The history of soap making is thousands of years old. We don’t know exactly when our ancestors discovered that a mixture of wood ash and fat causes the saponification process and cleans hands and clothes. Early soap manufacturers used animal fat, which had to be boiled before and during the saponification process. Needless to say, the appearance and smell of said soap was unattractive, although it had cleansing properties.

But in Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome there were soaps made with pure olive and/or laurel oils and scented with natural essences. The cold saponification process was discovered. Since vegetable oils are liquid it was not necessary to heat them and this allowed soap makers to use different natural additives, such as essential oils and plant extracts, and preserve their qualities and aromas within the solid soap. The process was accepted as a gold standard by medieval Mediterranean soap makers and was sometimes even the subject of royal decrees.