Our enterprise is all about people, and giving adults with disabilities the skills & accompanying sense of fulfilment, achievement & self-confidence that goes along with being valued as part of a hardworking & dedicated team. It is those people who make our company what it is... special!
Traditional Soap Making
Our traditional soaps are made by hand from a purely vegetable base of organic Colombian palm oil & coconut oil. They are coloured using natural mineral pigments & fragranced by the addition of essential & fragrance oils.
Once made the soap is cut into bars and left to ‘cure’ on racks for 3 weeks - the length of time it takes for the lye solution to act on the vegetable oils and convert them into soap. This process is known as saponification. We add a hearty lashing of moisturising cocoa butter to our soaps which remains unchanged by the saponification process and therefore makes our soap extra rich and non-drying.
This picture (right) shows the true nature of ‘hand made’: when we say our products are handmade we mean exactly that, all raw materials are weighed, measured, sieved, melted etc by hand, all products are mixed, stirred, coloured & fragranced by hand, and finally bottled, labelled, & packaged…you guessed it... by hand.
Glycerine Soap
Our glycerine soap is beautifully rich & jewel like and is very popular with customers with dry skin conditions as it leaves a lovely moisturising layer on the skin.
The glycerine soap base is carefully melted down before the colour and a generous amount of stunning essential & fragrance oils are added to give our trade mark, long-lasting fragrance.
Once these are add the soap is poured into prepared moulds which contain swirls of our traditional soaps to add interest & uniqueness to each individual bar. When cool & set the soap is then cut into bars, shrink wrapped & labelled…by hand, of course!
Liquid Products
All our liquid products are made in large tubs and all the mixing & stirring is done manually as each step of the process continues. The products are then poured using a simple jug, before the bottles are wiped down ready to be lidded & labeled. Again each label is applied by hand, which is a tricky job that takes a steady hand and a great deal of patience. So if you happen to receive a bottle with a slightly squint label this is proof positive that the job is done by lovely vibrant Homo sapiens as opposed to boring old machines!
Creams
Our creams are an absolute triumph!
The base for the recipe is one that was devised by Alexis – the Manager of Shetland Soap Company, after spending 2-3 weeks experimenting in her kitchen with various butters, oil & potions until she finally came up with a recipe & method that she was satisfied with, and has, from that day, been used as the basis for all our fantastically healing and deeply moisturising creams. To this base a unique tincture containing 14 potent herbal extracts is added as is a generous amount of naturally healing aloe vera.
Shetland Soap Co creams received enthusiastic acclaim not only from our loyal customers, but also from a couple of medical Dr’s who have been very impressed by their beneficial effects on patients with conditions including eczema, psoriasis & sore cracked skin.
