My first batch of soap
(Scent: Mint Chocolate)
My first time making soap!
(with the friend who made it all possible)
Meet Nectaria
I have a passion for making small-batch artisan soaps with different scents and designs. I have always been interested in various artistic mediums, and when I discovered soap making, I was hooked! I love that I can bring my artistry to products that are able to be used by people every day.
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I first discovered handmade soap when a friend began making it and gave me some of her soap. I admit that I was a liquid soap person, so my husband was the first to try it. Every time I planned a visit with my friend, my husband told me to get more soap. On one such visit, we planned a girls' day where we all made soap. I instantly fell in love and on my drive home, I picked up several books on soap making and put in my first order for supplies!
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I began making soap, and soon there was too much for my family to use (and I was running out of room to store it), so I started gifting soap to family and friends. As I gained experience, I began selling the soaps I had made and taking custom orders.
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Making soap has introduced me to several other handmade bath and body products. I began making bath bombs in late 2019 and then learned about solid bubble bath! These were added to my product line in 2020; I love finding new designs to make and look forward to bringing more fun products to you! I also plan to expand my product line to include liquid soap and body lotions soon - stay tuned!
Why Handmade soap?
Did you know that most commercial soaps are actually detergents, not soaps? The moisturizing glycerin in soap is valuable, so companies extract the glycerin from their soaps to use in other products (like lotions). The glycerin is replaced with detergent (which is very drying for our skin) so that the product will clean...but is it really soap?
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I make soap using the cold-process method. I create a lye solution by mixing sodium hydroxide with a liquid (usually water, but can be milk, wine, beer, etc). The lye solution is added to oils, and any additives (fragrance, colour, etc) to create my soap "batter". When the lye solution mixes with the oils, a chemical reaction occurs that changes the lye to soap! When the chemical reaction is complete, there is no lye left in the soap because it was converted to glycerin as a result of the chemical reaction.