Our soap is certified
Multipurpose soaps
Our handmade soaps can replace almost all of your daily soaps (even black and Aleppo soaps):
-face and body soap (for adults, children, and even babies)
-laundry detergent
-dishwasher detergent
-household detergent (floor, furniture, kitchen, bathroom)
All this is possible as our soap is 100% natural! It is organic-certified and way more economical. Do the math by replacing all of your household products, shower gels, and laundry detergents with our soap.
Our 100g soap lasts on average one month. Of course, it depends on what you use it for (body, laundry, dishes, floor) and how often you use it. Keep in mind that our soaps (and therefore our flakes too) contain water which will evaporate in the coming months. If you use them a couple of months after reception, don’t be surprised if your soap or flakes are lighter than the weight written on the label.
HANDMADE IN OUR WORKSHOP
Handmade soaps
Our Castile soaps are handmade in our own workshop.
The average size of a 100g soap is 8,5 x 7 x 2 cm.
They are handmade using a process called cold saponification, using only organic olive oil for the fatty substance.
Ingredients: Sodium Olivate (soap), Aqua (water), Glycerine (natural glycerin derived from olive oil), Olea Europaea Fruit Oil.
Soaps made through cold saponification
The saponification process is a chemical reaction between olive oil and soda, which results in soap and glycerin. The soda used to create our handmade soap is sodium hydroxide (NaOH), also known as caustic soda.
Our recipe dates back several generations and undergoes a cold saponification process. Once the soda has been mixed with water, we add organic olive oil from Spain.
After the saponification has taken place, we let the mix rest in a warm room to obtain our cleansing base. Finally, we let our soap dry for four weeks before shipping them.
A superfatted olive oil soap
Our soaps contain 7% excess fat resulting from surplus olive oil. This oil hasn't been saponified, meaning it hasn't been transformed by the soda molecules and remains in the soap. This excess makes our soap very mild, allowing it to nourish your skin and making it suitable for all types of skin, even the most sensitive ones.
Our soaps are yellow and tend to whiten as time goes by. This is also perfectly normal as our soaps are only made with organic olive oil and with a cold saponification, hence the colour. Could we change this colour? No, and that’s a definitive answer as changing the colour would mean adding colourants or dyes. We are looking for the most natural, authentic, and simple way of producing a soap that is safe for your skin.
Our soaps aren't perfumed, we don't add any fragrances or essential oils.
A fragrance-free soap
Our cold saponified soaps are made from organic olive oil, water, and natural plant-based glycerin from the olive oil.
The organic olive oil is the only vegetable oil used in the fatty-base for our soap. We don't add any other oils!
The result is a naturally gentle and universal soap that is free from essential oils. It is perfectly suited for all types of skin, pregnant and breastfeeding women, children, and babies. Our organic soap can be used on sensitive skin and helps to strengthen the skin's hydrolipidic barrier thanks to the olive oil's 7% fat. You can use our organic cotton washcloth, suitable for all types of skin.
The glycerin in our soap hasn't been added, unlike industrially manufactured soaps that are said to contain "glycerin". Instead, this glycerin is naturally present in olive oil.
Eco-friendly soaps
Our superfatted purely vegetable oil soap is biodegradable and respectful of the planet. It contributes to reducing our impact on the environment.
You can use them in nature. However, we recommend doing this at least fifty meters away from watercourses to let the soil, rocks or sand have a decomposing and filtering action. This will have a minimal impact on the fauna and flora.
Our gentle soap is wrapped in a recyclable cardboard box, from sustainably managed forests. As we are trying to reduce our waste production, our soaps are sent in recyclable cardboard parcels with kraft paper as padding when needed. We don’t send any delivery papers or invoices.
Cost-efficient soaps that respect the environement
Our soaps are around four weeks old when we send them off. The soap will continue drying, making it even more economical.
When protected from dust and humidity, your soap can be kept up to two to three years. You can keep it on a soap holder in your bathroom and our hemp soap pouch is perfect for travelling.
What will our soap look like after a year? It will become all white, this being one of the properties of Castile soap.
The main differences between our soap and the so-called "Savon de Marseille"
Here are the main differences between our soap and the traditional "Savon de Marseille":
- Our soap is made by cold saponification whilst Marseille soap cooks in hot cauldrons. Our method allows all the olive oil properties to remain, especially the moisturising virtues.
- In the making of Marseille soap, glycerin is removed at the end of the process adding an exfoliate aspect. We decided to keep it in our soap (which brings more softness and moisturisation).
