variety of beer soaps, including Blue Moon with Orange and Corona with Lime. The hops in beer is a skin softener, much like oatmeal.

On our most recent trip, I was able to help Jada make some of her solid body balms. These moisturizers, which contain beeswax and natural butters, are housed in deodorant stick containers so that you can apply them directly to the skin. I think this is genius, because beeswax is hard to wash off your hands. After using cocoa butter on her belly during her two pregnancies, Jada wanted to create a moisturizer that would be less messy and easy to apply. With the sticks, you get the same benefits of the nourishing butter without getting it all over the palms of your hands. They reduce irritation after shaving and are great for dry areas like knees and elbows. They’re also great for professions that require a lot of hand washing, like nursing, because you don’t have to constantly re-apply hand lotion.

Check out the Mountain Lakes Soapworks website for soap formulations that are currently available. Jada is a member of the Handcrafted Soapmaker’s Guild.