Handmade Soap Bars

Creating the Perfect Soap Bar

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The inspiration in creating Indochine Natural soap bars comes from the exotic Old Quarter of Ha Noi, Viet Nam, and in particular "Herb Street", or more correctly Pho Lan Ong named after a famous 18th Century traditional medicine practitioner. This street is a sensual delight of textures and smells from the sacks of herbs in shops lined with rosewood herbal medicine cabinets. In narrow corridors, squatting workers grind and process herbs. These shops became the starting point and source of many of the raw materials used to create the range of Indochine Natural handmade soap.

Every soap maker strives to create the perfect bar of soap. One that lathers just right, and at the same time has desirable moisturizing qualities. This is no easy task, as each different oil used in soap making is made of different percentages of fatty acids that have different properties when it comes to making soap. Some oils provide moisturizing properties and others provide lather, and it is the right combination of oils that will produce the perfect bar.

Another important consideration for Indochine Natural in creating the perfect soap bar are environmental considerations. The carbon footprint for the soaps created would be greatly increased if ingredients such as Olive Oil were imported from Europe; therefore the focus was on buying local, which would also help to strengthen the Asian identity of the soaps.

An obvious starting point is coconut oil, which is locally available and found in most bars as it is the oil that is most responsible for producing soap bars with good lathering properties. However an issue with coconut oil is that if not used in the right proportion it can have a drying effect on the skin.

Another important ingredient is oil that provides hardening properties, and the obvious choice here is Palm Oil, especially as it meets the criteria of being locally available. An important issue surrounding Pal Oil is its environmental sustainability; therefore only suppliers who are members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) are used to source our oil.

While many soap makers utilize additional oils such as almond oil and olive oil, environmentally it is an issue to import these ingredients. Our research and trials has demonstrated that the right proportions of only coconut and palm oils can produce an excellent bar of soap.

Once the basic make-up of handmade our natural handmade soap bars as decided, the next step was to develop the final formulation that included essential oils and herbal ingredients such as turmeric powder, ground lemongrass, coffee, cinnamon and other ingredients. From experience it was found that simple recipes work best, and on this basis a number of formulations were developed. Under the direction of Indochine Natural's founder, Dr. Mike Thair, this process took about two years of continual rounds of recipe formulation, consumer trials, and reformulation until the perfect bar was produced. Many people don't realize that soap needs to be cure for at least 30 days, and therefore this makes it a long process to develop new formulations. In the end, nine new recipes were developed, and these now for the basis of Indochine Natural's range of handmade natural soap bars.

Author- Dr. Mike Thair is the owner and Managing Director of Indochine Natural.

What type of mailer to you use to ship Handmade soap?

I'm just a little curious since I'm not sure if poly mailers would be a good idea, would they melt the soap? And where would I get boxes small enough for a bar of soap? What do you use to mail your soaps?

my mom all ways ups they all ways get to the person on time same condition they have all give her good replys

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