I’ve been tossing around the idea of adding lip balms to my soapy mix. Amy adores lip gloss, I’m rather a fan of good quality balms and they just look fun to make.
But first I had to source some beeswax. I wanted Tasmanian wax if I could get it – both for label appeal and lowering of my costs/product miles. Luckily, a neighbour of Frogpondsrock had begun keeping bees. We asked. Could I possibly buy some beeswax?
No. Absolutely not. He wouldn’t accept a cent for it – but he’d love some soap as a swap.
DONE.
Then today, Natasha up at 3 Window Gallery in Oatlands gave me 8kg of Tasmanian beeswax. I’m pretty sure this is just because she’s awesome.
Now I’m sitting here, smelling the beeswax on the table behind me and plotting how I can use all the wax in all the products.
Tasmanian people are amazing when you’re getting your feet underneath you. Kind, and generous, and all around pretty amazing people.
Nathan put up a new shelf in the hallway for curing soaps to sit in the warm dry air. I filled it up immediately, emptying the linen cupboard of its soap, ready for more making. Evelyn ran around my feet, requesting to smell all the soaps and nodding wisely at the smells.
Isaac smells the soaps too. Picks his favourites. Turns up his nose at a lot. He’s a fan of the essential oil blend soaps, not the stronger fragrance oil soaps. Amy doesn’t care, she loves them all. My favourite is a honey lemon and oat soap which Isaac says smells like biscuits, screwing up his nose in disgust. It’s funny, I thought he liked biscuits. I have to keep stopping to smell it I like it that much.
I made a castile soap yesterday. 100% olive oil, it was luxurious to work with. I set it to gel, watching while it went rock hard faster than I believed possible. The top looks like plastic now, and I’m glad I’ve got recipe notes, because it was unexpected and interesting and amazing.
I wanted to recreate the soap today, instead preventing gel. A slower process of saponification, I wanted to compare the results. But then my soap making bowl fell off the bathroom counter, cracking. It was empty, thankfully. No more larger batches of soap until I get to the second hand shop to shop for plastic mixing bowls and old saucepans. I’ve got 8kg of beeswax to melt and sieve free of bees legs and there’s no way I’m using my regular cooking pots for that.
This week is lip balm testing week while I pin down the ratios I like best. My bathroom is full of oils. I found a bulk supplier of coconut oil for less than half of what I’d been paying – Tasmanian based as a bonus. We’re doing this thing, in our tiny house, in our tiny kitchen, with our non-existent start up budget.
It’s so much fun.
Nathan shakes his head at me as I obsessively talk about soaps and oils and labels and things I want to do and try. I spent a day at Salamanca market, reading ingredient lists, scratching my head and trying to work out the disingenuous marketing. No one wants to talk about their products. No one wants to talk about ingredients. I asked at one stall, which oils had been used to make a carpet scrubbing soap. It felt like palm and coconut, but I wanted to be certain. She wouldn’t tell me.
It’s odd. I don’t want to be like that. I want people to know what’s in my soap, to see the processes, to know why I choose the way I do. I don’t like secrecy, or trying to hide products. I want to be open, honest. I want to be proud enough of my products to believe in every single ingredient, standing behind the choices I make.
I also am determined to be palm oil free. I won’t buy soap if it contains palm and I don’t intend to start using it in my recipes ever – no matter how people extol the virtues. I can get the same virtues elsewhere thank you, and without the guilt.
Soap making is addictive.
People keep asking when I’m going to start selling soap. Firstly, I need to make sure my recipes hold up under a number of conditions. This takes months, not weeks. Secondly, there’s Government red tape to wade through. Making soap to sell is considered chemical manufacturing and I need a license and accreditation. I need to be accountable.
This isn’t a fast process and I don’t plan on hurrying it up. There’s testing and checking and rejigging and more testing to happen.
But I truly hope you’ll read along while I do it, because I don’t think there’s anything to gain by hiding what my processes are.
Your soap-making adventure sounds like fun and is very interesting. I’d love to buy some! 🙂
It’s such a slow process, the testing and checking. But fun!
Ah, yes, have been meaning to email you! I saw/read/heard (can’t remember where) a thing about a soap bar (American) that comes with a sort of divot, in the back – it’s made for sticking the last sliver of your old soap in, so it doesn’t get wasted. I thought this was so sweet and so genius. Immediately thought ‘Must tell Veronica!’
I’m all out. Time to make a new batch myself!
xRach
That’s a very cool idea! Thank you.
Loving reading this 🙂
If you happen to make a scent free soap please let me know, my allergies do not like scented soaps at all.
I’m planning on it, for people like you. I made an unscented olive oil soap the other day which is meant to be excellent for sensitive skin.
Thank you so so much 🙂
I’m a fan just based on your authenticity and enthusiasm, plus you tell a great yarn. Didn’t Anita Roddick start off the UK brand THE BODY SHOP in just the same way? Laura Ashley founded her company printing textiles on her kitchen table. I have a friend who co founded a ski care range called Loka in Perth. Brilliant cleverly thought out stuff, no gimmicks. You go where your passion takes you!
