Autumn has truly arrived. The leaves are doing a little fandango outside the perfumery door, they are a visual delight: a mixture of russet, crimson and brown.

While driving to work I have noticed several cattle lorries bringing the animals from the mid-lands of Ireland to the Burren Hills which provide rich winter grass for feeding. On the driveway the flowers of the burnet rose have changed from cream and pink to small black hips, shortly they will be grey, prickly upright stems.

Lots of activity is taking place out of doors and the same applies indoors.

I thought I would explain how we make our soap here at the Perfumery. The process we use is called the cold process method.

This is where a caustic alkali (sodium hydroxide) also known as lye is mixed with a vegetable oil or fat that promotes a chemical reaction known as saponification. In saponification fats are broken down yielding crude soap. In chemistry soap is known as a salt of a fatty acid.

We use palm, coconut and olive oils along with shea butter in the production of our soaps. All these oils provide different qualities. Olive oil provides mildness, coconut oil provides lather and coconut and palm oil combined provide hardness. We also use shea butter as an emollient. Shea butter is an ivory coloured fat extracted from the nut of the African shea tree. It is a wonderful natural moisturiser.

In cold process soap making (paradoxically perhaps!) heat is required for saponification. The lye is dissolved in water and the oils are heated until desired temperature is reached. They are then combined and stirred until they trace. Once traced we use essential oils to fragrance the soap.The liquid is poured into a prepared mould insulated and the saponification process continues for a further 48 hours.

The soap goes through a visible transformation going through a gel phase from opaque to transparent before turning opaque again. The soap remains warm during this period. After approximately one week, once the soap has become firm it is removed from the mould, cut into columns and then into individual bars. Any excess sodium hydroxide is removed from the surface resulting in a purified bar of soap. The soaps are left to cure on drying racks for period of 4-6 weeks before they are wrapped. The beautifully coloured papers provide a visual delight indoors during the grey winter months.

Regards, Yvonne