The Best Handmade Soap in the World!

For all of the 31 years we’ve been making soap, people have been telling us it’s  ‘the best soap in the world.’

I remember writing years ago in a newsletter, (that thing we read before blogs) that our customers thought we made the best soap and who were we to argue???!!! Lately, I’ve been thinking that as we’ve gotten better at making soap, the rest of the world has gotten worse! (Artisan Soapmakers excluded!)

We started out with a tallow base (ugh!) because 100% of the soap available in North America was tallow!  It was still better than commercial soaps, as they had morphed from tallow ….to being detergent-based, meaning petrochemicals.  Many people  don’t realize they are using “syndets,”  short for synthetic detergent!  Does your current bar actually say it’s soap??

Then, another Ephiphany!  I tried a soap from a natural body care company in Florida…..I had been buying and trying every bar of soap I  met….to confirm we actually WERE the best soap in the world.  I had to admit their soap was better! OH NO!!

A little research showed they used palm, coconut and olive…not tallow or petrochemicals!  How to get palm oil?  I had never heard of it.  Turns out most of the palm  imported into Canada was used to fry potato chips.  So, I called the Big Chip Company and they told me they imported palm from Portland, Ore.  Called them and they said, “sure, we bring it in from the Phillipines or somewhere, and we sell it by the tank car!”

Well, we didn’t need a tank car, but they occasionally drew off a 45 gallon drum for some weird hippy soapmaker who lived back in the back-country and they could probably do the same for me!  So, Bill and I drove the mini-van down to Portland, loaded up a couple of 450lb barrels of palm  and headed back. Oops, forgot about the border, the paperwork, etc.  Several hours later we had given a broker a lot of money  and were the first hippy soapmakers in Canada to have PALM OIL!!!

Very bland, a high lauric acid content for extremely mild lather, not a petrochemical or animal by-product!  And it made the most wonderful bar of soap I’d ever used!  The next time, we paid a trucking company to bring it to Vancouver, and our local freight company  delivered it to our door.  Now, you can buy a drum of palm anywhere, but we still use only food-grade.

So, yes, we still make the best soap in the world…because Palm, Coconut and Olive are the highest state-of-the-art in Soapmaking.  Also, we use spring water from the heart of the Salt Spring  Island countryside, high-quality and essential oils, organic when we can.  No petrochemicals, no pre-made soap chips, no dyes and yes, Gary still stirs the soap pot each day and he, Heather and Claire still pour each bar by hand.

Arguably, the best soap in the world!

Linda Quiring

Founder,

Saltspring Soapworks

About Our Author

Linda Quiring

After 30 years….I still do the fun, creative part, and invent new soaps and the other body care items. Bill has been selling for a long time now, along with Amber, our daughter-in-law who has been with Soapworks for about 15 years. Our son Gary makes soap each morning.