About Us
Our Story
A Cincinnati native and the youngest of eight children, Suzanne Bourgeois became fascinated with the process of soapmaking as a child while frequenting the home of her 90-year-old neighbors, George and Petey Gunderman, who were retired soap-makers. The desire and passion to create soap has never left her: "I've been making soap in my head all my life" she says. After years of incubation, Verdae Skin Therapy was born in 2005.
Our Commitment to You
Verdae searches the world over to find the purest of natural ingredients and lovingly incorporates them in the time honored tradition of making soap using the cold process method, retaining the naturally occurring glycerin that holds moisture to the skin. All of our skin care products are shea butter based. We are committed to providing a product that is both gentle and nourishing to your skin.It took our soapmaster over a year and 39 recipes to arrive at a base formula that meets our standards of purity, absolute quality, and care for your skin that is rarely seen in soaps at any price. We have been just as discerning with our line of nourishing skin care products.
We are committed to the health of our customers.
Our goal is to provide products that are affordable, nurturing, healthy and eco-friendly.
We happily support the efforts of our local community
Our Social Commitment
We purchase our unrefined, hand-rendered shea butter from Ghana and Togo, where women render shea butter to support and sustain themselves and their families.We donate a portion of our sales to local outreach agencies such as Project Safe, Food Bank of NE Georgia, Our Daily Bread, Bigger Vision Homeless Shelter and the Stable Foundation.
What is Cold process soap?
In today's world where everything is expected to happen with the push of a button comes a wonderfully old-world soap.We blend oils including olive, rice bran, shea butter and cocoa butter then combine them with lye and water, add wonderful ingredients such as cocoa, rosemary, Moroccan clay, cinnamon, cloves and pour into molds then "put the soap to bed" for 24 hours. Next we unmold the soap and cut into bars placing the individual bars on our hand-built drying racks to cure for three weeks. Our bars are then hand-wrapped and ready for you to enjoy.
Why we like Butters
SHEA BUTTER - vitamin E, Natural Shea butter contains vitamins A, D, E, F.Improves skin elasticity, soothes burns, calms skin irritation, improves the symptoms of psoriasis, natural sun block, spf 4
AVOCADO BUTTER (Persea Gratissima - Avocado Oil)
. ..comes from the fruit of the Avocado tree. Its components are moisturizing and healing, a good butter to use for dry or "aging" skin. It is also thought to have some natural sunscreen properties. Avocado Butter has excellent penetrating qualities and has low comedogenicity on skin (pore clogging). Good for use in massage oil, lotion, creme, bar soap, hair care and balms.
COCOA BUTTER (theobroma Cacoa Seed Butter)
...is an edible vegetable fat obtained from cocoa beans. This butter has a mild chocolate aroma that will remain in your final product. Cocoa Butter contains natural antioxidants, provides a barrier on skin to help retain and restore moisture and improves skins elasticity (good for use on a pregnant tummy). Excellent for use in balm, lotion creme and soap
Mango Butter (Mangifera Indica Seed)
... is extracted from the fruit kernels of the Mango tree. Mango Butter is highly moisturizing, is high in antioxidants and sources indicate that it can provide some sunshield abilities. A good choice for lip and body balms as it melts at skin temperature.
Why we use a preservative in our otherwise all-natural lotion
Lotion is what's called an "emulsion". This means that water and oil are combined together to form a non-separating end product. Because of the water content in the lotion which is bacteria's favorite hiding/growing place, it is necessary to employ a good preservative; otherwise your lotion would only be usable for about 2 weeks AND that's if you keep it in your frig!!!We have our lotion tested routinely. We are constantly on the lookout for the best preservatives available. Our preservative system is on the acceptable list of ingredients at both Earth Fare and Whole Foods.