Garimo's New Hawaiian Soap Studio
(and possible future classroom)
Shareing here some photos to give you an idea of where I'm now living and making my soaps.

The workshop is the first floor of my little octagon house.	Nothing but bare concrete walls & floor
I began with drywall and paint and tiling the concrete floor	and built counters and shelves
finished!	I like the door on the track
First workshop with matching formica counters!	then started the making and cutting soap

Here's some information about my soap The soaps are cold processed. They're made with the best available ingredients I can get to Hawaii. They are not a purchased processed melt and pour base. The soap formulas for these Luxury Soaps do vary slightly with the different soaps, but on average the breakdown of saponified oils and ingredients are equal amounts of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Organic Coconut Oil usually produced in the islands of the Philippines, RSPO certified sustainable Palm Oil and Soy Oil that is the major oil product of USA. The soaps on average include 6.2% Pure Steamed Essential Oils only. There are no manufactured fragrance oils. Additives include 1.3% or less teas, botancials, herbs, clays, and mineral colorants, 1% Rosemary Oleoresin Extract as an added anti-oxident to protect the freshness of the oils. Luxury soaps are defined by having equal qualities that are moisturizing, sudzing and hardness making for a longer lasting bar. Saponification is the chemical reaction caused by combining the fatty acids of the oils with the alkalinity of the sodium hydroxide / lye. The reaction is mostly finished after 48 hours and the results is no longer lye and no longer oil... it's soap.

The saponified oils are blended with organic herbs, seeds and oats, green tea, wheatgrass powder, silk peptides - my only non vegan ingredient, lavender flowers, lemon peel, cocoa powder, clays and minerals and whatever else is good for our skin and looks like it might be fun. Some soaps are unscented, but the others have only pure steamed extracted essential oils from herbs, spices and flowers. No synthetic fragrances are used. These Cold Processed soaps retain the natural glycerin. Sometimes the glycerin seperates in the soap and is visable as a clear swirl spiraling pattern. These are called glycerin rivers in the soaping world. There are no artificial additives or toxic preservatives. The soaps contain Rosemary Oleoresin Extract as a protective anti-bacterial and anti-microbial. The colorants are the herbs themselves or from mined natural clays while others are the refined iron oxides that have mineral impurities removed. Regardless, all ingredients in the soaps are listed on the labels, I do not use micas or dyes. Once the soaps are cut and stamped, they're stacked on the drying rack to cure at least a month or longer, usually six weeks. The final 10% of the saponification happens during the drying period this page is a work in progress... ___What is soap?___

return to Garimo's Real Soap Studio web page