(A whole lot) About Buck Ridge Soap Company

Real soap is made with oil, sodium hydroxide, water and generally some type of vegetable based butter like shea butter or perhaps goat milk for natural gentle exfoliation and generally some type of scent such as essential or fragrance oils. 

If your bar of soap has an ingredient list that you can barely pronounce...it isn't soap. It's detergent pretending to be soap. You might see something like this on the label Stearic acid, Tetrasodium EDTA,2,6-Di-t-butyl-p-cresol (BHT), Sodium stearate, Trisodium etidronate, Sodiumchloride, Sodium tallowate, Sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate, Sodium cocoate,Sodium cocoyl isethionate, Cocoamidopropylbetaine, Sodium palm kernelate, Sodium alkylbenzenesulfonate or any crazy words you need a chemistry degree or to run a Google search to understand the meaning of...then it's not really soap. It's detergent.

These (chemicals) ingredients are why your skin gets dried out or why you might itch after a shower. 

Our ingredient list is much easier to read on any bar of soap we make, everything in it you'll recognize. The only 'chemical' is sodium hydroxide which is lye and it is what makes the oils and other moisturizing and beneficial ingredients combine and become soap. The lye 'cooks off' in this chemical reaction and the resulting soap is *not* harsh or drying. Instead, our soaps are highly moisturizing and contain good for you ingredients that help protect your skin from all the bad stuff and funk that accumulates on it during the day. 

Again, you want to buck that funk not add to it. So every Buck Ridge product starts with non-GMO vegetable based and sustainable oils. Why is that important? We already talked about detergent pretending to be soap. Well, there are real soaps made with an ingredient you might not be comfortable with once you know what it is. As we stated, all soaps start with fat in the form of oil. Remember that word fat. If you see 'tallow' or some variation of the word such as tallowate on the label, then you are bathing in processed animal fat similar to lard. Not sure about you but while we may love a good greasy cheeseburger once in a while, we aren't big on the idea of bathing in the fat derived from meat processing. And if you are a vegetarian or vegan, you certainly wouldn't want to.

You'll be glad to know that every Buck Ridge product, soap, beard care, lotion bars and even our candles are 'funk and animal fat free' except for those that are specifically made to contain them such as a goat milk soap. So that means all of our products (except those containing real honey, beeswax or goat milk) are free of animal or petroleum by-products, weird chemicals, sulfates, detergents, parabens or phthalates or other weird to say things that aren't good for your skin.

Buck Ridge bath, body, beard care product and even our candles and wax tarts are vegan, except for those mentioned before which are made with locally sourced goat milk or locally sourced beeswax or honey. You'll see on the description if they contain these items - so if you are a vegan and want to avoid even using these humanely sourced items, you can with us.

Speaking of humane treatment of animals, if you love animals like we do, you'll be glad to know that our goat milk and beeswax and/or honey come from small local family farms. The goats are treated as pets, and as weird as we find it, so are the bees (not that we'd want to give them a cuddle!) But honestly, both the goats and bees are treated better than some folks children in our opinion.

You'll also be glad to know we never have, and never will, use any ingredients in our products that are tested on our furry friends. We don't test our finished products on animals either (except ourselves) and we don't and won't use any ingredients from suppliers who do. Ever. Period.

Yes, at least it does to us. Buck Ridge candles and wax tarts are made with only USA grown and processed soy wax and nothing else. The wax we use does not contain any synthetic emulsifiers and since soy wax is derived from the hull of the soybean they are naturally gmo-Free. We do not add any whiteners or chemical enhancers when we make our candles. All of our wax tart colors are FDA approved colors made specifically for the candle industry and are non-toxic. So even our candles buck that funk!

Our candles are poured in reusable metal tins and are wicked with sustainably grown and harvested cherry wood. Why is that important? Because cotton wicks do not burn as cleanly as wood and wood wicks are more ecofriendly because they require less water and pesticides to grow than cotton. Plus our wicks aren't from chopping down a full tree, they are made from trimmed branches that do not harm the tree. While a wood wick may not give you quite that 'glow' you get from a cotton wick, they do give off a nice little crackle like you get from a fire for a different sort of ambiance. 

