From Allotment to Soap Pot: How I Turn What I Grow Into What I Make

Lavender and rosemary from my own allotment feed directly into my soap range, either dried and used as gentle botanicals in my fragrance free bars, or, in the case of lavender, distilled into essential oil that scents the lavender bar in my essential oil range, with the whole path running from a specific bed I tend myself to a specific finished bar on my website.

People are often surprised how literal this connection actually is, so here is the full path, start to finish.

Where it starts, a specific bed on a specific plot

Nothing here is metaphorical branding. My lavender and rosemary grow on my own allotment, tended by hand through an entire season before a single stem is cut. I know exactly what has and has not gone near either plant, because I am the one tending them.

Harvest, timed on purpose

Lavender gets cut as its lower flowers begin opening, mid morning once any dew has dried, since this is when its scent is at its most concentrated. Rosemary is more forgiving and can sometimes go from bed to soap pot within the same afternoon, particularly when I want that fresh, green, herbal note at its strongest.

Drying, slow and unhurried

Lavender destined for the fragrance free range gets bundled and hung to dry slowly in a dark, airy space over two to three weeks, which protects both its colour and its scent far better than any faster method would.

Where each plant ends up

Dried lavender becomes part of the gentle botanical element in my fragrance free range, sitting alongside oat with no added scent. Lavender essential oil, properly distilled, scents the lavender bar in my essential oil range instead. Rosemary lends its herbal, awake quality to the scented range, sometimes barely hours off the plant.

Why this matters to me

I left a corporate career to build something slower and more honest, and growing what eventually becomes soap is the clearest way I know to keep that promise. It is also, practically speaking, the reason my allotment and my soap pot sit so close together that some of what I make genuinely goes from bed to mould in one working day.

Frequently asked questions

Do you grow all your own ingredients?

No, I grow lavender and rosemary myself, while other oils and ingredients are sourced carefully from suppliers, but everything I do grow feeds directly into specific bars.

How is home grown lavender different from bought essential oil?

The plant itself is not different, but knowing exactly how it was grown, harvested and dried, because I did it myself, is the part that matters most to me.

Does home grown rosemary go straight into soap without drying?

Sometimes, yes. Rosemary is forgiving enough that I occasionally use it within the same afternoon it was cut, depending on the bar I am making.

The bars that come from this exact path, allotment bed to soap pot, are on my website, alongside the story of how the whole thing started.