Soapmaking

Join us as ENSC founder Tommy Crooks shares anecdotes from his long and winding road building the company from kitchen table experiments to today's global natural skincare brand.

When making large quantities has always been a challenge, as any soap maker will tell you. After I had moved out of my kitchen at home into our first freezing cold “factory unit”, it was actually more like a concrete block, at Fenton Barns in East Lothian, I was having a really frustrating day trying to do ten things at once.

This was back in the days before we had any staff, and it was just me making everything myself!

I’d decided to make soap that day and had melted the oils, made the lye mixture, and all I had to do was wait until the oils and lye had cooled down enough to mix them together, then pour into the moulds.

Being organised is the very most important thing to do when making soap, and of course on that particular day, my mind was on five different things, but when it was time to mix, I poured the lye into the oils, lifted the pot, tripped and stumbled and sent 15 litres of hot mixture horizontally, before every last drop landed on the floor. 

In moments like this, it’s important not to lose your temper, so instead, I just got my keys, locked the door, and drove home. I’d bet money that anyone who makes soap has a tosimilar story to tell. The good thing was that by the next morning, the mixture had “Kind of”, turned into soap so it was relatively easy to clean.