The fascination of soap has many facets.

It may be hard to believe, but soap has been around for thousands of years. The oldest known soap recipes, preserved on clay tablets by the Sumerians, date back to the 4th millennium BC. The Germanic and Celtic peoples were also familiar with and used soap. However, it was quite different from what we would recognise as soap today. These early formulations consisted of a mixture of potash and animal fat and were used as hair pomades, for washing textiles, and even as remedies for treating injuries.

The Greeks and Egyptians further developed the known soap recipes to improve their cleansing properties. It was the Romans, however, who first began using soap for personal hygiene. Soap became widely used in Roman bathhouses.

The origins of soap as we know it today can most likely be traced back to the 7th century AD and developed over the course of several centuries. Arab soap makers began boiling fats and alkaline solutions together to create soap. During this period, the cleansing and nourishing soap-brush massages that are still appreciated today originated in the Oriental baths known as hammams.

As Islam spread, so too did the art of soap making throughout Central Europe. Charlemagne (747–814) played a significant role in promoting this emerging craft. Spain, France and Italy became centres of soap production, and from the 9th century onwards the French city of Marseille gradually developed into one of Europe’s leading soap-making hubs.

France played a decisive role in advancing soap production. Soap became increasingly refined and enriched with fragrance essences such as lavender. This marked the birth of fine soap, also known as toilet soap.

Fine soap quickly became popular among Europe's royal courts, although it remained beyond the reach of ordinary people. It is worth noting that toilet soap was not primarily used for personal hygiene. Instead, it was valued as a remedy and used for cosmetic purposes, including shaving. As recently as around 300 years ago, people generally preferred to powder and perfume themselves rather than wash regularly.

In 1790, the French chemist Nicolas Leblanc succeeded in producing soda ash. This replaced the traditional alkaline solution that had previously been laboriously obtained from potash dissolved in water. As a result, soap became more affordable and increasingly part of everyday personal hygiene.

The growth of the textile industry also fuelled demand for soap, and by around 1900, steamship transport had made soap more accessible to wider sections of society. The fats required for soap production could now be imported more economically, paving the way for large-scale industrial soap manufacturing.

Put simply, soap is created through a reaction between an alkaline solution and fats. For solid soaps, this involves a mixture of sodium hydroxide solution and fats or oils, such as coconut oil, palm oil, beef tallow or olive oil.

The raw materials are heated and boiled together in large kettles in a process known as saponification. During this process, the fatty acids react with the alkaline solution to form fatty acid salts, in other words, soap. Our soaps are produced according to our own proprietary formulations to ensure optimum quality.

The soap-making process produces a viscous mass which is then dried. Water is removed from the mixture, resulting in solid soap noodles, sometimes referred to as soap flakes. These soap noodles form the basic raw material for further processing.

The soap noodles are milled and can then be enhanced with high-quality skincare ingredients, fragrances and colourants. The mixture is subsequently passed through a heated soap extruder.

During this process, known as plodding, the soap mass is compressed and homogenised. Heat and pressure ensure that all ingredients are evenly blended into a uniform mixture.

The dough-like soap mass is then forced under high pressure through a die plate. The opening of the die determines the shape and cross-section of the continuous soap log that emerges. While still warm and soft, it can easily be cut into individual bars.

Some soaps, such as our Hair Soap, already have their final shape at this stage. Others are subsequently stamped in cooled moulds, giving them their characteristic shape and appearance, such as our Speick Original Soap.