What goes into a bar of handmade soap

Soap is one of the oldest things people still use in almost the old way. It was known that oil or fat meeting kitchen ash makes something that can clean, and that principle is still the same today; only the materials and the method are tidier.

A bar of handmade soap, put simply, is what comes of vegetable oil and an alkali meeting each other, and then the whole mass being left still to cure. What gives handmade soap its character lies in two places: the oil chosen and the stretch of time the maker is willing to wait.

The oil decides the character of a bar of soap

Each oil gives its own kind of lather and its own feel on the skin. Olive oil gives a soap of mild character, with a small, fine lather, long spoken of in the regions around the Mediterranean. Coconut oil gives plenty of lather and cleans quickly. Palm oil gives a harder, longer-lasting bar. Soap makers usually blend several oils, and it is that ratio which makes the character of the bar.

In Vietnam the familiar materials are very rich too. Coconut oil from the Mekong Delta, rice, bran, bamboo charcoal, honey, and the leaves used for bathing and washing in folk knowledge. This is one of the directions we are keeping for later, when it is truly ripe, because every local material needs time to be understood properly.

Time is the part the eye does not see

After pouring into the mould, a bar of handmade soap needs to be left still for many weeks. In that stretch the reaction completes, the water leaves gradually, and the bar hardens. A bar left long enough gives a gentler lather, kinder to the skin, and dissolves more slowly in use. This is where patience works its way into quality, much like waiting for wax to cool in our workshop.

Because time is part of the craft, handmade soap is usually made in small batches, and the batches differ a little. The colour may be paler or deeper depending on the season's materials, and the surface may be a little plain. That is the true character of something made by hand.

How to use a bar so it lasts

The most important thing is to let the bar dry between uses. Put it on a wooden dish or a tray with drainage grooves, somewhere airy, and avoid letting it sit in a pool of water. A bar of soap soaking in water will soften and dissolve very fast, while a bar kept dry and airy lasts considerably longer.

If you buy several bars at once, keep the unused ones in a paper box somewhere cool and airy, not sealed in a plastic bag. They will keep drying gradually and harden the longer they are kept, so the bar used later is usually more durable than the one used first.

A few questions you often send us

How is handmade soap different from ordinary soap

It differs in being made in small batches, in the bar being left to cure for many weeks, and in each batch differing a little. Both kinds clean; they simply follow two different rhythms of production.

How do I keep a bar of soap for a long time

Let the bar dry out between uses, on a wooden dish or a tray with drainage grooves, and avoid letting it sit in water.

Does ZUNGZA make soap yet

This is a direction we are keeping for later, along with herbal foot soaks and bathing leaves following Dao knowledge. We will open it when it is truly ripe.