A FORMER home economics teacher is cleaning up after launching a range of handmade soaps that have been winning rave reviews from customers.
After retiring, Claire Williams and her husband Dennis Harvey moved from London to Teesdale, setting up home in Cotherstone ten years ago.
Ms Williams was bitten by the apiculture bug after she took part in a beekeeping course and put two hives on their land. The couple now have six, producing rich wildflower and heather honey for friends and family.
The idea to make soap was developed as a way to use up a waste product from bee keeping.
She said: “I have always done hampers for the family, making stuff to put in them, and I said I wanted to make soap.
“I don’t like waste and you get a lot of wax left over when the honey is harvested.
“Initially I started looking at making soap as it would be a good way to use the by-product but it was too much of a faff because it has to be certified by a chemist and that would mean each batch of wax used would have to be recertified.”
Instead, Ms Williams developed a range of soaps using wax sourced from verified suppliers with essential oils.
Tester bars were handed out to family and friends at the Carlbeck Centre, in Lunedale, to get opinions on what they thought of each recipe.
Ms Williams said: “I wanted to get feedback on what people thought of them and the ones that came back as the most popular we put into production. Everyone loves it and before long I had more people asking if they could buy some.
“But to sell the soap I have to have each recipe certified by a chemist and it’s quite a rigorous process.”
Not all of the initial recipes have gone into production, but the range, which includes a number of citrus elements, cater for most skin types from zingy grapefruit shea butter bars to mint and orange argon oil body scrubs, as well as a gardeners’ soap complete with pumice particles.
She added: “I did one that included bits of lavender which smelled really nice, but it turns a grey colour in the soap. One of my friends said it looked like mouse droppings so we’ve left the lavender bits out.”
Since developing the idea Ms Williams and her husband have launched Cotherstone Kitchen and have been selling the handmade soap at craft fairs across the region.
Mr Harvey said: “We’re really enjoying the fairs as you get to meet so many people and Claire is getting really good feedback on the soap.
“She’s developed these ‘sniff jars’ so customers can get to smell the different aromas before they buy. We’re going to be at quite a few carnivals in Teesdale this year including Mickleton, Cotherstone and Staindrop.”
Ms Williams is also busy developing the range and hopes by the end of the year to add a shampoo bar as well as a conditioner bar to her range.
