What Makes Cold Process Soap Different?
There is something rather special about a traditionally made bar of soap.
Cold process soap is one of the oldest methods of soap making and, more than 20 years after Heyland & Whittle began, it remains at the heart of our soap collection today.
But what does cold process actually mean, and why does it take so much longer to make?
What does cold process mean?
Cold process soap is made by combining carefully selected oils and butters with an alkali solution. This starts a chemical reaction called saponification, which transforms the oils into soap.
Unlike melt-and-pour soap, where the soap maker begins with a ready-made soap base, a cold process recipe is created from the raw ingredients themselves.
That means the oils, butters and other ingredients can be selected specifically for the type of soap we want to create.
Why does the recipe matter?
Making a good soap isn't simply a case of mixing together a few lovely oils and hoping for the best.
Different oils and butters bring different characteristics to the finished bar, influencing things such as its hardness, lather and how it feels when used.
Then comes the part that gives each soap its own personality.
Depending on the recipe, we might add essential oils or fragrance, together with botanicals such as lavender flowers, turmeric, oatmeal, poppy seeds, nettle, spirulina, charcoal or ground walnut shell.
Some add fragrance, some colour, some texture and exfoliation, and together they create very different bars from the same traditional soap-making process.
Why does handmade soap take time?
This is one part of traditional soap making that simply can't be hurried.
Once the soap has been made, it is poured into moulds and allowed to set before being cut into bars. But it isn't ready to use straight away.
The bars then need time to cure. During this period, excess water gradually evaporates and the soap becomes harder and longer lasting.
It's one of the reasons traditional cold process soap takes considerably more time to produce than simply pouring a ready-made soap base into a mould.
More than 20 years of soap making
Heyland & Whittle began in a small barn in the Surrey Hills in 2003, with traditional soap making at the heart of the business.
A great deal has changed since then, but our cold process soaps are still made here in Britain using the same traditional method.
Today the collection ranges from the unmistakable fragrance of English Lavender to the freshness of Tea Tree & Nettle, the texture of Hemp & Walnut, and the dramatic black of Activated Charcoal.
They're very different soaps, but they're all made using the same traditional cold process method.
Why do we still do it this way?
Quite simply, because it's part of who Heyland & Whittle is.
We're proud to be Soap & Herbal Merchants, and although making soap this way takes time, it gives us the freedom to create individual recipes using different oils, fragrances, botanicals, colours and textures.
So when you pick up one of our bars, you're not simply choosing something to wash your hands with.
You're choosing a little piece of a soap-making tradition that has been part of Heyland & Whittle for more than 20 years.
