SOAP MAGIK
The Power of Soap
I’ve been thinking recently about what it was that drew us to soap. It’s become such an integral part of our lives that sometimes I forget to take a step back and really appreciate these wonderful bars that we make every day. Because soap isn’t just something that you use to clean yourself with, at least not for us anyway. It’s about getting to know these beautiful oils that we work with.
Breathing in the delicious smell of melting shea butter, pouring and stirring it into a thick and sticky castor oil. It’s about truly understanding these oils as we stir them by hand, feeling the weight of them binding together.
For us, soap isn’t just soap; it’s a labour of love.
But what drew us to it in the first place? In a way it was simply the next step for Julie, as she already made all her own home cleaning products, and had done since me and my sister were little. When it came to skin care, we wanted something that was sustainable, biodegradable and that didn’t cost the earth. Something that didn’t require any unnecessary packaging and that wouldn’t irritate our skin.
Harnessing the power of plants
Making cold process soap means you can harness all the beneficial properties of the oils and herbs you put into them. Whether it’s the moisturising power of olive oil, or the soothing properties of Lavender, this way of making soap maintains the integrity of them all, and in turn allows you to smother your whole body with them.
Soap making is about all the wisdom passed down through the ages from old Sages and Herbalists. It’s pawing through old apothecary books and taking inspiration from traditional remedies. It’s about learning from all those who came before us and passed on knowledge of the potency of plants. It’s getting back to our ancestry, our roots, back into the garden to turn the soil and watch how these wondrous herbs grow.
People often ask us about the Lye used in soap bars. It’s a necessary ingredient in the soap making process; you just can’t make soap without it. But luckily, through a process called ‘saponification’ there isn’t a single bit of lye left in our bars when they are ready to use. That’s why the suds are perfectly safe to wash down the drain, because they contain only skin loving clays, oils and minerals.
A SOAP revolution
In a way I suppose soap making is our own quiet rebellion. Turning away from chemicals, big corporations, from unnecessary plastics and pollution. Taking things back to basics, to traditional practices. Back to working with our hands.
So why do we love soap? Because soap making allows you to work with nature, not against it. You don’t need to scrub yourself with synthetic chemicals or fragrances to be clean. You only need a few simple ingredients, all of which can be found in nature.
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