French Milled soap is known to be the finest quality. Not only is it plant based, but it is smooth on your skin and so gentle that it lathers very easily, even in hard water! The milling process is key to achieve the level of quality and homogeneity. Other soaps may not have these properties, other soaps may be animal or petroleum-based.
Step 1: Saponification
It all begins with the saponification process where vegetable oils (coconut oil and/or olive oil, RSPO Palm, shea butter, argan oil) are mixed with water and various salts in a kettle and heated to get rid of excess moisture.
Step 2: Cooling
The saponified mix then cools down from concentrated soap to a warm soap paste.
Step 3 French Milling
The warm soap paste is then shredded into thin soap ribbons before going under the famous French Triple Mill which crushes the soap crystals into an exquisitely smooth, parchment-like sheet of soap. THIS is the secret of quality Marseille soap.
Step 4: Extrusion
The soap parchment then goes under yet another blade the French call the “Laminoire.” This blade slices the parchment into thicker ribbons of soap, some even refer to these ribbons as “soap tagliatelle.” These new, dense “tagliatelle” ribbons then go into a grinder to mix where they are compressed and formed into small, dense soap granules called “bondillons” (soap noodles). This part of the process is key to creating a homogenous quality of soap.
Step 5 for BAR SOAP: Mélange
The soap “bondillons” then fall into a giant mixer where they combine with natural colors and our fragrance blend with plant extracts and/or essential oils to create the best moisturizing blend.
Step 6 for BAR SOAP: Compacting & Molding
The soap is now almost ready! It is compacted into a dense bar of soap which is then sliced by a blade that the French jokingly refer to as “the guillotine.” The sliced bar, still rugged on the edges, is then struck by a mold with our A La Maison stamp. Et voilà!
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