Buck Ridge has always been committed to being as eco-friendly as possible. If you love the environment and want to use products that don't harm the environment and maybe even reduce your carbon footprint, then you're in luck with Buck Ridge Soap Company! We use only recycled papers in our product wrappers and boxes. We use only sustainable oils such as sustainable RSPO certified Palm Oil so no animals are losing habitat to it and our workshop is small so uses less electricity and schedules package pickups at only certain times of day and certain days of the week, to help reduce emissions and our overall carbon footprint. Arkansas is after all The Natural State and we want to keep it that way! 

We also care about how much plastic waste ends up in landfills, our oceans and other waterways and the general water table, so we're making the switch in 2024 (when current supplies of our old mailers run out) to compostable and biodegradable mailers for small orders that aren't big enough for a larger box. I.E. a single beard balm or single bar of soap. We also stopped using bubble wrap in 2023, instead Buck Ridge has started using recycled paper packing for shipments or biodegradable packing peanuts. Our product packaging does use small amounts of plastics such as the BPA free bottles we use for beard wash and the rubber and plastic caps on our dropper bottles for beard oils and the plastic clamshells our wax tarts come in and of course safety seals. However, most of these items can be reused. The wax clamshell tarts can be reused to store small items and the bottles can be washed and refilled with other liquids. A great idea is to wash out the beard wash bottles and fill them with alcohol (no not the drinking kind) or hand sanitizer to pop in your backpack or purse. Not sure about you, but in these post pandemic days we're still carrying around hand sanitizer everywhere. So we've given you a LOT of information about our ingredients, process and about how our company chooses to operate but who *are* you and why did you start making soap?

Buck Ridge Soap Company is owned and operated by Tammie McClure, who was a professional graphic designer for more than 25 years working with newspapers, magazines and brands such as Dillard's, Elizabeth Arden, Southern Living, Miss Me Jeans, Waterford, Michael Kors, Levi's and many others.

Tammie started out making soaps as just a hobby to solve a problem for her late husband Scott. The hobby grew into a business.

In 2017, she decided to quit her full-time job as Marketing and Art Director for a company in Little Rock, to focus on her soap making business. Scott had been extremely supportive in this and built many of the tools she uses in the workshop to this day.

In early 2018, she started her website on Shopify after selling on Etsy and then sadly and at far too young, Scott passed in November of that year. She decided to keep running the business in his honor after that.

In 2019, she opened her workshop to the public so local customers could come in person to purchase their soaps, beard oils and more. Unfortunately, during COVID she had to close the workshop to the public but has since reopened it for local order pickups. Shopping there is still not possible but order pickups are welcome. 

Over the last six years the product line grew and some products were introduced that just didn't sell the best and in January of 2024, we decided to cut back a bit on some offerings to streamline our process. Though we still have a lot to choose from!

The company features many scent profiles that are enjoyed by both men and women. Some of the soaps or other products we market toward men sometimes end up being their wife or girlfriend's go to item too. 

Yep! Buck Ridge Soap Company offers great options for those wanting to start their own business. We welcome both budding and seasoned entrepreneurs to check out our dropship, private label and wholesale options.

You don't even have to sell our products to utilize our design and printing services. Do you crochet tiny hats for pet iguanas and need a logo? Yeah, we can help with that too. 

Honestly, if you are driving north on Arkansas Highway 92 and blink too long you might actually miss Springfield all together. It is that small, with a population around 1,300 at the last census. Springfield is a tiny rural farming community and Buck Ridge Mountain is one of the first 'mountains' as you enter the town. We are in Conway County at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. There are a large number of small family farms here and the area is popular with hunting and fishing enthusiasts. The town is also home to Brewer Lake which is a reservoir for the city of Conway and a great fishing destination with boat access. So we are truly small town America here. 

You'll find discounts on the website on the regular or on our social media and veterans or active duty customers please ask about our military discount. You'll find when you place an order you'll receive a loyalty discount coupon in your package that will be good for your next order.

Please note that we do not offer discounts to wholesale, private label or dropship customers, they are already getting discounts. 

The thing with free shipping is it isn't really free. If you buy from another retailer who offers it, you can be certain you *are* paying for shipping. Usually, a flat fee they add to the price of every product.

Instead, we offer exact weight-based shipping rates so you pay *exactly* what it costs to ship your item and since we offer discounts, depending on the order, in some cases you end up getting free shipping plus some in the end.