Soap in Vancouver...the Good the bad and the ugly!

Lately we have been making soap fast and furiously as the only shop in Vancouver to do so right in the store. Busy little beavers have we been in the "soap making area".
This leads the store to smell like a cornucopia of lemon and chocolate, almond and patchouli and a lot of other food grade essential oils.
This would be the GOOD....or the great. All day long we hear how it smells just so much better than other certain stores that sell soap..........do we really need to name them? No.....ok yes....LUSH!!
You know which one I am talking about. You can smell the synthetic soap ingredients a block away and they have had more than their fair of disputes with their neighbors who somehow did not like the smell of the products wafting into their cafes and retail stores.......this would be the UGLY.
I am actually pretty pissed at Lush for making millions of people shy away from scent!!!
Sometimes people come to our door and shy away for fear that it is smelly.....then they linger and say "oh! this is way better than other stores I have come across".
"yes......we know...." is the response.
So now for the BAD. I can only tell you that if the product in a so called store looks just like the one in the Drug store......it IS!
Once a company gets so big it has to contract it's product base to other companies who then subcontract to someone else there is no quality control. I don't care who the company is. This is how Kathie Lee Gifford found out her products were being made in less than stellar conditions for a while. Kudos to her and her husband Frank though for catching the problem and helping to implement stricter controls for manufacturing.
We will always know what is in our product lines.......cause you are important to us.....thin skinned or thick..we love it all.
Darren

Bulk products at The Granville Island Soap Gallery!!!

Hey fellow bubble lovers!
We have been slammed damn busy these past few weeks but we are taking the time to launch a very exciting new product line(s) here in the Soap Gallery.
It is our bulk line of products!
We have been asked by so many if our SIGNATURE LINE scents can come in any other products than what we presently carry and after long thought we have created an eco friendly and gorgeous lineup.
The concept had to be carefully cogniscient of the packaging dilemma while still creating a nice package.
The result was a "fill a bottle....bring it back...we will recycle it for you and get a deal on your next fill"
This reduces the plastic footprint...you can decide to have a label IF you want and our recycling program is efficient and clean!
We are very excited to also be bringing several products with a focus on the organic and essential oil compositions such as:
Shampoo
Conditioner
Bubble Bath
Bath and massage oil
Body wash
Peppermint foot cream
Body lotion
Body cream
Aloe eye gel
Body scrub
Lip balms
Foot balms
...and more!!
we plan to do these up in our Signature "Creamy French Vanilla", our "Summer Garden" scent and of course scent free!
Our launch is targeted for May 5th.
Come on by to test what we have!
cheers,
Darren Monette

Glycerine soap vs traditional soaps at The Granville Island Soap Gallery

Hey all!
I was asked as I often am about what the difference is between regular soap like a traditionally made soap and glycerin soaps is.
Well, as best as I can explain it and with the help of stealing some text from Wikipedia...
Traditional soaps are a chemical reaction between an acid (oil) and a base or caustic material (lye) whereby the materials combine to create something completely different and without any of the original (well mostly) materials left over. The reaction is called Saponification and soap is created.
When we make soap one of the byproducts is glycerine and.....

Glycerin soaps are soaps that contain glycerin, a component of fat or oil. The soap is recognizably different from other soaps because it is translucent. The clarity of the soap is due to the particular alignment of the soap molecules in this type of soap, which can be induced through the addition of alcohol and sugar. This is usually done for homemade glycerin soaps which are not remeltable.
The process for making glycerin soaps was well known as of 1857 in the Western world. In modern industrial soap-making, the glycerin is then usually separated from the soap to be resold and used in a wide variety of areas such as for personal care products, pharmaceuticals, chemical intermediates, and food processing.....mostly food processing.
Glycerin soap is made by melting and continuously heating soap that has been partially dissolved in a high percentage alcohol solution until the mixture reaches a clear, jelly-like consistency. The alcohol is added to a slow cooked hot-processed soap and then simmered with a sugar solution until the soap is clear or translucent, and then the simmered soap is chilled in a freezer. With home- and hand-made soaps that still contain glycerin left over from saponification the grating, melting and cooking can proceed without the addition of anything into the mixture, though sugar or more glycerin is sometimes added. Glycerin soap can also be produced without remelting soap through directly cooking raw home-made soap.
Modern clear glycerin soaps bases are produced by combining various glycerol and polyols with soap and other surfactants in a manner similar to traditional glycerin soap making methods. These modern clear soaps have the benefit of being easily re-meltable and are often sold in bulk to customers for melt-and-pour soap crafting.

For my store I have made up for me a pure vegan glycerine soap to my standards and formula. This soap is a very gentle, purely cleansing products that holds the essential oils cleanly and clearly......a super nice product.