I started soap making as a way to de-stress from a busy job in education administration. My job means I need to do a lot of multitasking and meeting deadlines so it can be rather stressful at times. It was a chance conversation with a colleague who happens to also make soap that I thought it was something I could look into. My family and I have rather dry skin so I looked into what could be suitable to help with that and did a lot of reading before I decided what I’d like to make. I decided to work with glycerine soap as it’s excellent for dry skin conditions as glycerine is a natural humectant which means that it helps draw moisture from the air into your skin. I choose to work with that and a blend of goatsmilk soap as it’s so soothing to dry skin and it produces a lovely, creamy and bubbly lather and its whiteness works so well against the coloured clear glycerine soap.

I also wanted to add additional oils or butters depending on the fragrance used, for example, say using Mango Butter with a mango scented soap. Finally, I decided very early on that I specifically wanted to make products that were luxurious but also affordable. In this day and age, we all need a little bit of luxury now and then and making it affordable means no-one should feel guilty by treating themselves. In order to achieve this, I also add an Ecocert (certified green product) skin conditioning additive that helps to significantly increase the moisturisation capability for your skin. I did a lot of research and experimentation before I ever decided to sell anything; I’m a very firm believer in only selling products that I am totally in love with.

When did it become a business?

I started selling on 1 November 2009 – prior to that, I worked for over a year perfecting my formulations and my techniques in order to be able to offer a product that I loved. We only ever use my soaps at home and all my friends and family use them too. I got to a point in my experimentation that I would have ended up with a house full of soap and not enough friends to use it all so I decided to look into starting to sell it and how to go about doing that. In order to sell soap, as with any other cosmetics, in the EU, you need to be fully safety assessed by a qualified cosmetic chemist. Each type of product requires a safety assessment, so I secured one for my goatsmilk and glycerine soaps, plus one for my body and lip butters. I also have one for bath bombs and melts and I’m working on them at the moment. Also, in order to protect yourself and your customers, you need to hold the relevant insurances, all of which I hold. I believe it’s so important to ensure that I not only produce the best product I possibly can, one that I love to use myself but that I also need to ensure that my customers feel totally protected and that I work within the legislation currently in place.

I am a member of the Craft Council of Ireland, the Guild of Craft Soap & Toiletry Makers and listed in the European Directory of Soap & Cosmetic Makers – for each of these, they require proof of your safety assessment and insurance in order to become a member so I’d advise anyone who is buying handmade bath & body products to check for membership of these organisations so you know that your soapmaker is fully in keeping with all standards.

I started my website a year ago but I started my Facebook and blog approximately 18 months ago in order to showcase my products in their experimentation phase in order not only show people what I was working on but also to promote brand awareness.

Can you remember the first time you made a soap/skin care item? Was it a success? Tell us about it.

I can! It wasn’t the best thing ever but I thought it was! My first soap was actually a combination of two different ones. I wanted something chocolate scented (because I’m very obsessed with chocolate) plus something orangey. I grated the zest from an orange and added it to my soap along with Sweet Almond Oil. There wasn’t a need to colour it as the zest gave it a hugely orangey colour. With a second batch of soap, I coloured it with cocoa powder and added chocolate fragrance oil – I then added chunks of the orange soap to the chocolate soap. Actually, it sounds really nice and it worked really well… it just didn’t look anything like how it would look if I made it now. Thankfully, my techniques have hugely improved since then but my sense of fun and love of experimentation is just as healthy as it was then.

What is the product or recipe that you are most proud of?

 At the moment, I love my Sheer Luxury Lip Butter. It took me 9 months to get it just right… I was at 95% right for a long time but couldn’t quite crack it and it drove me to distraction. I tweaked it over and over and over again and eventually hit on what I think is probably the best lip butter I’ve ever used. I’ve used totally luxury ingredients such as Kokum Butter which is excellent for chapped skin, Virgin Organic Unrefined Cocoa Butter which smells divinely of chocolate and soothes and protects the skin whilst providing a natural source of Vitamin E. It also includes Jojoba Oil which has a unique ability to penetrate the upper layer of skin to moisturise and protect and Meadowfoam Oil which helps promote healthy skin tissue. I’ve used pure Essential Oils to flavour the butters – Peppermint which is beautifully cool and tingly or Lemon & Tangerine which is deliciously tangy and citrusy. The Pure Coconut lip butter is a lovely creamy coconut flavour with a vanilla base.

My Sheer Luxury Lip Butters were recently featured in No. 1 Magazine, Ireland’s premier health & beauty magazine and were noted as one of their Must Buys.

What’s the advantage of using handmade soap over shop bought?

I personally prefer handmade soap because I know the level of research that has gone into the making of the soap, the care and attention that has been given to it plus the level of passion that soapmakers have for their products is outstanding. You can also choose soaps on the basis of their ingredients so that your own specific skin type is treated to the best quality oils or butters suited specifically to your skin. Also, generally speaking, those companies who make handmade soaps are small companies, often operating from their own homes and I’d personally much prefer to support a local producer than some nameless, faceless organisation.

