We are often asked how our soap bars are made, so as we thought we’d do a series of blog posts to show you the process.
Today the soap we made on Friday is ready to be cut into bars, so we’ve taken some pictures of the process to show you how we do it.
The pictures aren’t professionally shot (taken by us instead) so they’re a bit rough and ready. Nevertheless, they’ll give you a good idea of how the soap bars you use are cut and cured.
Can you tell which soap we’re cutting today?
1) The soap block is unmoulded and placed on the cutting board ready to be cut
This block will be handcut into 35 bars.
2) The soap block is sliced into 3 ‘logs’; these are then sliced into bars
3) The freshly sliced bars are placed on their own curing tray
Each soap variety has its own individual curing tray. This ensures that it retains its own, unique natural scent and does not take on the scents of the our other varieties.
Instead of buying new curing trays, ours are upcycled from wood from an apple farm.
Can you spy the jars of Soapourri shreds in the background?
4) The soap bars are left for at least 4 weeks to ‘cure’
Just like fine wine or cheese, soap gets better with age. We cure our soaps for at least 4 weeks before releasing them for sale. This ensures that every bar you choose is mild, creamy and long lasting.
The soaps are gently rotated during the curing phase to ensure that each side has cured evenly and is nice and hard.
5) The fully cured bars are available for you to buy from our website or market stall in Central London.
The batch of Oatmeal Soother bars we cut today will be sold through the website and on our market stall in around 4 week’s time.
Our previous batch of Oatmeal Soother bars is fully cured though and available to buy right now.
(Note: we will be at Spitalfields market as usual from this Friday, 25th January.)
