| | | | | | | Learn more about our traditional soap making methods
We use the traditional method of soap making called cold process. It's a century's old method that has the extra benefit of being extremely energy efficient.
We start out with our food grade oils and butters (our main ingredient is Olive Oil) and add to them an alkali solution. This starts a reaction that will eventually turn the oils into soap. Whilst this sounds straightforward, the amount of alkali that we use has to be carefully calculated using saponification charts. This is to make sure that the end bar of soap is free from active alkali solution.
As the oil and alkali solution begins to change, the mixture becomes thicker and eventually reaches a batter like consistency, this is commonly known as 'trace'. This is the part where we add in the extra special ingredients such as the essential oils. Once blended we pour the mixture into our custom made wooden moulds. Using wooden moulds helps to insulate the soap whilst in continues to saponify for the next 24 hours.
After this time, we remove the soap from the moulds and slice it into bars. The saponification process is not yet complete and so our work is not done! We care for the bars for at least another 4-6 weeks, during this time the bars harden and we monitor their ph levels.
Once ready, we weigh every bar and then wrap each one by hand.
What benefits do your methods have?
During traditional soap making, glycerine is naturally produced. Many commercial soap makers will remove this from the soap and sell it on for use in other products and industries. As glycerine is so kind to your skin, we leave it in our soap giving it that extra indulgent feel. Because of the glycerine content in our soaps, we do advise you to use a soap dish. This allows your soap to harden between uses, giving you as much use out of each bar as possible. |
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