Home - Birgit's Soap Bar

Handmade Shampoo Shower Soaps: Palm Oil free, Plastic free and Vegan

Regular shampoo shower soap in different colours

photo of 2 shampoo shower soaps, one with a picture of St Michaels Mount near Penzance and one with a picture of the Brisons near St Just

Eight different shaving soaps in a circle

2 flannels, a soap tray, a tin and a picture soap which are the content of the travel set

basket with small and large flannels, soap tray and a couple of soap tins

In the real world I sell at:

St Just Market, each Saturday between 9.30am- 12.30pm, in the WI Hall, opposite the church in St Just, near Penzance (closed in January)
Morvah Schoolhouse, Morvah
Little Blossoms, St Just, only sells the St Michael’s Mount and Brisons Picture Soaps
Geevor Tin Mine Shop, Pendeen

Ingredients

All my shampoo shower soaps are: Fats & Sodium Hydroxide. Then you add colour and scent.

My fats:

I use Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Castor Oil and Mango Seed Butter in all my Shampoo Shower Soaps. Olive Oil makes for mild soaps. Coconut Oil gives soap a lovely lather. I use quite a lot of Castor Oil as it is good for your hair and Mango Seed Butter adds extra creaminess.

In my Shaving Soaps the olive oil is replaced by Stearic Acid, which is derived from rape seed and so palm oil free.

Sodium Hydroxide/Potassium Hydroxide:

You need Sodium Hydroxide (aka Caustic Soda, aka Lye) or Potassium Hydroxide (aka Caustic Potash, can be derived from hardwood ash) to mix with the fat to make soap. The equation is:

Fat + Sodium Hydroxide/Potassium Hydroxide = soap and glycerine

Sodium Hydroxide is used to make hard soap bars and Potassium Hydroxide to make liquid soaps. I use a mixture to make a softish soap in my Shaving Soaps.

The magic is that you start of with one thing and get another. Soap and glycerine are good for you. Sodium Hydroxide not so much. That is why you need to have safety assessments to sell soap legally in the UK, which I have.

My scents:

Currently all my scents are essential oils or essential oil mixes. All sorts of mystic powers are ascribed to essential oils but I am not sure how much scientific evidence there is. I only use them for their scent. I’ve used Tea Tree Oil in the past but that actually has the power to remove varnish, which I have witnessed with my own eyes, so I thought: maybe not for my soaps.

I have started to experiment with fragrance oils (see my post). This is due to customer requests and it gives me a broader spectrum to work with. I am only using vegan friendly fragrance oils.

My colours:

All my colours are plant or clay based. See more in my post.

It’s actually quite good.

I sent some of my first soaps to family and friends. When I spoke to my brother in Berlin he said;
“That soap you sent me, did you actually make that?”
“Yes”, I said,”why are you asking?”
“Well, …. it’s actually quite good.”

Thorsten,

my most complimentary brother