L’ada Soaps and Scents: Non Toxic Skincare and Sustainable Cleaning Products

We spoke to Deb, the owner and creator behind L’ada Soaps and Scents. It is a family business, Deb runs it with her husband Andrew and their two sons, Liam and Adam, also help out. All of their products are home made locally and are natural and sustainable.

Deb told us about how they make a range of luxury artisan soaps for your body, hair and home. They also make skincare products  – a face oil and a scar serum. Together these products make a range of non toxic skincare that replaces many conventional products that are not as good for your skin and the environment.

L’ada Soaps and Scents also makes a range of sustainable cleaning products, that are also better for your skin and the environment. Talk about sustainable swaps! 

Podcast Interview- Video & Audio Versions

Interview Transcript :


It really is about helping as many people as we can. Like we genuinely want to help people with the amount of nasties that are in products that you’ll find in the supermarkets. It’s really scary and sad.

And when people think that they are using something that’s really good for them, they don’t understand a lot of the ingredients that are in products.

G’day mate, and welcome to the Sustainaroo Travels Podcast. Where we showcase the ways real people are making real world changes to live, work and travel sustainably.

My name is Deb and I’m the owner and creator behind our family business, L’ada Soaps & Scents. We make a range of luxury artisan soaps for your body, hair and home, as well as some skincare products as well. So making started in our family over 25 years with my mother-in-law introducing it into the family, making soaps for her kids at the time.

And then she taught me how to make soap. I’ve had problems with my skin for a very long time. So making natural soap really benefited me.”

And then once we had our children using a natural soap was very, very important to us to use for our children. And then through that experience, we were able to help so many others with our products for their children and for themselves. And that’s why we started our business, basically to be able to help as many people as we can with natural products.

And now we’re able to share that journey with our children who also are a part of our business. L’ada is a family business. So we wanted all of us to be part of the name of the business.

L’ada was derived from our family initials. So our children’s name, Liam, Adam, Deborah and Andrew. Soap making was a lot of fun.

When my mother-in-law first started to teach me, it was an interesting journey, interesting learning about soap making, the chemistry behind it, the way that soap is made and the enjoyment we got from making it, the experimentation with different oils and fragrances. We just absolutely loved it. And having such sensitive skin, I was always very particular about what ingredients, what products I used on my skin.

Then when our first son was born, Adam, there was no way I was gonna use any chemicals on his body. I was very, very particular with the products I did use for him. So really our soap making journey took a real serious turn once he was born.

And then through that, we were able to pass on soap bars to friends of ours who had young children, especially those who had kids with very sensitive skin. And through our products, we were able to help their children improve the health and condition of their skin. And it was from there and seeing the benefits that our products gave to other people that we wanted to help more people and we wanted to make more soap and thought, well, if we can reach more people and help more people, this would be just a fantastic opportunity.

It really is about helping as many people as we can. Like we genuinely want to help people with the amount of nasties that are in products that you’ll find in the supermarkets. It’s really scary and sad.

And when people think that they are using something that’s really good for them, they don’t understand a lot of the ingredients that are in products. So it’s making sure that we’re very transparent with what we do and are very genuine in wanting to help people. And we just love it.

We love the feedback that we get from people. We love people coming back to us saying that they have a favorite product and that their skin has improved, whether it’s through the use of our soaps or our shampoo or our skin therapy, the response and the feedback that we get from people, it’s just, it’s amazing. And it really does make my day every time I get a message or a phone call from a happy customer.

It just, it really sets in why we’re doing this. And it just brings me so much joy and so much excitement all the time. We make our soap using the cold process method.

Firstly, we melt all the solid fats and oils until they dissolve, then mixing in the liquid oils. We then make a lye solution, which we pour into that oil mixture, making the chemical reaction occur, which is what soap making is. And once those oils are combined with the lye solution, your colors and your fragrance, you’re basically pouring that into a mold, and then you’re doing your designs and letting that set.

And once that’s set, that is your finished bar of soap, where there is no more trace of your lye solution. It is completely a solid bar of soap. We use a range of different oils and butters to make our soaps.

The combination of oils is really important, and it depends on what oils you use will give you the desired outcome of your bars. So your body soap bars, you will use different oils and butters compared to your shampoo bars as well. And then your laundry cleaning products also have different oils.

It’s really important. And through our experience over the past 25 years, we know what oils are gonna get you the right outcome for that bar. So if you’re looking for a really sensitive skin soap, we’ve got the beautiful coconut oil and we use different oils in our shaving soap.

So it’s really important to use the best quality ingredients and it’s gonna give you the best quality soap bar. I’ve been doing markets for the past few years and I love it. I love the interaction with customers.

I love getting their feedback. And we were quite often requested particular fragrances in body soap bars. So we listen to their feedback.

We listen to what our customers want and what they’re asking for. And through that, we’re able to create different products based on what our customers are looking for. And that’s why we’ve introduced now a new range of essential oil bars.

So they’re really amazing. They’re really, really beautiful. And we keep getting customers coming back and complimenting us on the lather and the fragrance and just how moisturising they are.

