About Me

 Hi, my name is Jacqui and I live on the Norfolk -Suffolk border in the little town of Bungay in the Waveney Valley on the marshes ,not far from Norwich and the stunning Norfolk Broads .

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Originally from an art background, my life took an unexpected turn when I was inspired to begin making handmade soap, after nearly taking on a beloved gift shop in the town where the owner was retiring. 

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This potential opportunity had made me think about what I would like to have in the shop alongside the other gift items and cards. Soap was first on the long list, as my family and I had been buying some fantastic (so I thought) Italian soap bars at a top end department store in Norwich, which we looked forward to getting as a treat but we soon realised that despite the beautiful packaging and lovely fragrances they ultimately lead to dry, tight skin and poor skin health . Ultimately it turned out that they were made with a100% palm oil ( something I wasn't even aware of at that time), they were drying and fragranced with fragrance oils.

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The vision was offer luxury soap and thought I would try making my own, not realising that it it quite a process.

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I also wanted a soap for myself and my family to use that didn't leave our skin tight and dry.  Having suffered from eczema and contact dermatitis on and off through my life from childhood, I also wanted a soap that was gentle and kind and wouldn't cause my skin to flare up.

 

It was also essential to me that it was highly moisturizing & had great lather ( as we live in a hard water area).

And I also thought it would be nice if the soap that bought an element of luxury to bath time.

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After deciding to stop using palm oil and any of it's derivatives very early on, I spent a long time developing this recipe and finally settled on using seven oils to give me the qualities I wanted. 

​Into the mix I included beneficial natural ingredients such as herbs, spa clays and essential oils to make them as healing and as soothing as possible. 

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So began my tentative steps into soapmaking and the little gift shop... it closed and passed to someone else and became a boutique.

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 It turned out that chance decision lead me to really enjoying making soap and every aspect of it's journey from weighing the oils to hand stamping, bevelling and hand packing each bar , and when friends and relatives used it and were so happy with how it made their skin feel , I was thrilled as skin problems became better and they came back for more, eventually they insisted on giving me money for it and I was bowled over, a landmark moment.

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Gradually and naturally things snowballed and I would never have expected for soap making to become such a large part of my life for more than ten years now and certainly not expected it to become a business.

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Recently I have taken on a new departure which works perfectly with my soapmaking and begun making some hand thrown pottery, through a high demand for handmade ceramic soap dishes which I was having difficulty finding after my potter stopped making them for me, so I have begun to explore making pottery items and it seems that this may become something that I enjoy just as much as the soap making. So watch this space...

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​​​Also if you are interested, have a look at my blog - I will be trying to update this regularly about all aspects of soap and soap making and also covering some of the other items that I am enjoying crafting. 

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