The dirt on homemade soap
Dirty Bird Soap owner dishes on her process and new products
Meagan Leonard
Northern News Services
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Carine Pattin doesn't want to be compared to LUSH.
Although her products are similar, the organic soap maker said she was not inspired by the cosmetics giant famous for its natural shampoos, soaps and face scrubs.
Yellowknife-based Dirty Bird Soaps offers a number of hand-made cleaning creations including soap in a variety of designs, bath bombs, sugar scrubs and candles. - Meagan Leonard/NNSL photo |
She said what LUSH calls "safe synthetics" are actually harsh preservatives and fillers used to extend shelf-life and this was something she wanted to steer clear of when developing her line dubbed, Dirty Bird Soaps.
"They use chemicals in some of their products - when you look at the list of ingredients there's always something either a preservative or something else," she explained. "But my stuff doesn't have any of that at all."
Pattin's recipe is simple, "just oil, butters, lye (and) a little bit of water."
She started making soap four years ago for the gift shop at Arctic Farmer Nursery which she co-owns with her partner Darwin Rudkevitch and has now expanded her line to offer a variety of products including candles, sugar scrubs and most recently, "bath bombs." Her store is filled with unique organic products and Pattin said the soap line fits right in. Everything in the store is something that piqued her interest and wasn't available anywhere else in Yellowknife.
"I have stuff nobody else has," she said. "I just started bringing in stuff that I like - I can't buy things thinking, 'Oh someone else will like that,' if I don't like it I'm not going to buy it."
To create her soap confections, Pattin has a tiny standing-room-only workshop just off of the store. Stacked floor to ceiling with essential oils, butters and lye, the aroma envelops anyone walking through the door. The tools required to create her soaps are relatively few - one of the most important a "modified coat hanger" used to execute the unique swirling designs.
"You just put it in the soap and swirl and depending on what colours you have, you can make designs," she explained - and this is the most challenging part.
Many of the most popular patterns were not planned and originated quite by accident Pattin said, including her signature "Northern Pine" soap bar.
"I was trying to make Northern lights and it came out looking like a tree, so we called it Northern Pine," she said with a laugh. "It was a good accident and now I know how to replicate it."
Pattin started by making simple "melt-and-pour" soap. This is considered "cheating" by dedicated connoisseurs, but is a good way to get familiar with the process which involves melting a pre-made soap base and adding oils, butters or herbs.
Making soap with lye is a little more complicated and involves specific measurements to ensure the correct balance of the alkaline solution against the oils (coconut, palm or wheat germ) and butters using a lye scale.
"You can't just throw it in because every oil and butter has its own (value) on the lye index," Pattin explained. "It will react at a certain percentage."
This reaction is called saponification - a chemical process where the fats combine with the alkali to form soap.
Next a scent is determined by combining different essential oils such as vanilla, lavender or pine scotch. Butters such as jojoba or avocado provide moisturizing elements, while ingredients like baking soda and citric acid create the fizzing effect of the bath bombs.
All of these are mixed together and then moulded and swirled to create unique designs.
Pattin said she cooks the soap mixture in the oven for an hour which shortens the curing process from six to two weeks.
"You can use it right away but it will just melt," she said. "It has to evaporate first so you're left with the saponified oils and that's it."
Even though Pattin said she has had to throw out a number of batches gone wrong and her arms and hands are now dotted with lye burns, the experience has been a lot of fun.
"A pretty cool reward is to get stuff for cost," she said. "It's nice to see people come back and be happy with the product."
Dirty Bird Soaps are available in the Arctic Farmer gift shop, at Northern Fronteir Visitors Centre and at Shoppers Drug Mart.