And that’s exactly what you want from a soap bar. You don’t want something that’s going to wash away really quickly because it hasn’t been made properly or the right oils haven’t been used to make the bar. So it’s really the experience and the history that we’ve got behind us, the knowledge that we have about what a good soap bar is makes our products stand out from the rest.

Our shampoo and conditioner bars are becoming more and more popular. There are so many people who have reactions to your bottled shampoo and conditioner and these bars will last you so much longer than what your bottled stuff will anyway. People sometimes struggle to understand the concept of using shampoo and conditioner in a bar, which is fair enough because for our whole lives, we’ve grown up knowing and using bottled liquid shampoo and conditioner.

So to say, oh, I’m gonna start using a bar can be quite confusing for a lot of people, but really it’s not. Once you start using it and you see the benefits of it, you will never go back to bottled shampoo again. So basically with your shampoo bars, all you’re doing is rubbing it around and around in a circular motion on your skull.

It ladders up straight away. You give your hair a really good wash and give it a rinse. Now, there’s no detangling agent in your shampoo bar because it’s all made with natural oils.

So that’s what your conditioner bar is for. Your conditioner bars don’t have any lather in them. So all you’re doing is up and down from the top of your hair to the bottom of your hair.

You comb it through with a comb in the shower. You wash your body and then rinse it out. And this is what takes out all your knots and leaves your hair nice and soft and shiny.

And these bars will last you so much longer as well. Our shampoo bars will last a family, probably four to six weeks, depending on how many times you wash your hair and how often. And your conditioner bars will last you between six and 10 months, depending on how long your hair is.

And again, how often you’re washing your hair. But they are absolutely two of our favourite products as well. Our shaving soap is another one of our fragrance free bars.

It’s amazing for those who have got sensitive skin. There are a lot of men who suffer from razor rash. So this soap is really, really ideal for them.

It can be used in two ways. You can either use the soap with a brush and build up your stable lather and apply it on your face. For those men who really do like the lather on their face.

And those that are used to using the canned foaming shaving gels, that is your perfect option with that bar. Otherwise, you can directly rub the shaving soap onto your face and shave that way. It’s ideal for women as well to shave your legs or underarms.

Our laundry soap, which is our stain remover bar, is one of our most popular products. The reason being is that it absolutely works. It’s 100% natural, chemical free and fragrance free.

So safe for those who have sensitive skin as well. It’s the best stain remover bar that you will ever use. All you need to do is wet your garment and wet your soap and rub it in together, lather it up really well and rub it into the stain and then pop it straight into the machine.

All those oil splashes that you can never ever get out that have been through the washing machine a thousand times, this bar will still remove it. All your food stains, your bolognese, your avocado, your carrots, all those really stubborn stains, this bar will remove. Blood, sweat, grease, you name it.

Give this bar a go, and it will absolutely take it out. We also make a dish soap, which is your alternative to your dish washing liquids. It’s amazing at removing grease from those pots that you have for cleaning your bench tops, for cleaning your stove tops.

It’s amazing at cutting through all of the grease and grime, and it’s much more safe for your skin. So if you’ve got sensitive skin as well, you’re not gonna have all those irritations from the chemicals that are contained in those liquids. Sometimes it can be a bit confusing when you’re switching from your traditional liquid products to using a soap bar.

Using the dish soap is really quite simple. You’re just wetting the bar and wetting your sponge, and then you’re rubbing it together to lather it up, and that’s how easy it is to wash your dishes. A common question or concern that I get from a lot of people is how do I make my soap bar last the longest amount of time possible?

And the best way to store your soaps is in a well-drained area. So in your shower, either on a grated rack or on a soap dish, something where it’s not going to sit in a puddle of water, because as soon as the soap bar sits in a pool of water, it’s going to melt and dissolve away. So leaving it in a well-drained area will ensure that your soap bar lasts the maximum amount possible.

And we also have our soap bags, which also extend the life of your soap. Just by popping it in one of the soap bags, it lathers up really well. Once you’ve washed yourself, you hang it up in the shower to dry, and that again ensures that your soap bar dries properly between uses.

With our washing powder, we make a washing soap, which we mill into a powder to put in our mixture of our washing powder mix. Our washing powder is fragrance-free and is great for anyone who’s got sensitive skin. There’s no chemicals, there’s no fillers, there’s no dyes, there’s no foaming agents, there’s nothing synthetic in our washing powder at all.

So you will actually use less of our washing powder than you would of your commercial washing powders, so it makes it more economical for you. It’s much, much safer for your skin because you’re not wearing your clothes that have been washed for hours and hours in chemicals. You’re not breathing in synthetic fragrances.

You’re also not washing chemicals down the drain as well, which is really, really important, not only for our environment, but for our health. Our skin therapy is very personal to me. This product was formulated after I had my thyroid removed.

In December of 2022, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and in January the next year, I had that removed. And I was left with a 13-centimeter scar right across my neck up to my ear. And we formulated this serum to help me heal this scar.

And in a matter of months, only three months, it took this serum completely healed my scar. And it was just such a transformational journey going through that healing process. But this oil really helped me to get through it all.

And I had so many people who were following my journey, who were so interested in this product that we just had to release it for everybody to use. Our business is all about helping people. And to not have this product available to our customers would be a disservice to them.

