Why I use Organic Irish Rapeseed Oil to Make My Soap

All my soaps are made with a base of organic Irish rapeseed oil.

Below are are the three reasons why above all the fancy essential oils I use in my candles and soaps,

this oil is my favorite ingredient.

Supporting an Organic Irish Farm

Because I trained and worked as a cook for over ten years, thinking about where my ingredients come from and who grows them is thoroughly baked in to me.

We are all connected, not only as small business owners but as inhabitants of this one earth. Wherever I can I purchase my ingredients from producers and suppliers who hold the same ethos and values as I do.

I was giddy with excitement to have my products stocked in the wonderful Ballymaloe Shop. The Allen family have done so much to promote the importance of supporting local, sustainable agriculture. It is an honour to have my products available right there at Ballymaloe.

Supporting, Bees, Biodiversity and Irish Wildlife

This year for Biodiversity Week I took the time to find out a bit more about where my rapeseed oil comes from and what makes it so special.

Conventionally farmed rapeseed is a very heavily sprayed crop. Bees and other wildlife really don’t like this. Local beekeepers lament when their area is planted with conventional rapeseed because it means their bees will produce a lot less honey.

The organic oil I buy comes from fields free from pestacides, herbacides and every other kind of cides.

Drumeen Farm in Co. Kilkenny is home to thriving bee colonies, an unusually large range of bird species – including owls, hawks and buzzards – as well as an abundance of more previously common animals like rabbits, foxes and badgers.

I am so happy that my oil comes from somewhere that the entire cast of the Beatrix Potter archive like to call home.

Find out more about Drumeen Farm

Making a Moisturising and Gentle Soap

I always get comments from people who buy my soap about how lovely their hands feel after using it.

Traditional cold-process soap can be made from any oil or fat. Some of them are more suitable than others.

Thankfully the organic rapeseed oil I use makes a moisturising and gentle soap which is loved by all the family.

Women have told me that the men in their house even comment on this soap; and having been married for thirty years this is the first they’ve ever heard about a soap preference! High praise indeed.