News & Blog

Carole, our herbalism expert, prepares her magical mixture in the artisanal workshop adjacent to our garden. Here, flowers and vegetables grow in all their beauty, nurtured all year round for the impeccable quality of our products. Come behind the scenes of the making of our cold saponified Calendula organic soap!

The quality of our oils, an essential asset to take care of your skin:

The selected oils are particularly studied to respect your skin. Let's together detail the benefits of the oils that make up our organic soaps:

• - Shea butter: Its role is to provide softness to the soap and is essential for good skin hydration. We have chosen shea butter from fair trade in Burkina Faso. It is also certified organic, of course.
• - Sunflower oil, the basis of our macerate, is an oil considered in herbalism as the most interesting for transferring the properties of the plants we macerate.
• - COCO oil has moisturizing properties for the skin, but not only that. It contributes to the foaming and density of the soap.

Our oils are sourced from fair trade subsidiaries. They are the few ingredients we cannot produce on site ;). These oils are essential to provide foam and hydration to the soap. Let's also remember that the foam will attract bacteria on the epidermis and participate in the cleansing action of the soap. "Solid oils" such as shea butter or coconut oil are then gently melted before moving on to the saponification step. :)

The cold process soap making method:

The first step is to mix sodium hydroxide (lye) with oil. The sodium hydroxide reacts with the oil and this process is called "saponification". This mechanical action accelerates the process and strengthens the friction between the molecules of the sodium hydroxide and oil to form soap. This might remind you of your high school Physics class! A film will appear as a sort of creamy texture, this is called "trace", which indicates that saponification is in progress.

In nature, everything transforms and nothing is lost ;). When soap is formed, glycerin, an essential element of soap, is created naturally! This is the reason why handmade soaps that follow a natural production process without artificial additives are preferred. This is known as "superfat" soap, which is a true asset for cleaning your skin without drying it out.

The magic potion is ready! Now, all that's left is to pour the soap into our soap molds and let it rest. :)

The young soap will stay in its mold for 24 hours, during which the block will solidify and start to turn white. The entire block is then cut and stored at room temperature on shelves to complete its drying process. This traditional process takes approximately 4 weeks, and the term "Slow Cosmetics" makes complete sense!

Calendula flowers from our garden, a treasure for our skin:

We blend our marinated calendula flowers with the rest of the oils. We choose to add our calendula oil after saponification to preserve all its nourishing and regenerating properties.

Next, we add our dried calendula flowers, which provide exfoliating benefits as well as a touch of flowery madness to our cold process soap (SAF for the initiated).

The calendula we use is sown at the end of winter and transplanted in the spring. These flowers have a special place in our Beauty Garden, between shade and sunlight. Then, in the summer, we pick these lovely heads and let them rest in our artisanal dryer!