l'essence

Sea sponges grow in quiet underwater gardens, filtering the tide. Their softness is carved entirely by nature. And we love them as the perfect companion to our botanical soaps, creating a soft luscious lather.

The art of bathing, the L’essence way 🫧

The art of bathing, the L’essence way 🫧

The art of bathing, the L’essence way.

Before a bar of soap touches your skin, its story is already 1300 years in the making. Long before modern bars were produced, wrapped and sold, it was discovered in the Levant that oil, water, and alkali could be transformed into something cleansing and essential.

What’s remarkable is that no matter if your soap is French-milled luxury, from your grandmother’s kitchen, or an artisan studio like my own, its origins ultimately trace back to that early Levantine craft. Nablus, located in the West Bank, became one of the great centres of this tradition, and this alchemical knowledge became the foundation of every bar of soap we know today.

Step inside one of the remaining soap factories in the Old City of Nablus and the first thing you’ll notice is the warmth. The air carries the gentle scent of olive oil heating in a vat in the ground, rising with steam and the faint mineral note of lye dissolving into water. This simple chemistry has been unfolding here for centuries.

In earlier generations, teams of men stirred the mixture by hand for days, guiding long wooden paddles through the thickening mass. Today, some workshops use partial mechanisation to ease the heaviest labour, but the craft remains unmistakably human, where timing, intuition, and inherited knowledge all converge.

When the soap reaches the right consistency, it’s poured across the wide stone floor. Workers step lightly onto the warm surface, pulling long wooden rulers through the soft slab to score it into perfect cubes. Each piece is then stamped with the maker’s emblem, a small but proud continuation of a family’s legacy.

Then comes the most striking sight of all, the drying towers. Fresh bars are stacked into tall, airy structures that allow air to circulate around every bar as it cures. The soap dries slowly for months as rooms fill with these pale olive cubes, their earthy scent subtle yet distinct, waiting to be wrapped and carried into homes across the world.

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In conjunction with our Limited Christmas Event, we are fundraising for The Palestinian Children Relief Fund who provide on the ground medical and humanitarian aid for the children in Gaza.

This is our second time raising funds for this organisation, the first time was in 2022. It was critical then, and as we’re all aware, desperately more so now.

We have a selection of genuine Palestinian soaps you can purchase to support the cause – we’ll reveal shortly – but I wanted to correct something from my post yesterday. I mentioned a portion of sales from these soaps would be going to the PCRF but in fact 100% will go to support the organisation.

In choosing these soaps, we have already supported the fragile soap making and olive producing industries in the West Bank.

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Our Limited Christmas Event + Fundraiser is almost here.

Available will be a small, intentional 48-hour sale featuring a curated edit of L’essence favourites, handcrafted in small batches and ready for gifting.

48 Hours Only

🐪 Opens Mon 1 Dec, 7.30pm AEST
🐪 Closes Wed 3 Dec, 7.30pm AEST
🐪 Shipping by Sat 6 Dec

This year, we’re also honoured to include a fundraiser supporting the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, with a limited allocation of authentic Palestinian soap. A portion of proceeds will directly support medical and humanitarian aid for children in Gaza.

Cannot wait to bring it to you from next Monday at www.lessence.com.au. Stock is limited XO

My daughter’s recently been moulding with clay, creating from earth, form and something beautiful.

You cannot help but see the similarities between working with clay and hand-shaping soap.

Both begin in the hands, guided by intuition, warmth, and rhythm. Clay remembers every touch, and so does soap. The soft edges, small textures, the quiet imprint of the maker.

There’s a fleeting moment when each material is just right to shape. Miss it, and the form changes. Catch it, and something beautiful emerges.

Both honour slowness. Both rely on nature to finish the transformation, clay as it dries and hardens, soap as it cures and settles into itself. It’s imperfect, tactile, and elemental.

This is the heart of handmade craft, a conversation between the maker and the material, both ancient and grounding as earth.

And with that, we are so excited to announce this evening details for our limited Christmas sale, coming very soon xo

Sometimes it’s the simple beauty of our soap boxed up that makes me happy.

Heading to one L’essence lover today ✨

Thank you to all who supported our Limited Shopping Event 🙏 I enjoyed getting back in the studio again to make for you and I’m just beyond glad that many of you will have a parcel of soapy goodness 🫧arriving on your doorstep soon.

Lulu xo

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We’ve just over 24 hours of our Limited Shopping Event before it ends and I want to thank all those who have stocked up on our soap so far.

We still have a decadent selection to choose from for anyone else wanting to make sure they don’t miss out. Just follow the link in our bio. In the meantime we are boxing up all your orders to be shipped out this Thursday.

Lulu xo