Over the past year I have been working hard on a secret project.
I can now finally say that the new Silktown Soap Company Heritage Collection can now be revealed.
As a company that is based in the famous silk town of Macclesfield and sharing the surname myself of one of the founders of the pioneering silk mills that made the town famous, it has always been my goal to include some of this amazing history somewhere within my company.
But, being a vegan company how do I celebrate the towns rich silk heritage?
First of all, why add silk to soap?
Well, adding silk to handmade soap can not only improve the lather of the soap bar but it can also make the bar more luxurious and pleasing to use. With my own natural handmade soap recipe of plant based butters and oils - which already has an amazing lather and will leave your hands soft and moisturised - I have found a way to add plant silk to the soap bases to create an entirely unique and skin loving range of soaps.
But hang on! What do I mean plant silk?
Traditional soap that contains silk (which is a protein) would normally come from the cocoons produced by silkworms before they emerge as moths. The delicate cocoons are harvested and processed (still containing the worms) to create silk fibre for the textile industry. I won't go into the details of how the silk is processed but the outcome is certainly not nice and being a by-product of silkworms the silk is not vegan or ethical for that matter. This led me to looking at alternatives for my soap collection. Buddhist monks have robes that are made of Eri silk or "Peace" silk. This type of silk is still produced by a silkworm but the type of moth that emerges from these cocoons are wild moths and no worms or moths are killed in the process of harvesting them. But, Eri silk is still an animal by-product so still not vegan!
Taking all this into account my research led me to look at plant based alternatives. Some textile companies already use plant based alternatives in their production of fabric similar to silk, which is great news. These days plant based silk can be obtained from a wide range of plant sources, you can even get plant silk from bananas!
The Silk Heritage Collection is available now to purchase.
