Hi! I’m JV and welcome to my blog. I am a scientist by training but an artist at heart. Soapmaking appeals to both my creative and analytical mind. I love how you can create practical objects that please the aesthetic senses. I also love that soapmaking involves chemistry (saponification). Although you really don’t need to understand saponification chemistry to make soap due to the prevalence of online lye calculators, having a chemistry background is helpful to understand what really happens when you use various fats and oils in a formulation.

Over the past few years, I have become more interested in organic foods, natural skincare products and overall healthy living. After dropping a minor fortune on skincare products at Whole Foods and similar places, I decided to formulate my own products. This is a journal of my experiments with soap, bodycare products, cooking and whatever else I am tinkering with at the moment.