What Goes Into Grandma’s Girl
Thoughtfully chosen. Purposefully used. Always made with care.
At Grandma’s Girl, every ingredient has a reason for being there. From the oils and butters in our handcrafted soaps and body care to the waxes, fragrance, botanicals, and functional ingredients throughout our collection, each formula is created with its finished purpose in mind.
Oils & Butters
The foundation of many of our handcrafted recipes.
From rich butters to carefully selected plant oils, these ingredients help give our soaps and body care their character, texture, lather, glide, and feel. We choose them according to what each recipe is meant to become—because one oil cannot do every job, and we wouldn't ask it to.
Botanicals & Earth-Grown Extras
Rooted in tradition and chosen with purpose.
From flowers and herbs to carefully prepared botanical infusions, these ingredients bring a little of the garden into our handcrafted recipes. We use botanicals thoughtfully, choosing them for the role they play in the color, character, texture, and overall experience of a finished product.
Waxes & Fragrance
Where craftsmanship meets a little imagination.
Our wax creations begin with carefully selected waxes and thoughtfully chosen fragrance. From classic candles and melts to those wonderfully unexpected creations that make you ask, “Wait...that’s WAX?”, each one is designed to bring fragrance, beauty, and a bit of personality into your space.
The Supporting Cast
The little things that help everything work beautifully.
Not every ingredient gets top billing, but every one has a job. Clays, salts, sugars, colorants, emulsifiers, preservatives, and other functional ingredients are selected according to the needs of each formula. They may work quietly behind the scenes, but they help create the texture, stability, appearance, performance, and experience we want from the finished product.
Oils, Butters & Traditional Fats
Olive Oil
The old faithful.
A time-honored soapmaking oil that contributes a smooth, creamy character to our handcrafted bars. Olive oil has been used in soapmaking for generations, and there is good reason it continues to have a place at our soap pot.
Coconut Oil
For bubbles and backbone.
Coconut oil helps create a firm bar and contributes plentiful, cleansing lather. We balance it with other oils, butters, and fats according to what each particular recipe needs.
Canola Oil
An everyday ingredient that knows how to work.
Canola oil earns its place in select recipes for the qualities it contributes to the finished formula. Around here, an ingredient doesn't need a fancy name—it needs to do its job well.
Grapeseed Oil
Light and versatile.
Grapeseed oil has a lighter character than many of our richer oils and butters, making it useful in select skin and body-care formulations.
Shea Butter
Rich, creamy, and well loved.
Shea butter adds richness to our recipes and contributes to the creamy feel and character of our handcrafted soaps and body care.
Mango Butter
Smooth and quietly luxurious.
Mango butter is a firm plant butter that brings body and a smooth feel to select soap and body-care recipes.
Kokum Butter
Firm, simple, and hardworking.
Kokum is one of our firmer plant butters. It is especially useful when we want structure and richness without relying on a softer butter.
Avocado Butter
Softness with substance.
Creamy avocado butter adds richness and body to select Grandma’s Girl formulations and pairs beautifully with other oils and butters.
Lard
Old-fashioned soapmaking has its reasons.
Lard has a long history in traditional soapmaking and can produce a beautifully firm bar with a creamy, lasting lather. We use it in select recipes where its particular characteristics suit the finished soap.
Beef Tallow
A traditional ingredient with staying power.
Tallow has been used by soapmakers for generations. In select Grandma’s Girl bars, it contributes hardness, longevity, and a dense, creamy lather.
A Note About Animal Fats
Some Grandma’s Girl soaps are made using traditional fats such as lard or beef tallow, while others are formulated without animal fats. Each product’s ingredient listing will tell you exactly what is in that particular bar, so you can choose according to your own preferences.
The Supporting Cast
Salt — A little structure.
Used in select soap formulas to contribute to the character and hardness of the finished bar.
Sugar — A little sweetness—with a job to do.
Sugar isn't there to make the soap sweet. In soapmaking, it can help encourage the generous, bubbly lather we're looking for.
Silk Fibers — A small touch of luxury.
A tiny amount of silk fiber can be incorporated into select soap recipes to contribute to the smooth, silky character of the finished lather.
Coconut Milk — Creamy by nature.
Coconut milk brings its naturally rich composition to select soaps and helps us create the creamy character we want from those particular recipes.
Colloidal Oatmeal — Simple, familiar, and comforting.
Finely milled colloidal oatmeal is incorporated into select recipes for the soft, silky feel and character it lends to the finished product.
Buttermilk
An old-fashioned soapmaking favorite.
