Localized Soaping

When I started my journey of soaping 4 years ago, little I knew about the oils available in India. I was amazed with the art of making soap with oils and lye.

Started reading about oils in depth about the source, properties and their benefit to the skin. What intrigued me is, most of the formulations I learnt had palm, olive, almond, coconut, sunflower, castor. While these are great, I really wanted to make my products more sustainable by use of locally available oils such as Sesame(Sesamum indicum), Karanja(Pongamia pinnata), Mahua( Madhuca Indica), Mustard,Cottonseed, Neem, flax.
While it may be great for makers in Spain and Italy to use Olive oil which is abundant and available locally, makers from India can consider using equally beneficial oils that are available in India. I am sure there are a diversity of oils all over the world and they can be used for making great soaps in the respective places. So far my experience has been great and is evolving. Some of these local oils are not only non edible (keeping not cutting the edible oil supply), they are also traditionally known for skin benefits.