The Origin of Soap and How It's Made
also see What Soap Does What?

Island Soap & Candle Works

Here at Island Soap & Candle Works we offer our customers the benefit of fine old formulas using more costly and natural ingredients. Our handmade soaps are luscious and mild, prepared with the finest ingredients to enhance your bathing experience. We use authentic techniques of soap making which have been handed down through the ages. We are proud to keep these traditions alive and to be able to share them with you. Each bar of soap you see on our factory shelves has been hand poured and will be cured for 21 days in the breezes of Kauai before final inspection.

The Origin of Soap

How soap was invented comes to us from a tale out of ancient Rome. It seems that a wise woman was bent over a river washing clothes at the bottom of Sapo Hill.  Above her was an area where animals were ritually sacrificed. She began to notice that every time she did her wash at this spot, they ended up much cleaner than her friends' clothes who used other "laundromats." Now the point where she knelt down to wash happened to be where the residual sludge from the sacrifice area mixed in with the river water.

She perceived correctly that a very strong cleansing agent was produced as the fat from the sacrificed animals merged with the wood ashes and finally the river water. We can only surmise that the word and custom spread from there because many cultures went on to develop their own soap recipes. In days gone by, people would save ashes from their fires for months. When they had enough fat left over from butchering or olive oil production, they would make soap.

Filling a barrel with ashes, with a layer of straw at the bottom to filter, they would pour water through the ashes and catch it in a bucket at the bottom. The 'lye water' solution was considered strong enough to make soap when they could get an egg to float on the surface of the solution. The fat was then rendered and mixed with the lye solution to make a hard 'lye soap.'

Today at Monterey Soap & Candle Works we hand make a gourmet line of specialty soaps which contain coconut, olive, palm, macadamia and kukui nut oils combined with herbs and essential oils, never using any animal fats. Unlike most of the machine made soap on store shelves today, the glycerin which is naturally produced with saponification is left in our soap, making it more beneficial to the skin.

Exactly What Is Soap?

Soap is easy to make as long as a very specific formula is used. However, the chemical reaction that takes place in the process is actually quite complex. Simply stated, we mix exact quantities of the finest available oils (chemically known as acids) to a base of potash and water. Potash is a synthetic product which imitates wood ashes. This mixture gradually thickens under constant stirring. During this mixing period we add essential oils and fragrances to enhance our handmade bars. The reaction that takes place when the acids, base and water are mixed completely, creates soap. Soap makers call this saponification. The mix is poured into individual molds or into larger forms. The soap will harden enough in 24 hours to be removed from the mold or form. The formed soap is hand cut before being moved to a drying rack where it and other soap created in molds will cure for 21 days or longer. This style of soap making is known as "cold-process" as it is not necessary to "cook" the mixture. The heat generated when mixing the ingredients is enough to provoke the chemical reaction. In addition, we have adjusted our recipes, decreasing the potash, which leaves extra oil in the finished soap. This creates a super fatted soap bar with a beneficial moisturizing effect.

Thank you and stop by our store in Koloa, Kauai to "See How It's Made!"