SLOB

The FDA banned triclosan, the original antibacterial agent in consumer hand washes, in 2016. It was not more effective than plain soap, and it was raising real concerns about antibiotic resistance. The replacements have the same question hanging over them. If you washed properly, what exactly is the residue for?

Wash your hands the way the CDC recommends. Twenty seconds, fronts, backs, between fingers, under nails. Nothing needs to stay behind trying to kill what is already gone.

Most bottled "hand wash" is not soap. It is synthetic detergent. Same trick, grease-loving end and water-loving end, but so aggressive at the grease-loving part that it strips the protective oils your skin makes on purpose. That is why you wash, feel tight, and reach for lotion. You are putting back what the bottle took off.

The cheap bottle is roughly 85% water with a squirt of petroleum-derived surfactant, a scent, and a preservative. You are paying for packaging and advertising. Real soap is mostly oil, and oil is the expensive part of the ingredient list.

Here is the part nobody tells you. Industrial soap makers do produce real soap. Then they strip out the glycerin, which is a natural byproduct of saponification, and sell it separately at a much higher margin to the lotion industry. You buy the stripped soap cheap. Your skin feels tight afterward. So you buy the glycerin back, in a lotion bottle, for ten times the price. Two sales off the same batch of oil.

We don't strip it. The glycerin stays in our foam, the Manitoba hempseed oil carries its conditioning quality into the lather, and your skin gets conditioned during the wash instead of after it. One product instead of two. That is most of why our soap costs what it does, and most of why you stop reaching for lotion once you've used it for a week.

Our conditioning foam soap is formulated from scratch around Manitoba hempseed oil, chosen for the distinct conditioning quality it brings to the finished soap. The glycerin stays in the formula, and every batch is made by hand in Thunder Bay. You get the same lift-and-rinse cleaning soap has always done, without the stripping.

Want the full chemistry? Read the deep dive on our About page.

Squalene makes up about an eighth of the oil your skin produces. Lips never get any, because lips make no oil, period. Squalane is the stable, absorbable form of that same molecule, and ours comes from olives instead of the industry's original source, shark liver. It sinks in completely and leaves nothing sitting on the surface. This is the donation your lips have been waiting on their whole life.

Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are called essential because no part of your body can manufacture them. Your skin uses the omega-6, linoleic acid, to build ceramides, the mortar of the moisture barrier, and lip skin runs short on ceramides too. Hemp seed oil is over half linoleic acid, absorbs fast, and it's the same Manitoba hempseed oil we build the foam soap around. One sourced ingredient, two flagships.

This is the ingredient people ask about. Tomato seed oil is one of the richest natural sources of lycopene, a powerful antioxidant. Your lips get UV exposure all day and have almost no melanin to protect themselves, which is why they chap and burn faster than the rest of your face. Lycopene is protection exactly where protection matters. It isn't a common lip balm ingredient, and it's in ours on purpose.

Mango butter melts at body temperature. That's the silky-on-application feeling, and it's not a happy accident. Shea and cocoa sit on lips as a heavier film. Mango delivers slip without weight, then gets out of the way of the oils doing the work.

Candelilla comes from a desert shrub. It's harder than beeswax, which means we use less of it to hold the stick together. Less wax means less coating and more absorption. Vegan is the consequence of the choice, not the reason for it.

Every balm seals a little. It has to, or it wouldn't stay on your lips, and slowing moisture loss is genuinely useful when your lips can't do it themselves. The difference is what rides in with the seal. Most balms are twenty percent wax or more and deliver nothing else. Ours uses just enough candelilla to hold the stick together, and everything else in the tube is there to be absorbed.

Want the full chemistry? Read the deep dive on our About page.

The heart of SLOB. Our conditioning foam soap is formulated with Manitoba hempseed oil through a carefully developed saponification process. Available as hand soap and body wash.

Rich, nourishing lotions formulated with natural moisturizers. When your soap treats your skin right, you need less lotion. When you want it, ours is the good stuff.

Pure botanical oils for skin, hair, and body care. Carefully sourced and blended for maximum benefit. Simple ingredients, no filler.

Concentrated healing balms for targeted care. Dry skin, cracked hands, chapped lips. Whatever needs extra attention, we've got you covered.

We put serious time into formulating our products. The saponification process, the ingredient ratios, the conditioning properties. This isn't a hobby project with a label slapped on it. It's a workshop and a formula we stand behind.

Made in Thunder Bay, Ontario. We source from Canadian producers whenever possible, including Manitoba hempseed oil, a cornerstone of our soap formulation. Your purchase supports local makers and Canadian agriculture.

SLOB exists because people who care about what goes on their skin deserve a locally crafted option that doesn't cost a fortune. Premium quality at a reasonable price, because taking care of your skin shouldn't require a second mortgage.