"didn't tell them what they were doing wrong" ... yeah, don't want to be bloody know it all southerners !!

What scents are the soaps and what do you make them with.? Vegetable oils?

Caroline - yes, exactly. We also don't want to get roped into anything, been there, done that, never again. Although... we seem to have been acquired a beginner couple to look after. But, on the plus side, he is a senior barrister, so could potentially be useful: skills swops are the way forward in a post-capitalist society after all.

delcatto - it's a honey, beeswax and oatmeal soap, that I have been making since 2008 (how is that 15 years?!).

I scent it with essential oil of lavender. Oils are olive, coconut, and solid vegetable (eg Trex), and it's made in the traditional way with lye (caustic soda) to saponify the oils.

It relies on very careful measurement of quantities (to the gram) and exact and equal temperatures of the lye and the oils/beeswax (to the degree) before they are mixed.

It needs to be left to 'cure' for a few months before use (the recipe says a few weeks, but I've found that putting it in the airing cupboard wrapped in baking parchment in an old biscuit tin works well). I try to make a batch a couple of times a year.

We don't use any other soap, as I prefer to know exactly what is in what I wash with.

I'm about to try a new recipe that claims it can be used straight away (largely because I left it too late to make a new batch and we will run out before that I made yesterday is 'cured' to my satisfaction). I've just rediscovered the notes/recipe from a beekeeping meeting talk about 10 years ago!

Thank you BW.

I had an inkling beeswax might be inviolved but not the other ingredients.