Meet the soap maker crafting scented bars at her home in Wellington
The craft of soap making is enjoying a resurgence as more people turn to handmade bars as a way to care for their skin naturally and sustainably.
Molly Hooper runs Wrekin Soap, which started as a lockdown hobby and has developed into a thriving home-based business.
She can regularly be found at markets around the county selling her products, which are also stocked in a number of shops.
“I’ve always liked soap, I would much rather a bar of soap than a shower gel in a plastic container,” says the 40-year-old, who lives in Wellington.
“I have lovely memories about soap. My sister and I would have a round Body Shop soap in our stockings, mine would always be lemongrass and my sister’s lavender.
“My grandad had soap on a rope. My favourites were always Pears clear soap or coal tar soap.
“During 2021 restrictions I was trying to keep myself busy, I got myself a melt and pour soap making kit from hobbycraft.
“This is where you microwave a ready-made soap base and add your fragrance. That kept me occupied for a few hours and then soon after I was ordering raw ingredients to make it myself.”
Molly threw herself into learning everything she could by reading lots of books and watching online tutorials.
“I experimented for a whole year creating what I thought was the perfect bar of soap. I shared them with family and friends and then following their feedback looked into the legality of getting them assessed and ready to sell."
Each soap recipe has to be assessed and signed off by a chemist to ensure it complies with UK and EU regulations.
“My first stall was in June 2022 in a pub 150 metres from my house. I was so nervous all I wanted to do was make £20 back to cover my table.
“It was the best day, everyone gave such lovely feedback and I was so relieved,” says Molly.
Wrekin Soap currently offers 17 soap varieties, with more in the pipeline, and they have all been given a unique name inspired by their ingredients.
They include Pirate which includes Bay West Indies, lime, patchouli and dried peppermint. “I try to give them a bit of a theme and it gives them an identity,” explains Molly.
When it comes to choosing fragrances, her main goal has always been to “create the best smelling bar of soap”.
“When making my first batches of soap it was heartbreaking that they did not smell as good as I had hoped.
“But I was just using a single essential oil for a scent,” the mother-of-two recalls. “So I learned about anchoring smells. This is where you use a base essential oil along with a middle note to help the scent stay.
“For example, the Lemongrass-Hopper soap has lemongrass which is the main scent, but then I have added cedarwood to help the lemongrass scent stick and then added lemon too as a top note to make it more zesty.
“I wanted to make sure there is something for everyone so there is a really good variety of scents. Gentleman’s lavender is lovely.
“It’s lavender, with patchouli to add depth and anchor the scent, and clove to add spice. To me it has quite a Victorian scent its lovely,” explains Molly, who works as a recycling officer.
To make her soap, she melts oils and butters – coconut oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, olive oil, sweet almond oil and castor oil – together in a big saucepan.
“I like this because I pretend I’m a witch with a lovely cauldron filled with a potion. Lye is then added which changes the oil into soap.
“Essential oils are then added for fragrance. Some oils behave really well and others you have to say a prayer to the soap gods before stirring them in. Rose geranium is terrifying, it sets up so, so fast.
"They are poured into loaf moulds and then any decoration added. It has to be kept warm so I snuggle it up super cosy in our hostess trolley and leave it alone for 24 hours.
“After that I cut it into bars using my giant soap cutter made from guitar strings and it's left to cure for about six weeks,” she explains.
All of the environmentally-friendly packaging has been designed and created using eco-friendly cardboard packaging and tissue paper made with 100 per cent recycled content by Molly.
“I love making something that puts a smile on people’s faces,” she says. “When people tell me it looks and smells great it makes me feel wonderful.
“I love how some people pick up the soap to smell and others put their hands behind their back like Liam Gallagher when he sings and turn into a smelling hovercraft.
“When most people walk past the stall they say ‘ooooohhhhh, soap’ and that never gets boring,” she says.
Molly holds pop-up stalls at Wellington Market and Newport Craft and Makers Market and is also attending Made In Shropshire events.
“Markets are such cool places. I love the smells, the sounds, the hustle and bustle. It’s great meeting other stallholders, artists and makers who are so talented and learning from them,” says Molly.
In the future, she will be introducing eight new soaps and further developing her range of products.
“I also make body butters and bath salts and I’m working on bath bombs, which means I am having lot of baths lately testing out new recipes, which is a lovely perk of the job,” says Molly.
Wrekin Soap is stocked at The Little Green Pantry and Bath Bombs by JC, both in Wellington. Products can also be ordered from wrekinsoap.co.uk with Molly offering free delivery to TF1 postcodes.
