Best American-Made Bar Soap & Natural Soap: Handmade Bars and Castile Soap Made in the USA

Pacha Soap Co. started in 2010 with a batch cooked in a dorm-room crockpot, and launched in Hastings, Nebraska. Its FAQ is specific: each bar is crafted by its soap makers in Hastings, who pour, mix, cut, stack and ship every bar by hand, in-house, and make their own molds and cutters. That covers the 3-packs, the Almond Goat Milk bars and the Charcoal Tea Tree bar. Pacha's candles, lotion, deodorant and bath bombs carry no stated origin, and it buys some ingredients from farmers around the world.

Indigo Wild began in 1996 selling goat's milk soap at Kansas City farmers' markets. Its about page says Zum Bar soaps are made, labeled and packaged at its building on Wyandotte Street in Kansas City, Missouri, poured, swirled and packed by hand. The company says its ingredients are globally sourced, without naming which.

Chagrin Valley Soap and Salve grew from a first kitchen batch in the spring of 2001. Each product page reads "Made in Ohio," and the products are made by hand in small batches at the company's soap shop in the Cleveland area; the company lists Solon, Ohio. Its soaps are cold process and use USDA certified organic ingredients, some of them grown outside the US. We list its Oatmeal Honey Goat Milk bar.

Olde Country Soap makes cold-process bar soap and laundry soap on a farm in Burbank, South Dakota, near the route of the original Oregon Trail. It describes its method as a traditional Amish technique, says its ingredients come from the same place, and cures the bars for more than a month. We list its Original 8-bar box of Tallow Plus unscented bars. It colors its other soaps with dyes drawn from natural ingredients and uses local bentonite clay.

Alaska Glacial Mud Co., now selling as Alaska Glacial Essentials, launched in 2006 with mud masks and mineral soaps. The clay is hand-harvested from the Copper River Delta, and the company makes its products in a small-batch facility in Cordova, Alaska. Its cold-process mineral clay soap bars, in Peppermint Lavender, Citrus Blend and a Thieves blend, are among its clearest Alaska-made items. Its newer facial serums and creams have no stated filling site.

The Bubble Factory makes vegan, palm-oil-free cold-process bars, including the Lavender, Lavender Rosemary, Patchouli Mud and Patriot sets. Its About page says the soap is "Handmade in the USA" and that it is Cosmetic GMP certified and women-owned. It is an Arizona corporation, but its site does not name the town of its factory.

Castile soap is made from plant oils rather than animal fat, and it is sold as both a bar and a liquid. Dr. Bronner's is the best-known maker. Emanuel Bronner started the company in Los Angeles in 1948, and the family still runs it. The company's own blog describes its soap plant in Vista, California, which runs on solar power and now does part of its own oil refining. That covers the peppermint, lavender and unscented Pure-Castile liquid soaps, the bar soap pack and Sal Suds. The coconut, palm and olive oils are grown abroad and shipped in. Dr. Bronner's pages do not say where its toothpaste, lotion or hair rinse are made.

Vermont Soap makes organic castile soap, body wash and bar soap at its own factory in Middlebury, Vermont. It says it chose Middlebury partly for nearby low-impact hydropower, which runs the steam boilers for its liquid soap, and every page of its site reads "Made in Vermont, USA." Most of its products are certified organic through Vermont Organic Farmers.

Brittanie's Thyme is a family-run company in Ozark, Alabama that makes olive oil castile hand soaps, Basics hand soaps and gallon refills in small batches. Its About page says "Proud to be Made in the USA!" It does not say where its olive oil is sourced.

San Francisco Soap Company is not in California. Its Man Bar FAQ says it makes all of its personal care products at its factories in Fall River, Massachusetts and Lincoln, Rhode Island. The Man Bar line is triple-milled bar soap in scents such as Coastal Driftwood, Midnight Amber and Spiced Tobacco, plus 3-piece gift sets. The bars are vegetable based, with no beef tallow. The company uses RSPO mass balance palm oil, which is grown abroad, so the US claim covers where the soap is made.

Packer's Pine Tar Soap dates to 1869, when Daniel F. Packer began selling Packer's All Healing Tar Soap in Mystic, Connecticut, after three years in the California Gold Rush. The brand says the same soap has been sold without a break for more than 150 years. Its FAQ says its products "are all made in the good ol' USA." The company's office is in Libertyville, Illinois, but it does not say where the soap is made, so we record the origin as USA without a named factory. We list the original pine tar bar and the scrub bar, and the line also includes a shampoo and body wash. Packer's says its formulas are free of creosote, parabens and sulfates.

Start with how the bar is made. Cold-process soap, which Pacha, Indigo Wild, Chagrin Valley, Olde Country, Alaska Glacial and The Bubble Factory all make, is mixed from oils and lye and then left to cure for weeks. The process keeps the glycerin it creates in the bar, which is why these soaps tend to feel less drying. Triple-milled soap, like San Francisco Soap Company's Man Bar, is ground and pressed again after it is made, which gives a harder, denser bar that lasts longer in a wet shower.

Then read the base. Goat's milk bars suit people who want a creamy lather. Castile soap is plant-oil soap; the liquid form works for hands, body and household cleaning once diluted. Tallow bars use animal fat, and vegan bars use plant oils only.

Made in USA on a soap means the soap was made here. Coconut, palm and olive oil do not grow in quantity in the US, so almost every brand here imports some ingredients, and several say so. Some brands also sell soap made elsewhere. Kiss My Face's own store labels its Pure Olive Oil and Olive & Aloe bar soaps "Made in Greece," and most of its other products carry no origin line. Read the label on any bar from a brand with a mixed line.

To make a handmade bar last, keep it on a draining dish out of the shower stream.