How Our Soap Is Made, From Kettle to Jute Bag

A bar of factory soap can go from raw material to packet in a matter of minutes. Ours takes a good deal longer, and most of that time is spent in the hands of people who know exactly what they're looking at. Here's roughly how it goes.

Into the kettle

We use the hot-process method, which is one of the oldest ways of making soap there is. The oils, water and lye go into big open kettles and are cooked slowly. There's a lot of stirring, and a lot of watching. The soapmaker knows it's ready from the look and feel of it, a skill passed down in Antakya over centuries rather than read off a thermometer.

The last additions

Near the end, each batch gets its key ingredient, whether that's a milk, a plant extract, a mineral or an essential oil. This is also when the extra oil goes in, the bit that keeps the soap gentle on skin.

Setting and cutting

Once it's cooked, the soap is poured out and left to firm up. Then it's cut into bars by hand. There are no moulds, so the edges are a bit rough and no two bars weigh quite the same. If yours looks slightly different from the photo, that's why.

Giving it time

Hot-process soap carries on curing after it's cut, getting harder as the weeks go by. It doesn't go off. Keep a spare bar somewhere cool and dry and it'll only get better.

Why the jute bag

We wrap each bar in a small jute bag rather than plastic. Handmade soap needs to breathe, and plastic traps moisture. The bag is worth keeping, too. You can dry your soap in it between washes, or keep the soap inside it in the shower for a better grip and a light scrub. When it's finally worn out, it will break down in the soil.

Slow on purpose

Making soap like this depends on patience and skilled hands, and there's no real shortcut. But it's how you get a dense, long-lasting bar with nothing artificial in it, the same sort of soap Antioch has been making for centuries.

Browse the collection and pick your bar.