How it's made

Six weeks, start to shelf.

Cold process means exactly that: the oils and the lye are never heated to speed things up. Saponification happens on its own over a day, and the water leaves over the following weeks. You cannot rush either part.

Weigh cold. The olive, coconut and castor oils are weighed to the gram and blended in the copper vat at room temperature. Winter bars also get a little shea.
Make the lye. Sodium hydroxide is dissolved in filtered water and left to cool. This is the one step done behind a closed door, with gloves and goggles.
Bring to trace. The lye water is folded into the oils and stirred until the mix thickens enough to leave a trace on the surface. Essential oils and clay go in here.
Pour and insulate. The batch is poured into oak moulds lined with linen, covered, and left a full day while saponification finishes and the loaf warms itself.
Cut. On the second day the loaf is turned out and cut into bars with a forty-year-old wire frame. Each batch is numbered on a slip that follows it to the rack.
Cure. Bars rest on cedar racks for at least five weeks so the remaining water evaporates and the bar hardens. Only then are they stamped, weighed and wrapped.

Why cure so long?

A bar is safe to use within a couple of days — the lye is fully spent by then. But a young bar is soft and full of water. Left to dry for five or six weeks it becomes hard, mild and long-lasting; the difference between a bar that lasts a fortnight and one that lasts two months is mostly patience.

It is also why our range is short. Every rack we fill is a rack we cannot use for six weeks, so we only make what we know we will sell, and we make it in the order the seasons suggest — lavender in summer, honey in autumn.