My Soapmaking Journey so far...

Just on two years ago I was deep in the throes of being a stay at home Mum, I went to a live soapmaking demonstration, as I didn't get out much with four kids. (After previously having an amazing career as a scuba instructor on the great barrier reef off Cairns). I remember thinking it was pure magic, especially when the essential oils were added and a huge waft went into the air.   A few weeks later after picking up the soap bars we made, I used it and was pleasantly surprised. My skin felt super clean, but I didn't get that tight feeling you often get with mass produced store bought soaps. 

Fast forward a couple of months, I decided to try and make my own soaps. I bought the tools and ingredients and the first soap was amateur at best. But it was successful enough to spur me on and try again.  I set up a workshop in the the laundry and made batch after batch, experimenting with all types of oils and ingredients. For every success, there were many failures and I learnt A LOT from those. 

Prior to this my family was going through a bottle of body wash a week, and I felt guilty about all the plastic waste going to recycling. At the time I didn't know about traditionally made soap, and how great it was. But after making and using it for a while, I thought I'd like to share this knowledge, and my soap with others.

So I set out making my recipe to be super conditioning on the skin, bubbly and creamy. I wanted the bars to be super smooth and luxurious, and palm oil free. So I set out trialing my own different recipes, using cocoa butter for the hardness. I was getting mixed results, with feedback coming back as "the soaps are lovely, they just melt away though". I was also getting spots due to the cocoa butter amino acids clumping together.

As an experiment I tried putting palm kernel oil in one batch, That batch turned into a soap with everything I was after....Silky smooth, luxurious and long lasting. So I had a decision to make, To palm oil or not to palm oil? I decided to put the palm oil in my recipe, because of the humid environment I live in (its not unusual to have 99% humidity in summer). It really does add such a beautiful texture, and gives it good durability.  In the future I will be looking at alternatives, but for now I'm happy that this is the best soap I can make for the location I live in (at altitude, in the tropics).

It was important to me I wasn't adding to the plastic problem the world faces, so if I was going to put my soaps out here, the packaging had to line up with my values, so no plastic. I researched my options, and settled on a couple of suppliers that were Aussie based and could supply my needs with plant based and non toxic compostable packaging. So once the soap is used and the packaging composted, there will be nothing left on this earth, and maybe together we may have saved a couple of body wash bottles from landfill.

I've also chosen to offset your shipping carbon with real solutions, not just tree planting. I use Planet by Shopify for this. They have a lot of diverse projects being funded such as kelp sea storage, direct air capture, and seed drones to name a few. 

I've made a LOT of soaps in the last two years, had failures, learnt from them and continued on. I now have a product I'm excited to share with you, and hope you love it too! 

Thankyou for taking the time to read this.

Love Emma xxx