NATURAL SOAPS HANDCRAFTED IN MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
Our soap-making began in 1990 as part of a desire to lead a home-grown, home-made lifestyle. Ian and I loved making and using our own soaps and sharing them with family and friends. Visitors would often ask if they could buy them. We were happy to make soap for others and thought that there would be many more who would like them. So, after the birth of our fourth child, we decided that we were ready to produce soaps for wholesale. In our timber kitchen overlooking Sherbrooke Forest we began ‘Quintessence Soaps’ and were ready for business in September 2002.
Soap Artisans
It is believed Soap making began as early as 2800BC in Babylonia and there is evidence of soapmaking by the Egyptians, Romans, and Celts. Soapmaking chemistry is the same now as it was then: soap is made from the interaction of fats and oils with lye. Lye is a caustic solution made with water and sodium hydroxide (caustic soda or NaOH). Sodium hydroxide is a product of the hydrolysis of water and salt (or sea water). However, many soaps today are not real soap, but solid and liquid detergents.
As Soap Artisans we are passionate about producing soaps of the highest quality. Quintessence Soaps are created by combining the gifts of the natural world with the arts of soap making, skin care, aromatherapy and perfumery. Each ingredient is selected for its unique qualities and the benefits it will bring to each soap. We continue to marvel that we can create these exquisite soaps simply with everyday kitchen ingredients and equipment.
Environmental Concerns
Soap Artisans
It is believed Soap making began as early as 2800BC in Babylonia and there is evidence of soapmaking by the Egyptians, Romans, and Celts. Soapmaking chemistry is the same now as it was then: soap is made from the interaction of fats and oils with lye. Lye is a caustic solution made with water and sodium hydroxide (caustic soda or NaOH). Sodium hydroxide is a product of the hydrolysis of water and salt (or sea water). However, many soaps today are not real soap, but solid and liquid detergents.
As Soap Artisans we are passionate about producing soaps of the highest quality. Quintessence Soaps are created by combining the gifts of the natural world with the arts of soap making, skin care, aromatherapy and perfumery. Each ingredient is selected for its unique qualities and the benefits it will bring to each soap. We continue to marvel that we can create these exquisite soaps simply with everyday kitchen ingredients and equipment.
Environmental Concerns
- Reduce Waste: There is very little waste in the soap making process. We re-use & recycle all our containers & reduce packaging by buying raw materials in bulk.
- Minimum Retail Packaging: We keep soap packaging to a functional minimum and display in permanent, reusable handmade timber crates. We post orders in reused boxes and packing chips that have been saved for us by some of our stockists. Some of our products require packaging so we use recycled card sleeves and boxes.
- Natural Soap is 100% biodegradable.
- The small amount of palm oil we use is certified organic sourced from Daabon in Colombia. Read here why we still use palm oil.