A Soaper's Tale: The Perfect Creamy Bar

Like all my recipes, the creamy bar started with a clear vision. I wanted to craft a beautifully creamy bar with an extra silky feel and the perfect balance between a creamy and bubbly lather. Easier said than done, right?

First, I turned to Western Australian ingredients. Our soaps are primarily olive oil and avocado oil-based. The challenge? Olive oil-heavy soaps need a long time to cure; otherwise, they get a heavy (slimy) lather, which is not ideal. Avocado oil has similar qualities but is much more forgiving.

The trick to a great olive oil soap is a long cure time—anywhere from 9 to 18 months. During this time, the soap loses moisture, and the longer-chain fatty acids continue to form soap crystals, which helps harden the bar and develop a better lather. But let's be real—that's not great when you're trying to launch a business and get products to market. I had to tweak the recipe to reduce the cure time while keeping my core ingredients.

Coconut oil became the saving ingredient. It produces a harder bar with a rich lather and excellent cleansing properties. However, too much coconut oil can be drying, so finding the right balance was vital. We worked on the appropriate ratios to retain the gentle experience of the olive oil-based soap while incorporating coconut oil to reduce the cure time and enhance the bubbliness of the lather.

Despite reducing the cure time and enhancing the bubbliness, something was still off. We needed to boost the lather to provide a premium experience. Additional sugars can increase the bubbles and improve the overall lather quality.

Often, soapers turn to honey for this. However, honey can cause a recipe to accelerate too quickly and overheat in the mould. I needed a gentle, preferably locally sourced sugar. That's when it hit me—why not use beer from one of WA's local breweries? Beer, especially non-alcoholic IPA, is rich in sugars and proteins that boost lather and add conditioning properties.

After testing at least 15 different beers in our test batches, from sour ales to porters to extra hoppy lagers, we found the perfect brew. Incorporating one of WA's premium non-alcoholic IPAs into the recipe made the bar really special.

After a 12-week cure time, the soap was ready to test. The lather was balanced but lacked the premium, silky feel I wanted. By adding some Australian Kaolin clay, I achieved the silky smooth texture I craved. Kaolin clay is gentle and adds a sumptuous slip to the soap, making it feel smooth on the skin.

I handed out the soap to family and friends, including my amazing wife. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, except for one issue: it ran out too quickly. The bar was too soft. Increasing the coconut content would make it too harsh, so I needed to introduce more hard fats without compromising the formula.

After much deliberation, we found the perfect balance by adding a high-quality Western Australian beef tallow. This provided the hardness and longevity needed without compromising the bar's silky, sumptuous feel.

After another 12 weeks of curing, the bar was ready to test. The feedback was incredible. The bar had a rich, creamy lather with the perfect amount of bubble. It was long-lasting and gentle, even for sensitive skin like mine. This journey was long and challenging, but the results were worth the 18 months of effort. The perfect creamy bar wasn't just a product—it was a testament to dedication, innovation, and our commitment to quality. Dive into the premium experience of our creamy bar and feel the difference that passion and perseverance make.