Beth Sigsworth
Soapmaker and proprietor.

I am delighted that Trevor Jones has allowed me the opportunity to take over Escential Soaps, the small family-run business which he founded and developed so successfully. I aim to provide you with the most luxurious natural handmade products using the finest natural ingredients.

At Escential Soaps I have created a superior range of beautiful, colourful and luxurious aromatherapy soaps. All my soaps are made in small batches entirely by hand using a simple soap making technique (involving no boiling of soap or addition of chemicals) and natural ingredients. The end result is a lovely creamy soap that, because of the presence of glycerine, won't dry the skin like mass-produced soap.

Soap comes from a chemical reaction between oils and lye called saponification.
This produces glycerine as a by-product and it has long been known that glycerine is a natural moisturiser. In cold-process soap making it is stirred back into the soap during production whereas in commercial soap making, it is washed away as waste product. This means that handmade soaps retain all the glycerine, making superior and gentle bars of soap.

The ingredients used in our production of soap starts with purified water and edible grade olive oil, coconut and palm oils. I then add in a selection of other ingredients that make our soaps special - avocado, jojoba, sweet almond, apricot kernel and hemp oils, aloe vera gel, shea butter, cocoa butter and beeswax, with cosmetic pigments for colour.

I use pure, aromatherapy-grade essential oils to scent my soaps. Essential oils cannot be beaten for their glorious fragrances. Many of the soaps contain powdered flowers, oatmeal, corn meal or honey, though some are left alone - all contain Vitamin 'E' oil, which I use as a preservative - I try to cater for everyone. My soaps are beautiful to look at and an overwhelming pleasure to use - there is nothing nicer than a handmade soap, and these are some of the best!