Cold-process saponification , explained
All my soaps are made using an ancient method, forgotten by the modern cosmetics industry: cold-process saponification. It's longer, more demanding, and infinitely more respectful of the skin. Here's how it works.
How it works
A soap is simple chemistry: a mixture of vegetable oils and lye that react together to become soap and glycerin. The cosmetics industry heats this mixture above 100 °C. It's fast, mechanizable, but it destroys much of the oils' properties, and the glycerin — precious for hydration — is removed to be sold separately.
Cold-process saponification is the opposite. The mixture reacts slowly, at room temperature, for several weeks. The oils keep their vitamins, their antioxidants, their essential fatty acids. The glycerin stays in the soap. And it's this glycerin that makes the skin supple and hydrated after every wash.
Four patient steps
Each batch takes a day to prepare and then several weeks to mature. I work alone, in my small workshop in Orăștie, in batches of 20 to 30 soaps.
Weighing
I weigh each oil to the gram. Olive, coconut, shea, avocado — all virgin, organic, cold-pressed. The lye is dissolved in pure water from the Carpathians.
The trace
I mix at 40 °C until it reaches the consistency of custard. That's the trace: the moment when the reaction has started. I add plants, clay, essential oils.
Molding
I pour into handmade wooden molds. I insulate for 48 hours so saponification can develop deeply, without thermal shock.
Unmolding
I unmold, cut with wire, and line up each bar on the workshop shelves. Here begins the long cure.
A 4 to 6 week cure
This is the step that industry can't afford. For a month and a half, the soap dries in open air. Water evaporates. The pH stabilizes around 9. Saponification completes. At the end, what comes out of the workshop is harder, gentler, more durable. A soap that lasts a month in the shower. A soap that foams well without being harsh. It's slow. But that's what the craft demands.
Discover the ingredients
Every oil, every plant, every trace of color has a reason. See what's really in my soaps.
See the ingredients →