Making our Soaps...

mixing the oils in the kettle

We've been making a lot of soap lately. It is, after all, our business. And while it keeps us indoors on beautiful sunny days, it is still a labor of love.

We have been making soap since 1979, when we began as a way to provide natural & nontoxic soap for our own special needs. Sensitive to synthetic fragrances and colors, we could not find commercial soap locally that worked for us. And since that time we have never tired of creating the best soap we possibly can.

Saponification

Soap is the result of a chemical reaction called Saponification. Briefly, Saponification is the chemical reaction between fatty acids (oils & fats) & caustic ("lye", caustic soda, sodium hydroxide, etc.) that results in 98% soap and 2% glycerin. Different oils/fats and different caustic solutions can be used for different types of soap. Potassium Hydroxide, for instance, is used for liquid or soft soaps.

We start by mixing organic oils of olive, palm, and coconut together. We choose these oils for their individual benefits. Olive oil is the best for the skin. Palm creates a harder, longer lasting bar. Coconut oil is the source of rich, copious lather, without it bubbles are small and thin. These oils are heated and then we add the sodium hydroxide that starts the chemical reaction. This process requires a lot of stirring. At the point when the mixture has thickened the proper amount we add the various botanical elements that give the individual varieties their characteristics.

Dennis cutting the Orange Spice soap

Our soaps are made in rectangular columns. Once the liquid soap is ready, we pump it into these molds, cover it with an insulating layer and let it sit up to 48 hours before it is ready to cut into bars. Our soap cutter is a machine of our own devising, custom made by us for our soaps. Once cut we place the soaps on trays, then on ventilated shelves, where it cures for at least 3 weeks before we wrap it to sell.
We wrap the soap by hand. Each bar is wrapped in ecologically sustainable Thai mulberry paper, then labeled with a recycled paper band. You've probably noticed we color code our soaps: each variety has its own specific color paper.

Wrapping Lemon Shea Butter soap

Our soap shop has evolved a lot over the years. Starting by making soap in our kitchen, our original shop was built from trees we fell and milled ourselves (5 big buggy Douglas fir that were dying).
We outgrew that in a few years and expanded it into the shop we have today.




Here is a quicky version of the photo tour we have on our website:

Our kettles, lye station & manufacturing area

Where we wrap & label the soaps, etc.

The curing room with our renewable energy power wall

With over 30 years of soap making experience, it is our pleasure to provide you with the finest natural organic soaps. It makes us even happier to be able to do it in the most environmentally conscious way we know how. To learn more about our business and philosophy, please see 'About Us'.