FAQ

Libra was founded by Joanne and Eric, a French couple whose shared vision combines artisanal skincare, craftsmanship, a deep love for animals and nature, and a genuine appreciation for authenticity. 

Eric was born and raised in Toulouse, in the South of France, while Joanne is French-Canadian and was born in Montreal, Quebec. Together, they founded Libra in Maryland, combining their shared French heritage, appreciation for refinement, artisanal craftsmanship, and passion for creating handcrafted products made with natural ingredients.

Eric and Joanne regularly attend various farmers markets, artisan markets, and festivals throughout Maryland’s Eastern Shore, as well as events extending into the Annapolis and Washington, DC areas.

We truly enjoy meeting our customers in person, sharing our products, sometimes introducing our goats, and speaking about the French traditions and craftsmanship behind Libra Estate.

Because our event schedule changes throughout the season, feel free to contact us anytime for an updated list of upcoming markets, festivals, and events where we will be participating.

The name Libra was inspired by the fact that both founders were born in October under the Libra sign. As we began building our estate and skincare collection, the name naturally came to reflect the philosophy behind the way we create. Libra came to symbolize that sense of balance for us — blending traditional craftsmanship, carefully selected ingredients, thoughtful goat breeding, and refined simplicity into products made with patience and intention.

Libra Estate is our beloved farm and the whole world behind what we do — our carefully bred registered Nigerian Dwarf goat herd, our land, and the way we live, work, and create.

Libra's brand is the name of the skincare collection we handcraft on our farm using fresh goat milk from our own herd, organic botanicals, and select plants and flowers that we grow, dry, and distill ourselves.

In many ways, Libra Estate is the place, philosophy, and story behind everything we do, while Libra is the collection of soaps, creams, and skincare products born from it.

In France, people have been making beautiful soaps and skincare products for a very long time. They often take their time and care a lot about using nice ingredients, lovely smells, flowers, herbs, and making products feel soft and luxurious.

Instead of making things very fast in huge factories, many traditional French artisans believe in making things slowly, carefully, and with lots of attention to detail.

That is what inspires us. We try to make our soaps and skincare the same way — carefully, in small batches, without short-cuts, using fresh goat milk from our own goats and/or local goat farms and beautiful botanical ingredients.

The Nigerian Dwarf Goats, an American breed, is a smaller breed of goats, about knee high and 60-80 lbs in weight.

We chose to raise this breed of goats because despite their small size, they produce milk with very high butterfat (5-10%) and protein (4%), which helps create soaps and lotions with a unique dense, silky lather and a soft, nourishing feel on the skin.

As Libra grows and we supplement our milk supply with milk from local farms, we will continue to prioritize Nigerian Dwarf goats and partner with like-minded family farms that share our commitment to quality. Their rich milk helps us create the simple, less-processed formulas made with fresh goat milk and natural ingredients that have become the foundation of our products.

Many commercial goat milk soaps are made using cheap imported powdered goat milk or bulk frozen milk purchased from outside suppliers diluted with water as the first ingredient. We even seen a few brands with the words "milk" or "goat milk" on their label with absolutely nothing milk derived in their ingredient list!!

At Libra, we chose take a different approach. The fresh goat milk used in our soaps, creams, and lotions comes directly from our own herd of registered Nigerian Dwarf goats harvested daily on our farm in Maryland, allowing us to work in smaller batches with fresh milk we know and care for ourselves. If demand for fresh goat milk exceeds what our own herd can provide, we will source milk from carefully selected, like-minded family goat farms that share our commitment to quality, animal care, and wholesome ingredients.

We currently have a small herd of Nigerian Dwarf goats that we carefully breed and raise on our farm in Maryland. Our herd presently consists of approximately 11 females and 3 males. We intentionally keep our herd at a size that allows us to maintain exceptional milk quality while giving each animal individual attention, daily care, and a genuinely enriched life. If demand for fresh goat milk exceeds what our own herd can provide, we will source milk from carefully selected, like-minded family goat farms that share our commitment to quality, animal care, and wholesome ingredients.

You can learn more about our goats, breeding program, and everyday farm life through our farm page and social media channels, where we regularly share photos, videos, new kids, milk production, and behind-the-scenes moments from the estate. Links can be found in the footer of our website.

Goat milk is very gentle and creamy for the skin. It contains natural vitamins, minerals, and nourishing fats that help keep skin feeling soft, smooth, and comfortable.

People have used goat milk in soaps and skincare for a very long time because it creates a rich, creamy lather and feels moisturizing on the skin. Many people also find it especially comforting for dry or sensitive skin.

For us, “French-inspired” means creating skincare products influenced by the traditions, craftsmanship, and lifestyle of the South of France, where our soapmaker grew up.

It reflects a slower and more thoughtful way of making things — using beautiful natural ingredients, traditional techniques, elegant simplicity, and careful attention to detail rather than mass production.

Our products are handmade in Maryland, USA, but they are inspired by the French culture of artisanal craftsmanship, farmers markets, botanical gardens, old-world soapmaking, and the idea that everyday products can still feel refined, authentic, and beautiful.

