Why We Use Botanicals in Our Handmade Soaps
Long before skincare came with complicated ingredient lists and endless promises, plants, herbs, seeds and natural oils were being used in traditional soap and bathing rituals.
That heritage is still a huge part of Heyland & Whittle today. In fact, it's right there in our name, Soap & Herbal Merchants.
But the botanicals in our soaps aren't simply there to look pretty. Depending on the recipe, they can add fragrance, colour and texture and help give each soap its own character.
Lavender
There aren't many fragrances quite as instantly recognisable as lavender.
With its distinctive floral and aromatic scent, it has been used in bathing and fragrance traditions for generations.
Our English Lavender soap combines its familiar fragrance with lavender flowers, creating a wonderfully traditional bar that looks every bit as lovely as it smells.
Tea Tree & Nettle
If florals aren't your thing, Tea Tree & Nettle is a very different experience.
Tea tree, eucalyptus and peppermint essential oils create a wonderfully fresh, invigorating fragrance, while nettle and botanical leaves add texture and gentle exfoliation.
It's fresh, herbal and unmistakably green.
Oats
Oats appear in several of our soap recipes and can be used in different ways.
Ground oatmeal adds gentle texture and exfoliation to a bar, while oat-derived ingredients can also be incorporated into the soap itself.
It's a wonderfully simple ingredient that fits perfectly with our traditional approach to soap making.
Walnut Shell & Seeds
Some of our soaps are deliberately more textured than others.
Finely ground walnut shell, poppy seeds and other natural particles can provide gentle physical exfoliation, helping to lift away dead skin cells and leave the skin feeling smooth and refreshed.
The size and amount used matters, you're creating a lovely textured soap, not something you'd use to sand the garden furniture!
Turmeric
You certainly can't miss turmeric in a soap.
Its naturally rich golden colour gives our Citrus & Turmeric bar its distinctive appearance, while its botanical character works beautifully with the bright citrus essential oils in the recipe.
It's a great example of a simple botanical ingredient completely changing the personality of a bar.
Activated Charcoal
At the other end of the colour spectrum is activated charcoal.
It gives our Activated Charcoal soap its dramatic dark appearance and also provides gentle exfoliation as part of a cleansing soap.
It's one of those ingredients that proves a handmade soap can be beautifully simple and still look incredibly striking.
More Than Decoration
For us, botanicals aren't something added simply so that we can put a plant on the label.
They're part of the recipe.
From lavender flowers and turmeric to oatmeal, poppy seeds, nettle and ground walnut shell, the ingredients we choose help create the fragrance, colour, texture and character of our soaps.
And that's something that has been part of Heyland & Whittle from the very beginning.
We are, after all, Soap & Herbal Merchants.
