Lemongrass for freshness, coffee scrub soap for cleansing and the plain soap for pure simplicity
The story of how our soaps were made
Soap had been on the Silmachy Remedies list of ideas for a while, but the idea kept being postponed because we wanted to find the right person to make it. It has happened! At the beginning of the year we started talking with soap maker Daija about joining our team. Here is her story about soap making and how our soaps came to be!
I started collecting and making soap 5 years ago in England. And yes, however funny it may seem, there are people who collect such things too. I’m most proud of a 1990s laurel soap made by the Riga fat processing plant, which I found in the attic of my country house.
Soaps from many countries of the world have travelled to me as gifts. Each little soap is special – one has an interesting story tucked away, another unusual ingredients, another a sentimental meaning.
I started learning soap making in England from several masters, and when I felt I could create my own formulas and achieve results I liked, I returned to Latvia, where I created my first soap line – Lemongrass, Coffee, Tea Tree. It was hard on my own, so in January this year I decided to give up my brand.
Nothing in life happens without a reason, and very soon I was sitting over a cup of coffee with the Silmachy Remedies team, forging future dreams about Silmachy soaps.
Three types of Silmachy Remedies soap have been created – Coffee scrub soap, Lemongrass soap and the Plain, or Minimalist, soap. I have made them from coconut and olive oil using the traditional soap-making method often called “soap from scratch”. This means the oils go through the full saponification process, no ready-made soap bases are used, and after making, the soaps have to cure for a month before they are used. This method and the chosen oils give the soaps a rich, soft lather that your hands will surely appreciate.
Handmade products always carry their own story, and Silmachy soaps are no exception.
Lemongrass for freshness, coffee scrub soap for cleansing and the plain soap for pure simplicity
The lemongrass soap was the first soap I ever made, and I wanted its journey to continue. Its scent is reminiscent of a lemon slice dipped in a sugar bowl and will remind you of summer all year round.
The Plain, or Minimalist, soap was born because I value the simple and practical nature of things. I choose this soap myself every day, because working in the workshop daily, my nose gets tired of the abundance of scents. Interestingly, this was not the first soap I made. I had to go through many soap scents before I realised I wanted to make simply a plain bar of soap. Sometimes the simplest is also the most unique.
The coffee scrub soap carries a story in several layers. First, it is also one of the first I made, and it is very dear to me in my weekly skin-scrubbing rituals. Second, this is my father’s favourite soap. When I started making soap, my father decided to pull out his reserves of sarcasm and started joking that I was “cooking soap” and that he wouldn’t use a soap that couldn’t wash the freshly cut grass stains off his feet. I took it as a challenge and made the coffee scrub soap just to prove I was right. Thanks, Dad! Third, Silmachy coffee scrub soap is made with coffee roasted in Latvia. While we were discussing possible Silmachy soaps, we happened to meet and become friends with the Kuldīga coffee roasters Curonia Coffee Roasters. One thing led to another, and Curonia Coffee Roasters coffee ended up in our soap. Now the coffee roastery has its own soap story, and we have our own coffee story.
Curonia Coffee Roasters is a coffee roastery in Kuldīga whose aim is to offer a concentrated and unusual coffee experience.
So that’s the story of our soaps! Hopefully very soon our soaps will be basking on the edge of your sink!
Find the Lemongrass, Plain and Coffee scrub soaps in our online shop here.
If you’d like to learn more about how coffee is made in Latvia, visit Curonia Coffee Roasters here.