As a nutritionist, I quickly grasped the truth that we, as humans, gravitate towards what brings us pleasure, and breaking such ingrained habits is no easy feat. Personally, I love wholesome foods like homegrown fruits and vegetables, corn on the cob, and pineapple –yum. Yet, I confess, I indulge in cocktails and convenience, occasionally turning a blind eye to the ingredients in my beloved packet of kewpie mayonnaise.
I discovered another intriguing facet of human behavior - our inclination to pamper our skin with products crafted from ethical, wholesome ingredients.
It all began when I examined the plastic bottle of my hand soap, at the cryptic ingredient list, and contemplated my daughter's eczema. I reached a point where I didn't want the status quo instead needing to have a better solution.
Consider this: our skin, the largest organ, is the only one most of us will ever witness. When it rebels with rashes, eczema, dermatitis, or discoloration, I couldn't help but wonder about the state our other unseen organs were in. So, I found myself gazing at that plastic bottle of chemicals, pondering the possibilities. What if?
My exploration into soap-making began. I pledged to use natural, plant-based ingredients – and lye, no synthetic fragrances or non-plant-based colors. Palm oil, despite its alleged sustainability, was off the table due to my own beliefs about the industry. I opted exclusively for coconut oil sourced from plantations predating the coconut oil industry explosion.
Armed with these principles, I crafted a few bars of practical soap for my family. As a creative scientist, nothing merges these two realms quite like the art of cold-processed soap making. My initial bar resembled sausage meat, defying molds, but the kids found it hilarious, suggesting I market it for Halloween due to its ghastly appearance. However, as soap, it performed admirably.
Thus began my soap-making odyssey, taking over a year to refine my recipe and learning techniques. To fund my experimentation, I introduced a pay-what-you-like system among work colleagues for the bars I created. The feedback was invaluable - eczema vanished, hands felt softer and more moisturised, and my partner coveted the lemon batch made from his own fruit tree, now a staple during lemon season. The resounding consensus was that this was genuinely very Good soap.
The answer to my initial 'What if?' was a resounding 'Go Find Out.'