 I like to work with my customers on my products and take on board suggestions made to me by them via email or my Facebook page so I can easily tailor the soaps to my customers needs. My customers have really taught me a lot about what they want and need and I believe small producers are in a much better position to react positively and proactively to that changing need. I haven’t bought a shop bought soap, body butter or cream since I began making them myself – why? Because I know my soaps are far superior and made with skill, thought, care and expertise.

What different types of soap do you make? Can you explain a little about each?

I currently make and sell handcrafted goatsmilk & glycerine soap – as I said above, I find these hugely beneficial to dry skin and they provide beautiful creamy lather. I have also been experimenting with cold process soap which is soap made from butters and oils and lye; the reaction between the two changes the chemical composition and makes soap; however, they need 6 weeks to cure fully . I enjoy making it a lot but I’m still learning about all the variances and what can happen with it. I do intend to sell this in the future but I’m still in the experimentation stage with these.

I love both types of soap and use both on a regular basis. My research has found that the markets for both types of soap are slightly different so introducing both types will allow me to reach a larger market share than I currently do. Also it allows me to experiment more which is one of the things I love about all this!

Just this week, I found out that I won an international soaping competition beating competitors from Europe and the States on the theme of Winter Wonderland. One of my recent cold process soaps won in this category.

You’re launching a new wedding favour range, can you tell us about those?

One of my best friends is a wedding and event planner (Alison Tinlin of http://www.plansandpresents.co.uk) and she encouraged me to look into making wedding favours but I wasn’t at the point where I’d have been happy to do that, at that time. However, she is a very persuasive person and I eventually had some time to sit down and research the type of product that I thought would sell well – I wanted something that I could make in larger amounts per batch (at the moment I make small batches with approximately 12 bars of soaps per batch) as wedding favours tend to be ordered in larger amounts than I currently produce.

 I also wanted to find something with a very interesting and intricate design but also very classic and tasteful. I eventually found the types of moulds that I wanted to use and ordered them in bulk so I can produce 45 soaps per batch. I love the designs of these soaps – there are three types and the customer would be offered a selection of each, thereby creating more interest than just having one plain type.

 I am happy to offer them as single colours to match the wedding colours, ie pink or yellow but I can also offer the swirled types which are a feature of my bar soaps. It’s entirely up to the happy couple and I’m more than happy to work with them so that they get exactly what they want for their big day. I’ve planned an 8 week lead time for these soaps and one of the reasons is to give enough time for me to ensure that the couple are happy with their choice of colour and fragrance. A range of fragrances can be ordered and these will be detailed on my site nearer to the launch date of January 2011.

 The soaps will be wrapped in clear cellophane and will be tied with a colour co-ordinated ribbon and the label is then placed on top, securing the ribbon. The label will state the couple’s names and their wedding date. On the reverse, the soap’s ingredients will be listed (this is a legal requirement). Each soap will be presented in a colour co-ordinated organza bag. The soaps will be priced at €2.50 for each 90g soap which includes all wrapping, ribbon, customised label and organza bag. An 8 week lead time is necessary and the minimum order is for 45 soaps. I’m more than happy to discuss the customer’s needs with them – they can contact me at info@soaperstar.com and I’ll be very happy to discuss their ideas with them.

What advice would you give to anyone starting out in soapmaking?

There are several key pieces of advice I’d give to people:

1. Experiment – work with your medium, whether it be glycerine soap or more traditional cold process soap, play around with it, allow yourself to make mistakes and understand why they happened and how to resolve them. I personally believe the best way to learn is to do so enjoy the experiments!

2. Know the legislation – cosmetic legislation can be really tough to understand and it takes time for it all to be understood but it’s so important that you do understand it and work within its bounds.

3. Understand your ingredients – know the different qualities of the oils and what they bring to the final product; understand why you are putting one ingredient with another and what ones you can substitute for others, and what ones you can’t

4. Use testers to their full advantage – get your friends and family to use your products, and tell them to be completely honest with you. One great piece of advice is give them unscented soap if you want a full report; for some reason, once it has a scent they will talk about the scent far more than the feel of the soap on their skin or how their skin behaved in using it. Unscented is the best for all testers.

5. Talk to other soapmakers, learn, research, read read and read some more. You can never know too much. The more you learn, the more you can perfect your product.

Thanks so much for the opportunity talk about my passion for soapmaking, I find it a hugely fascinating subject and it’s great to get the opportunity to talk about it! I find it such a creative outlet but also a very practical one that brings a lot of happiness to people.

If your readers are interested in any of our Soaperstar products, then please do check out our website at http://www.soaperstar.com, you can Like us on our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/soaperstar or read the blog which I update regularly with my adventures in soaping, at http://www.soaperstar.blogspot.com and, finally, you can Tweet me at http://www.twitter.com/soaperstar.