Used in select Grandma’s Girl soaps, buttermilk contributes to the rich, creamy character of the finished bar and its lather. It’s one of those traditional ingredients that fits right at home in a handcrafted soap recipe.
Ingredient Transparency
Our recipes vary from bar to bar. Some contain traditional animal-derived ingredients such as lard, beef tallow, buttermilk, or silk, while others are made without animal-derived ingredients. Please check each product’s full ingredient list to choose the bar that best suits your preferences.
Botanicals & Earth-Grown Extracts
Old-fashioned ingredients, thoughtfully worked into modern recipes.
There is something beautifully familiar about working with flowers, leaves, roots, and spices. At Grandma’s Girl, select botanicals are used directly or slowly infused into oils before becoming part of a finished recipe.
Some lend natural color or character. Others become part of an infused oil used in our handcrafted soaps, body care, salves, and other small-batch creations. We choose them according to the recipe—not simply because they sound pretty on a label.
Calendula
Golden petals with an old-fashioned reputation.
Calendula is used in select Grandma’s Girl botanical preparations and oil infusions, bringing the simple beauty and character of the flower into our handcrafted recipes.
Chamomile
Soft, familiar, and quietly lovely.
Chamomile is used in select infused oils and handcrafted preparations. Its delicate flowers fit naturally into the slower, traditional methods we enjoy using at Grandma’s Girl.
Hibiscus
Bold color from a beautiful bloom.
Hibiscus brings its naturally rich color and distinctive character to select botanical infusions and handcrafted recipes.
Lavender
A garden classic.
Lavender has long been at home in traditional handcrafted goods. We use it in select botanical preparations and infusions where its character suits the finished recipe.
Rosemary
An old garden standby.
A familiar herb with generations of traditional use, rosemary finds its way into select Grandma’s Girl botanical infusions and handcrafted preparations.
Burdock Root
From the root up.
Burdock root is used in select botanical oil infusions, where time allows the dried root to slowly become part of the preparation before the oil moves on to its finished recipe.
Comfrey
An old-fashioned botanical.
Comfrey is incorporated into select infused-oil preparations as part of our traditional, slow-made approach to botanical crafting.
Arnica
Small flower, carefully chosen.
Arnica is reserved for select botanical preparations and used according to the purpose and design of the finished product.
Yarrow
Wild, traditional, and full of character.
Yarrow joins select botanical infusions as one of the herbs we turn to when creating our more traditional, herb-centered preparations.
Turmeric
A little spice and plenty of character.
Known immediately by its beautiful golden color, turmeric is used in select infused oils and handcrafted preparations where its distinctive natural character belongs.
From Garden to Jar
Some things simply shouldn't be rushed. Our botanical oils are prepared in small batches, giving dried herbs, flowers, and roots time to infuse before the oil becomes part of the next handcrafted creation.
Waxes & Fragrance
Coconut Apricot Wax
Creamy, smooth, and made for the candle jar.
Our container candles begin with a coconut-apricot wax blend made from apricot, coconut, paraffin, and soy. We chose it for its creamy appearance, smooth finish, and ability to carry the rich fragrance experience we want from a Grandma’s Girl candle.
CocoSol™ Soy Pillar Wax
When our wax needs a little more backbone.
Our molded and specialty wax creations need a wax capable of holding all those little details. This blend of coconut, soy, and sunflower gives us a firmer foundation for freestanding melts, molded pieces, and some of those wonderfully convincing creations that make folks ask, “Wait…that’s WAX?”
Wooden Wicks
A little crackle with the candlelight.
Select Grandma’s Girl candles are finished with wooden wicks, bringing another bit of character to the candle experience. Each candle and fragrance combination is tested to find the wick setup that gives that particular candle the burn performance we’re looking for.
Fragrance
The finishing note that gives every creation its personality.
Fragrance can turn an ordinary room into something remembered. We work with thoughtfully selected fragrance oils and create our own scent combinations, ranging from warm gourmands and soft linens to fruits, woods, florals, aquatics, and deeper atmospheric blends.
Some scents stand beautifully on their own. Others get the Grandma’s Girl treatment—blended until they tell the story we had in mind.
A Little Wax. A Lot of Imagination.
The ingredients may begin simply, but what happens next is pure Grandma’s Girl.
From cakes and pies to puddings and other familiar favorites, our illusion wax creations are shaped, layered, colored, and finished by hand to look delightfully convincing. Each one begins with thoughtfully selected wax and fragrance, then gets a generous helping of patience, imagination, and personality.
They may look good enough to eat—but trust us, they smell much better in the warmer.
