the soap bench

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'I wish we could take the word RECYCLING out of this equation and just talk about consumption and waste as if there was no recycling because it has enabled some of the worst behaviour I have ever seen.'

Is Recycling Worth It Anymore? The Truth Is Complicated. America produces more waste per capita than any other country in the world. And recycling, which was once considered the solution to that problem, isn’t real...

Our new batch is now for sale at www.thesoapbench.com! Snag them before they all disappear!

Rachel Wong! You are our contest winner! Congrats on your new soaps!

Thank you everyone for participating! And look out next month for another give away!

LISTENING TO OUR SOAP FAM
Hi soap fam!

In our recent and on going pre order sale (Jan 15-25) we had a host of questions from our supporters, customers, and new clients which was great news on our end! But the biggest take away from the experience has been two fold: we need more products that meet the needs of individuals with sensitivities to ingredients and scents in our soap, and that soap and scent are specific to the individual, to their experience, and to their needs.

This weekend, as our pre order sale launched, Ashley and I were back at the bench making soap and we considered these insights in our soap making process. For me, its one of the most beautiful and fun parts of the business, moving along a path, adjusting and tweaking where its needed, you know, navigating the road! Small businesses should aim to do a number of things, but saving cost has to be in the top three of any small business so at times, it can be limiting, it can make you feel like you need to address everything at once, but you simply can’t. You have to learn to table lesser priorities and stay focused on the need. And so we stayed focused on trying to find a recipe that would be allergy and scent friendly and we were successful in finding a recipe that worked.

After hearing from many moms, families, and individuals with skin allergies among our followers, we are happy to say were able to take these insights and apply it in a new soap bar recipe. We were looking for a soap that could meet the following characteristics:

Scent sensitive: We needed a natural neutral scent
Ingredients: being mindful of allergies, sensitivities, and synthetics in our soap
Minimizing costs to focus on real ingredients and accessibility to handmade products for everyone

Ashley’s aim for the soap was to keep it to 3 core nourishing ingredients. According to her research (for our magic school bus fans), we looked into sensitivities with soap for individuals with allergies and managed to find the list through some dedicated work on Ashley’s end:

Parabens, synthetic fragrances, SLS (sodium laureth sulphate, sodium laurel sulphate), phthalates, and dyes

So we set forward ensuring that these were not in our soaps which by the way are often in generic store bought soaps. Keeping it to three ingredients will also help our customers feel comfortable with what is in our soap. And we WANT you to know! For the scent, we worked with sweet orange essential oil which is known to be used in products that are allergy and scent sensitive. We also tried to minimize the amount used in case customers have some extreme sensitivities to smell as well.

At the end of our soap session, we did manage to create a product we feel meets the needs of our skin sensitive and scent sensitive friends and will keep this experience in mind as we move forward. We are proud of our work in a way we haven’t felt before. We have seen the growth in our ability as soap makers, and our need to make our customers happy. There are tons of soap products out there, but this weekend we made a soap that was simple, complication free, real in its ingredients, and family friendly.

Next steps for the soap include a curing and quality check before we got to sale!

Keep posted on upcoming blog content, details on our sensitive skin soap, and new soap making at the bench by following and liking our page!

Be sure to enter our giveaway a few posts below for your chance to win some free soap!

You can find Canadian Glacial Clay in our SPIRIT bar!

Available through our preorder sale on now !

Don't forget to scroll down to enter for your chance to win some of our soaps !

Ingredient Close Up: Canadian Glacial Clay Hey Soap fam and welcome to our ingredient close up session where we take an opportunity to shed some light on the beautiful ingredients we are using to make our soap. Initially in making the SPIRI…

020 | FOREST

Scented with cedar wood and bergamot essential oils

Fresh – Woodsy – Calming

We took two of our favourite scents and revisited our 001 | RIVER recipe to get 020 | FOREST. A fresh take on a bar that we felt could be heavier on the moisturizing end. So we loaded this bar with shea and cocao butter and companioned this combo with avocado oil. Ashley also endeavoured in a new bar design and she created a gorgeous leaf like shape that was fitting for our fresh forest theme.

Available now through our preorder sale! Link in bio!

GIVEAWAY CONTEST!

FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A BUNDLE OF SMALL BATCH SOAP ENDS SIMPLY LIKE AND COMMENT!

SOAP FEATURED:

top left: CITRUS + SALT
top right: FOREST
mid left: STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM
middle: ORANGE OAT
mid right: HONEY CAKE
bot left: LAVENDER LONDON FOG
bot right: STONE BLUSH

A winner will be drawn January 25th!
*Contest available to Canadian Residents only

GIVEAWAY VALUE: $30

PREORDER SALES START JAN 15TH -25TH. SAVE ON SHIPPING WHEN YOU BUY 4 OR MORE BARS FOR A $5 FLAT RATE ON OUR WEBSITE!

What are soap ends?
Some of our recipes cant fit into our large molds, and so we have smaller molds to make sure the soap and ingredients don't go to waste.

Our loaves also only make a certain number of bars at equal size and weight, leaving sometimes a thin bar that we can't sell among our regular soaps.

019 | ORANGE OAT

Lightly scented with sweet orange essential oil

Exfoliating – Sweet – Fresh

We are obsessed with oatmeal and wanted to make another bar dedicated to this milky exfoliating queen! The ORANGE OAT Bar offers an all natural option, using 100% natural ingredients like sweet orange essential oil and nourishing oatmeal to lightly exfoliate the skin. All of our bars are self care worthy, but this one is just so wholesome. You can’t go wrong with the ORANGE OAT Bar as an option in your personal soap deck!

Available for preorder sale Jan 15!

018 | CITRUS + SALT

Lightly scented with lime and grapefruit citrus essential oils

Salt – Scrub – Spa

Another salt bar to add to the deck! We fell in love with our 014 | WINTER COAST bar but wanted to try out a citrus scent that would match the spa like quality of the bar. Success! We added avocado oil to the mix which is a great source of vitamin E to help restore and heal your skin.

Available Jan 15th!