- Many Marseille soaps use other vegetable oils in addition to olive oil (coconut oil, copra oil, or palm oil). We decided to only use organic olive oil for our soap's fatty compound.
- Marseille soap is harder than ours as it cooks in hot cauldrons and often contains other vegetable oils.
- "Savon de Marseille" is a cube while ours has a completely different shape. They also have a "72% olive oil" seal on one of its sides. This label only exists in the last four soap factories in Marseille which still use their traditional expertise and knowledge. Our soaps undergo a cold saponification and, although they are made in Marseille, we don’t have this seal (even though we use more than 72% of olive oil).
It is difficult to find proper handmade soaps made in France. For example, some soaps don't contain any vegetable oils but animal fat. In the INCI list, you will find it under "Sodium Tallowate". Other soaps are made from soap pellets, meaning that the soap maker buys a ready-made soap mix from a manufacturer but isn't making soap in a traditional way.
What can you do with our soap?
Here are different ways you can use our soap:
To wash your body
Our soap can be used for the whole body. A small quantity is enough for it to be efficient. The best way to use it is to take a wet washcloth and rub it ten times on the soap (that should be enough to wash your entire body). If you prefer using liquid soap, you can melt our soap in water and put it in an empty sterilised jar/bottle as per the recipe on our soap flake page.
To wash your hair
You can also use a washcloth to wash your hair. Rub the washcloth over the soap ten times, then rub the top and sides of your head three times in a circular movement. This will give you enough soap to perfectly wash your hair.
Careful: this is not an industrial shampoo, so consider rinsing your hair abundantly with water to avoid getting greasy hair. To finish off, you can also use an apple cider vinegar rinse (1 measure of vinegar for 10 measures of water).
If you have always used industrial shampoo, you should be aware that your hair might seem a bit greasy for a few weeks. This is a normal reaction as your hair has gotten used to the silicones in your regular shampoo. It therefore takes a little while before your hair gets used to the absence of silicones and starts being capable of absorbing the glycerin.
If you have long hair, here is some advice from Ines, one of our loyal customers: “I pour some soap in my hands and rub it on my scalp with the tip of my fingers to lift the roots. I then rinse my hair thoroughly with water and tilt my head forward for the soap to run from the roots to the ends of my hair. I finish with a cold-water rinse, this way the cuticles close nice and tightly, avoiding the hair from getting greasy too quickly. My hair is nourished, shiny, soft, and my curls are beautiful.”
To shave
Our soap contains enough grease to be used as shaving balm or foam. Simply dampen your soap bar, then apply it to the area to be shaved. Shave, rinse, and dab with a towel. Thanks to our natural soap, you won’t be needing any aftershave.
Frequently asked questions
How to cut the soap bar?
The 1kg soap bar can easily be cut with a large knife with smooth blades.
How to store the soap?
To prevent our soap from melting prematurely, we recommend keeping it on a soap holder, protected from the damp. This way, it can dry between uses. This might mean taking it out of the shower if necessary. We also advise leaving it to dry a few days after reception. This will make it more economical as it will be drier and will get used up less quickly. You can also hang it up, check out our tutorial here.
Can the soap’s glycerin clog my pipework?
To avoid your washing machine/dishwasher pipes getting clogged because of the glycerin in our organic olive oil soap, we recommend about once a month cleaning your machine by launching an empty cycle with soda crystals set to a high temperature (+60°C).
You can also pour soda crystals down your bath or shower drain if you think it’s getting clogged.
Can your soap be used to clean reusable nappies, period underwear, or reusable sanitary towels?
Using a homemade laundry detergent (with or without glycerin) can indeed in the long run clog these products, making them less absorbing. The presence of glycerin in laundry detergents is often proscribed but this is usually when glycerin has been added to soap and/or present in huge quantities, which isn’t the case with our soap.
In any case, we recommend declogging your nappies, period underwear, and sanitary towels regularly, which you can do at the same time as your washing machine. This allows you to clean them thoroughly and avoid all absorption problems.
To do so, we recommend launching a high-temperature wash with 1-2 tbsp of soda crystals.
This way, it allows you to use our soap to make your laundry liquid as well as washing your nappies or your menstrual underwear with it, if you regularly degrease your machine.
Tests carried out on our soap
Our products are made in France (Marseille) in line with the current French norms. Comme Avant focuses on transparency, quality, and customer respect. This is why we clearly display the tests we have carried out on our products.
