Sunday 30 May 2010

What's in my soap ?

I was chatting with Anne the other evening, the subject had moved on to me making some point about Dave's Soap. And how, in responding to a customers request we have managed to developed a useful product for others to enjoy as well. She turned round to me and said, "Yeah, you're right, it ain't what's in it that counts, it's what's not in-it, that's more important!" - Never a truer word spoken and this gave me part of the subject matter for this entry. The other half is embedded below.

I returned home this afternoon, to find my screen exactly as I had left it, You Tube flashing red in the top corner.

I must explain, that recently, I have been learning about how to make a liquid soap. and as part of that process, have spent, some, - no, a great deal of - time watching video's on You Tube.

Glancing down the suggestions, I came across "Making of Quality Liquid hand soap".

You may probably have realised by now, I'm a good sucker for a bit of You Tube watching, especially when I have at least 10,000 other things I "should be doing". Also, that Sunday afternoon feeling was creeping up fast, so I clicked on it and sat back.

As it whirled into gear, I glanced to the two attached comments. I imagined a guy in a beach shack somewhere in Calinfornia as he taps away at his iPad, the cool ocean breeze embraces the room and the sharp mid afternoon sun sends it's rays visible through reflections in the dust whipped into life by the wind. Grateful Dead murmurs quietly in the background on the docked player, he writes "to much chemicals man ".

The second, a piece of equally wry wit, "Hmmm, nice lot of ingredients".

Both made me smile, and as I watched I was remined of Anne's phrase,
It aint what's in it,
It's what's not in it,
that counts !
Now one quick point, before I leave you to watch.

We at Colne Soap Makers, do not make soap as shown in the video, we use natural products, and in good measures.

I think this video serves as a good reminder for myself, when I make liquid soap one day, it's going be like Dave's Soap and made with oils and lye, processed and dissolved in spring water.

I'll leave the video to speak for itself.

Friday 28 May 2010

Rowhedge Regatta Sat 3rd July

We will be having a stall at the Rowhedge Regatta this year. Rowhedge is situated on the River Colne, in Essex.

We are both busy preparing for the event. I have been making new molds so we can bump up production.

Anne has applied for membership to GCSP (more in another blog) and don't forget making the soap! We made the last batch for Regatta last night (Orange and Geranium) which made the house smell pretty juicy.

When you don't think things through, it's too late when 8 lb of soap is reaching trace earlier than expected so a bit of improvisation was needed on the mixing front and a knife came in useful as a substitute for a spatula.

It's too early to pass judgment on this batch, so I am eagerly awaiting the de-mold tomorrow. Argghh, more stress, will I be able to get the soap out of the new mold.

We need to organise another table (the main one actually) a Gazebo since it might rain (not good for us soapers), and some display bowls. We have some things on order and had a semi trial a couple of evenings ago. I need to get everything ready by 12th June, since I will be in London for a few weeks and will not be around to help out.


Anne is part way through our labels and product information, so we can print our own labels with batch data.

I hope people enjoy our soap.

See you there.

Wednesday 26 May 2010

We have a domain and email

Does this mean we have arrived ?

I know that there is not much content at the moment, there's loads of work required for the design and pages to make it interesting, but it's a place holder for the time being.

Main web site for Colne Soap Makers


This blog is reachable at


For general chit - chat and queries please contact us on

Tuesday 25 May 2010

Boxes for display and transport

My soap works today included: collecting wooden boxes for transporting and displaying our soap on the Regatta Stall (Rowhedge 3rd July, on the banks of the Colne); cutting out tiny soap stars and hearts from a little piece of Lavender batch 1001; admiring Batch 1008, made in the biggest wooden mould you could imagine; checking on the soap that is busy curing (and staying longer than I needed to, because it smells lovely)
Not many soap works today though as I was in Norfolk this afternoon. The Magpie on the A140 at Little Stonham has closed. I felt very sad about that as it was a nice place and a landmark because of the wooden bar over the road with magpies on it. There is a similar thing in Hertfordshire somewhere- Hare and Hounds, maybe near Buntingford or Sawbridgeworth, with the pub alongside the road and the bar crossing the road with the hare (or perhaps a fox) being chased across the bar way up in the air above you as you drive beneath. I wonder if that is still there?