Beautifullyhandcrafted, beautifully nurturing: our new Cold Process Bar Soaps

Do you actually know how the first soap was created? According to an ancient Roman legend, it was near Mount Sapo. The rain washed the fat of sacrificed animals together with wood ash into the Tiber. The women who washed their clothes in it found that this mixture made washing easier. There is no proof of this story, but it is documented that the Babylonians already used soap: During excavations, old cylinders were found that date back to 2800 BC.

At Soeder, we have always had bar soap in our programme - for example, the one with activated charcoal and medicinal peat - but last year we delved deeper into the subject. We have tinkered and researched, expanded and modified our machinery. We are very pleased that we can now show you the fruits of this labour: The liquid soap family has now been joined by another.

Our Cold Process Bar Soaps are created in a way that is close to the original. A few things have changed, of course, especially as far as the ingredients are concerned: ash has not been used for a while now; instead, we use lye, which in the case of this soap is sodium hydroxide. What has remained the same, however, is that the saponification takes place at a temperature that is always below 50 degrees. The soap must then be cut from large blocks and left to dry. This maturing process takes some time: only after about five weeks can we package the individual soaps.

So it is a lengthy artisanal process that results in bars of soap that are not always the same. Since the soap continues to dry even after it has been cut, there can be very slight variations in weight, and the appearance also varies: each soap is unique, drawing its beauty from the small imperfections that such an artisanal creative process entails - thus somewhat following the Japanese aesthetic concept of "wabi-sabi". What the pieces have in common is that we sand their edges and stamp them at the end. We do both by hand, of course.

Whatwe like most about the Bar Soap is its richness of content. Not all of the oil used is saponified in the cold process - which means that a good part of it is there to care for your skin! In technical terms, this is called "superfatting". With shea and cocoa butter as well as olive and hemp oil, it is mild and kind to the skin - and incidentally feels much softer than a conventional soap. In addition, other ingredients can be added, which retain their effectiveness thanks to the low processing temperature.

The Cold Process Bar Soap is available in four scents: Black Pine, Herbal Melange, Flower Field and Hinoki Yuzu. The soaps come as cubes in two sizes: either a small block for on-the-go (25 g), or a large block of 110 grams. They are hand-stamped and packed in a cardboard box.