Oh thank you! I think a lot of businesses start off in the middle of chaotic kitchens. Rarely do we all get to begin in pristine commercial kitchens and offices. But you know, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Skincare not ski care
Thanks for the plug …… & amping up my awesomeness X
Not a problem. Thank you so much for the wax!
It sounds so fun! Apparently coconut oil soap is the only kind that lathers in salt and hard water, so trampers and such folk love it. I would definitely buy lip balm etc. What about candles as well? Beeswax candles smell amazing.
It is actually a lot of fun. Funny you should say, I only just made a coconut soap for my brother who spends a lot of time fishing! I wanted something that would lather for him, but also not leave any scent on his skin to stain the bait.
I’ve heard that’s where the best profit is, the coconut oil soap. It’s super cute that your kids have such forceful opinions on scents as well. Funny wee things. They just love being asked for an opinion – and giving it – don’t they?
I’m interested to see how it works. I know too much coconut oil is drying, so I made this one with a (stock standard recommended) 20% super fat (that’s 20% of the oil which remains in the soap to moisturise).
Veronica, I love the way you write! Life in your house must be such fun – lucky kids!
I hope they grow up thinking it was fun! Thank you. x
So interesting! And good for you on the palm oil. It is astonishingly hard to avoid.
Will you ship to Canada? (Bats eyelashes)
We know first hand the difficulties of ingredients in soaps. My sister is allergic to things like cucumber & cherries & apples & avocado, all of which frequently get hidden as “natural” flavours/scents/fragrances etc.
Trying to track down if free of allergens (ingredients would be nice, but even just knowing “safe”) is too darned hard for many. The number of times she’s been told “sorry corporate secrets” or “we can only tell you if your doctor faxes confirmation of medical requirement” is astounding.
I find that unsurprising, but also really rude.
I was talking with my mother (Frogpondsrock.com) who is a ceramicist and we’ve decided there are two types of people in these kinds of artistic endeavors. The kind who will tell you exactly what they’ve done and what’s in it, knowing that even if you replicated the process identically, the thing you’re making wouldn’t be the same as ours. And then the kind of person who refuses to share ingredient lists, or processes, because they’re worried about someone stealing them.
Pffft. I don’t want to be like that. Here in Aus, a written ingredient list is law, which makes things like allergies a little easier.
But then, as you read, some things still don’t have ingredients on them and the makers won’t say what’s in them. RUDE in my opinion.
Hi Veronica, good luck with the soap making venture. I hear where you’re coming from re the Palm Oil. Used to feel exactly the same way. Then I read this article by Amanda Foxon-Hill (Blue Mountains). It’s long, but well thought out. And I tend to agree with her. Unfortunately these issues are not always so easy (i.e. not black and white), there is no simple solution. I think the palm oil debate is worth thinking and talking about. So… thought you might like to read… http://realizebeauty.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/why-boycott-palm-oil-a-facebook-frenzy/
Thanks for that link. I still have to disagree with palm usage on the whole. While corporate greed might be the real problem here, it’s we as consumers who drive that greed. And if I can cut out part of the supply/demand chain, I will.
Also, I don’t think I could use palm and kid myself that it didn’t matter. To me, it does, so I won’t be using it. Plus, it’s kind of a pain in the arse to use apparently. It’s not easily sourced in Australia, it’s expensive, and it’s high stearic acid content means you have to melt the entire container down and mix it before you use it. Not my cuppa.
Yes, I get all that and I agree with you. I’m not even really talking about palm oil in soap making, because actually a much worse problem is palm oil in fast foods and lots of other goods. But the crux of the issue is about land management, seeing as we humans seem to have an insatiable desire for all sorts of goods… and that requires land to be USED in some way. And, it’s such a high yield crop… so if you avoid palm something else has to be grown/used in it’s stead. I totally agree that cutting down rainforest to plant palm for palm oil is completely abhorrent. But… complex issue when you look at it. “Palm being a very high yielding crop that lives and produces for many years requires less land than say soy hemp or cotton to do that growing. Less land is good as it is LAND that is the issue. Well, land and air and water and soil if you want the full picture.” There is such a thing as “sustainable palm oil” apparently, but I haven’t looked in to it closely (not sure who’s calling it that!).
But yeah, it sounds like a pain for soap making. I get why you’re avoiding it there! I just think there needs to be more careful discussion about palm oil in general, which is why I thought it was worth starting the conversation in a public place… like on your blog! Best wishes. 🙂
I’m a soaper in Canada and it’s actually required to disclose your ingredients. As, you’ll likely find, is the case in most places. The exception is fragrance blends, in which case you need only to say “fragrance” and not specify the fragrances used (but not the case with EO’s.) Most people that don’t aren’t aware of the regulations. It’s worth getting up to speed on your country’s regulations and laws required for labeling, and then use your knowledge to help educate others. Like you said, even if I gave you my entire ingredient list for my soap (which I do on every bar) you’d have a tough time recreating exactly the same bar.
The trouble is that “fragrance” can come from sources my sister is allergic to, and tracking down what “fragrance” means is apparently hard
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