Montgomery Soap Co

No better gift than one you can use that gives you a little bit of everyday luxury. See you all tomorrow at the Kilbride Makers Market!

Putting together some gift baskets. See you at the Kilbride Makers Market Saturday!

A quiet morning of labeling. Good for soul (and smells nice too!).

Soap labeling! (And minimal packaging!)

Christmas Market! Come visit the lovely village of Kilbride (North Burlington). Save the date!

This mornings wet pour of lavender soap with the prettiest swirl.

The setup. Ready to put another batch of soap together. This is where the magic happens! Mixing the melted plant fats and oils with the lye water. Saponification.

Rough cut Cucumber soap! These babies are sitting for their 6 week cure. Soap needs to cure to harden and stabilize its pH. The waiting is always the hardest part.

I nearly folded Montgomery Soap co over the past few years. My day job and the pandemic took all my energy. But a few key customers showed incredible loyalty and patience and kept me from closing the doors for good. Now on the path back to a more balanced life and back to making soap ❤️. Crunch time is coming for Christmas prep. 28 ‘loafs’ of soap made this weekend and soon to be cut into bars. Feels good to be back at it!

Soap cutting! After 12-24 hrs the soap has set and is ready to cut. My soap cutter uses wire to slice the loaf into 8 bars all at once; like a cheese cutter on steroids. The soap is now ready to sit and cure and will be ready in 6 weeks.

Some soap science (and a bit of history) for your Saturday: Lye (sodium hydroxide) is the key to cold process soap. It has a pH of 14. When mixed with water it very quickly brings the water to 93deg C. It demands respect. Our ancestors used rainwater dripped through ashes to make this alkaline solution. When lye is mixed with fat (in my case plant based fats) it undergoes a reaction called saponification. Science is a beautiful thing! And in this case also results in a luxurious lather of cleanliness. ❤️.

It’s been ages. When Covid hit I shut down my soaping kitchen for some renovations. But then Covid took over my hospital work life and work took over my life in general. I nearly packed in my soap business completely. This morning I got up early, cleaned by soap kitchen and made 2 batches of soap. It felt so good. I love making soap. And love even more my family, friends, and customers who tell me they refuse to use anything else. ❤️