Both cold process and hot process are traditional soapmaking methods, and each has its own history and advantages. Traditional Savon de Marseille is typically made using a hot process method in large cauldrons, often focused on producing very pure, durable household soap with a simpler formulation.

We personally chose the cold process method because it allows us greater creativity, gentler handling of delicate ingredients, and more flexibility in working with fresh goat milk, botanical infusions, clays, essential oils, and luxurious butters.

Cold process soapmaking also allows the soap to cure slowly over time, creating bars with a creamy lather, elegant texture, and a more artisanal character that aligns closely with the style of skincare we want to create for Libra products.

In many ways, our approach is inspired less by industrial Marseille production and more by small artisanal soapmakers found throughout the South of France, where soapmaking is often slower, more creative, and deeply connected to local ingredients and craftsmanship.

Triple-milling is a traditional industrial finishing process where soap is mechanically ground and pressed multiple times to create an extremely hard, perfectly uniform bar. Many well-known European luxury soaps use this method because it produces a smooth appearance and a very long-lasting bar.

Triple-milled soaps always feel less creamy, buttery, and bubbly than fresh artisan goat milk soap. When some industrial bars achieve an ultra-creamy or highly foaming effect despite being heavily milled, it is accomplished through additional synthetic foaming agents, stabilizers, or other processing additives (you will see this on their long ingredients lists).

In our soaps, the rich creamy lather, velvety texture, and abundant bubbles come naturally from the ingredients themselves — fresh goat milk from Nigerian Dwarf goats, carefully balanced oils and butters, and traditional cold-process soapmaking — rather than from heavy industrial processing or synthetic additives.

We intentionally chose this more artisanal approach because it allows us to work with fresh goat milk from our own herd, delicate botanical infusions, clays, essential oils, and richer natural ingredients that are difficult to preserve in large industrial milling systems.

 

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We use a combination of pure essential oils, botanical extracts, and high-quality fragrance oils depending on the specific product and fragrance profile we are creating. If you seek exclusively a smell from essential oils and rather than fragrance, this will be clearly noted on our ingredient list for each product.

However, one of our long-term goals at Libra is to increasingly produce more of our own botanical ingredients directly on the farm. We already work with our own botanical infusions, such as calendula-infused oils, and we now have a copper alembic that allows us to begin experimenting with extracting some of our own essential oils and hydrosols from carefully selected plants and herbs.

This is still only the beginning of that journey, but over time you will see more and more ingredients, infusions, botanicals, and aromatic extracts produced by us directly on the estate as part of our vision for a more authentic and deeply artisanal approach to French-inspired skincare.

We accept the following credit cards: MasterCard, Visa, American Express and Discover. We also accept payment by PayPal or Amazon Pay. If you decide to use either of these two methods, you’ll be taken to either the PayPal or Amazon Pay website, where you’ll be prompted to log in and process your payment. You’ll then be directed back to our merchant website once your transaction is complete.

Yes. You can place an order as a guest with no obligation to create an account. We do recommend that you create an account, however, if you’d like to check your order history and have your shopping basket items and payment details saved for next time. It’s quick and easy to create an account. Just visit https://www.PureGoatMilkSoaps.com/register and follow the instructions on-screen.

This is automatically sent to your email address when you place an order. If you haven’t received your order confirmation within 24 hours, please get in touch at contact@libra-estate.com just in case there’s a problem with your order. Please check your mailbox’s spam or junk folder before contacting in case the order confirmation has been diverted there.

We typically only cancel orders if there’s a problem with stock, or if you’ve asked us to cancel. Please accept our apologies if your order is canceled because of a problem at our end. We’ll always offer an alternative product and process your refund in full, as quickly as possible.

There is only a short amount of time between when you place your order and when we start processing it. If you contact us straight away after ordering, via contact@libra-estate.com, we may be able to cancel your order before it’s processed.

Sadly, we’re unable to modify your order once we’ve started processing it. If you need to order a greater quantity or an additional product, please place a new order online.

Orders that require shipping within the U.S. will be delivered within three to ten days, depending on your preferred shipping method. Shipping to countries outside of the U.S. may take up to 14 days. Please get in touch if your order hasn’t been delivered according to the expected timescales, and we will check your order status.

We ship worlwide. if you are unsure, double-check with us at contact@libra-estate.com.

Shipping costs depend on the weight and size  of the item(s) you’ve ordered, the country where it’s being delivered and the speed you want it delivered. As you checkout you will see the shipping cost before your ordered is finalized. If your order value is more than $65, we provide free shipping within the U.S.

Yes. We’ll provide updates at every stage of your order, from the moment you place it, through to despatch and delivery. In your delivery confirmation emails, you’ll receive a tracking reference which you can use to check the progress of your order online.

Because our products are personal care items, we do not offer returns or refunds, even if unopened. Please double-check your order before completing your purchase.

In the rare event that your order arrives faulty, please take photos of the product in question and email our customer service team via contact@libra-estate.com with the details.