Ancient Discovery of Soap Making
You’ve likely heard the legend of soap discovery on Mount Sapo as the fats from ancient animal sacrifices mix with burned wood ash. Or, as New York Times Wirecutter columnist, Dan Koepel writes,
“The story is that the drippings and ashes from the cook fires of the gods rolled down the hill and were discovered by filth-encrusted Romans.”
(The History of Soap, 2020)
Koepel opted for the less-spiritual setting of a prehistoric cookout to be the most likely scene of soap discovery. Whether animal sacrifice or cookout, this story is reasonable, considering the soap making process requires lye – a byproduct of burned wood ash – dissolved in water mixed with fat or oil. This results in a chemical process known as saponification. Lye and fat, a match made in heaven.
Our Discovery of Soap Making
Our discovery of the soap-making process didn’t involve an animal sacrifice or a cookout. Instead, it unfolded as one of the many new hobbies we explored during the pandemic. Alongside birding, mushroom foraging, and sourdough bread making, we decided to try our hand at mastering the art of saponification process. And we fell in loved with it! It has been very satisfying to experiment with different fragrences, colorants, and excess, natural materials such as coffee grounds and rose petals.
Soapcycle Ingredients
Each batch of soap is both a science and an art. Because our soaps are made in small batches, each batch has its own unique characteristics. You’ll notice this most with our natural colorants and additives, like turmeric or rose petals. The base of our soaps, however are largely the same from batch to batch: saponified olive oil and coconut oil. We may add shea butter, palm oil, or essential oil, and we almost always add sodium lactate for a great lather. All ingredients are natural, and some are homemade (like our hydrosols).
Homemade hydrosols and the use of healthy scraps sets our soap bars apart from others! We intentionally look to nature and our daily lives to find ingredients that would enhance our soaps. For example, the rose petals may have come from a spent centerpiece bouquet that brightened dinner conversations – and provides the speckled beauty in our bar soap!
