20/11/2024
📖 Anyone read the book "Start with Why" by Simon Sinek? - I highly recommend it. An excellent thought provoking read about challenging conventional ways of thinking about business success, using the 'Golden Circle Concept'
Sinek argues most individuals and organisations focus on what they do, but successful leaders and companies inspire - by starting with why. This perspective challenges readers to rethink their approach to leadership and communication.
This is my WHY ⬇️
I’m often asked why I started soaping - a hobby some people find a bit ‘odd.’ But for me, it’s deeply personal.
The story begins in my childhood. I’ve always had ridiculously sensitive skin, suffering from painful eczema and dermatitis. By my mid-twenties, I thought I’d outgrown it. How wrong I was! As an adult, I found myself reacting to nearly every store-bought “natural” soap or shower gel I tried. Frustration didn’t even begin to cover how I felt.
I kept wondering: Why am I reacting to products labelled as ‘natural’?
The answer? While these products might contain natural ingredients, they also often include artificial additives designed to enhance lather, bubbles, or fragrance - ingredients that are anything but skin-friendly. Here are a few examples:
⚠️ Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS): A powerful foaming agent, but also a known irritant. It can also increase your skin’s absorption of other potentially harmful chemicals.
⚠️ Parabens: Common preservatives that prolong shelf life but can cause irritation, rashes, and other reactions.
⚠️ Artificial Colours: Some petroleum-based and create a thin film that essentially suffocates your skin.
⚠️ Synthetic Fragrances: Often made with undisclosed chemical blends, these can trigger allergies, headaches, and skin irritation.
⚠️ Phthalates: Commonly used to make fragrances last longer, they’re known endocrine disruptors and can contribute to hormonal imbalances.
⚠️ Propylene Glycol: Found in some moisturisers and soaps to retain moisture, but it can strip the skin’s natural oils and cause sensitivity or irritation.
⚠️ Formaldehyde Releasers: Preservatives like DMDM Hydantoin or Quaternium-15 slowly release formaldehyde over time, which is a known irritant and potential carcinogen.
❌These additives are often masked by clever marketing, giving the impression that a product is natural or eco-friendly when actually it’s far from it. This kind of marketing is what we call greenwashing.
Whenever I visited my GP, I was provided prescription after prescription for steroid creams. While they offered temporary relief, they didn’t address the root cause. Fed up with reacting to everything and weary of using medication that wasn’t a sustainable solution - I decided to take matters into my own hands. - I purchased my first book on natural handmade soap. 🌿
That was 11 years ago. Since then, I’ve accumulated hundreds of soap-making books, attended many courses, watched thousands of hours of YouTube tutorials, invested in A LOT of equipment, and deepened my knowledge of the composition of oils and butters. Over the years, I’ve perfected recipes that my skin loves, and I haven’t had a single skin reaction in nearly a decade.
But in 2022, I faced a setback. In the middle of moving houses, my soap-making equipment was in storage while waiting for our new home to be built. I ran out of my own soap and had to buy store-bought alternatives again. I carefully chose what I thought would be the least harmful option, but even so, I reacted again - and badly.
This video demonstrates exactly how my skin reacts - it was head to toe. - Its not a pretty sight 🤣 please excuse me - but I don't mind sharing it, to demonstrate my 'WHY' This is why I make handmade products. 🩷
Our products are skin-loving goodness with no hidden extras. While labels must legally list ingredients in INCI names, I always clearly explain them in plain terms, so you can have peace of mind in understanding every single ingredient. 👌🧐
Our products also go through safety assessments, ensuring my recipes are safe for use. Although I have full confidence in my products because they are also tested on me and my family first!
2024 has brought me a new soap workshop and administration in order, and in 2025 we will be looking to invest in an Esty / Shopify store. New protective boxes for our soaps and keeping regular stocks - of soaps, balms, body butters and shower steamers.
To everyone old and new, who have supported me over the years, thank you from the bottom of my heart. 💖 🍑
Tara 😘
