The joys of handmade artisan soap!!

The joys of handmade artisan soap!!

Breathe in the calming, rejuvenating notes of rose geranium, lemon verbena and sweet orange. Feel the soft, luxurious textures of olive oil and shea butter gently nourishing your skin. Feast your eyes on the intricate shapes and colourful swirls of turmeric and activated charcoal forming unique, abstract patterns inspired by butterfly wings...

There is nothing quite like artisan soap to give you the feeling of everyday luxury and to turn a simple daily act of self-care into a sense-rich ritual. We have just loved creating our new lines of luxurious, artful all-natural handcrafted soap just for you!

We have loved discovering the age old techniques of cold process soap-making, and sourcing olive oil and other beautiful ingredients from local farms. We have gathered the finest combinations of ingredients we could source from near and far - shea butter from Burkina Faso and the gorgeous fragrances of rose geranium (indigenous to the Western Cape), cardamom, lemon verbena and more.

Cold process, a technique of combining oils with ash to produce soap, is thought by many (including us!) to produce the best quality soap because it is chemical free and contains excess fats, so is gentle and moisturizing on the skin. Once the soap takes shape through a chemical reaction called saponification, it must harden for a further 4-6 weeks before it is ready to use.

The earliest known soap-making formula was found on a stone tablet from Babylonia dating back to around 2200 BC. Soap-making has come a long way since then! The roots of modern day artisanal soap-making as we know it today probably stem from Syria's tradition of Aleppo soap making. We have been especially intrigued to learn about Aleppo soap making, a rich, centuries old tradition of making soap from just three ingredients: olive oil, laurel oil and lye. Sadly, this beautiful artisanal tradition has been decimated as soap producers have been forced to flee from the war in Syria.

Have a look at this story from Atlas Obscura to see the factory process and the green, hand-stamped soap bars piled up in tower formations. We hope the beautiful traditions of soap-making will continue across the world for many generations to come!

Our handcrafted soap is available for purchase here.

 

 

Back to blog

Leave a comment