And it was just, it’s been an amazing product. And over the last 12 months, we’ve been able to help so many people heal all sorts of scars with this serum. It’s, the beautiful thing about it is that there’s no chemicals, there’s no preservatives.

It’s 100% natural. And the oils that we use are so powerful. It penetrates all the layers of your skin, seeps right in, doesn’t leave your skin feeling oily or greasy.

And the healing happens from inside out. So your scars, they’re just transformed. And it works amazing on your lines and wrinkles as well.

It’s such a hydrating serum. So it leaves your skin feeling nice and soft. It works really well on both new and old scars.

So you’re talking scars that are like your acne scars or caesarean scars. We’ve had great success with people who have had open heart surgery or mastectomies or scars that are very, very old, have tremendous results using this serum. So our face and body oil is an all-over body moisturizer made with beautiful natural oils.

There’s no preservatives, no chemicals and no fragrance in this oil. It can be used all over your body. It’s a great hydrating and moisturizing oil.

Our skin therapy and our face and body oil don’t contain any water, preservatives or chemicals in them, and that’s why they’re so effective. You will find often the first ingredient in a lot of moisturizers and oils that you will find in the supermarket, the first ingredient is water. So if a product contains water, it must contain preservatives because you don’t want anything bad to be growing in those products.

But ours do not contain any of that. We make everything ourselves in small batches. So we are always creating fresh products.

Sustainability is a really important part of our business. We do all of our soap making during daylight hours. We have solar panels on our roof.

So during the soap making time, during the day, we are using the solar panels. We like to use local suppliers for our ingredients and packaging material. It’s really important for us to be able to support other local businesses, makes it much more sustainable for us to be able to go and pick up supplies in bulk from local businesses.

So we’re not doing multiple trips and contributing to the pollution and the greenhouse emissions. Minimising wastage is also really important to us. Making sure that we use all of the product that we have.

So when we cut our soap and we have the end parts, which are off cuts, then we use those and put them in our sustainable soap bags, which means that our customers can also buy the soap bags with some of the different ends in them as well. And it ensures that we don’t have any wastage of our products and that all of the soap is getting used as well. Another important sustainability practice that we do is our wrapping and packaging of our soap bars.

In the past, we used to shrink wrap our soaps, and now we have changed to using the recycled paper, which is much more sustainable for our products. We do our own printing in-house, so we are able to customise our labels. We like to try and use as much recycled material as we can.

We reuse our boxes and we package our soaps in paper, and we use shredded paper as well. Affordability for our customers is also really important for us. We want to make sure that our products can be used by as many people as possible.

People shouldn’t have to pay the earth to use good quality natural products, so we try to keep our prices down so that everyone can afford to use them. Travelling with soap bars is also important, but also a much more convenient alternative to using the plastic bottles or single-use products. You can easily cut a bar in half if you’re just travelling for a few days.

A little piece of laundry soap always comes with me when we go on holidays with the kids because they’re forever making stains, so I never ever go anywhere without my laundry soap. And your shampoos and conditioners are going to last so much longer than your bottled shampoos and conditioners are as well. Also, overseas or aeroplane travel, it’s so much more convenient when you’re taking soap bars.

They take up much, much less space in your luggage and obviously much lighter as well. And if you’re also taking the soap bars in your carry-on luggage, you don’t need to worry about your liquid limits as well. We make all of our products at home and we sell online on our website.

“I also regularly do markets. You can order directly off our website and we do ship worldwide. A list of our stockers around Australia is also listed on our website.

Thanks for tuning in. You can follow us on social media as Sustainaroo Travels, and check out the resources on our website, sustainerootravels.com.au. If you like today’s guest speaker, please check them out via the link in our show notes.

If you haven’t already, check out part one, where today’s guests share their sustainability journey and everything they do. Thanks, mate.

About L’ada Soaps and Scents

Soap making has been in Deb’s family for over 25 years over three generations. Deb’s mother in law introduced her to creating soap, who was making soap for her kids at the time. When Deb first was learning from her mother in law, it was interesting to learn about the chemistry behind the process and the way that soap comes together. They got to have some fun and experiment together with essential oils and recipes.

Making natural soap was important as Deb knew what it was like to have sensitive skin. And when Deb had her own kids, she really wanted a natural soap to use for them as well. Over time, Deb and her husband Andrew started giving the natural soaps as gifts to their friends and family, who loved them.

Deb and Andrew turned the soap making into a family business to be able to share this gift with many other families. They have a strong focus on affordability for all of their products, they believe skin care and cleaning products should be accessible and affordable for any family.

A lot of thought went into naming L’ada Soaps and Scents. As it is a family business, they wanted their names and their children’s names, Liam and Adam, to be included in the business name, so they took the first letter of the four names and came up with the word L’ada.

Deb & her Mother in Law
Deb’s Children helping out
Deb and her Husband
L’ada Soaps and Scents being made

Deb is very particular about the products and suppliers she uses in her soap making, with a large focus on natural and sustainable choices.

She knows that her soap helps people with sensitive skin, and she is passionate about helping more people and children have healthy skin. She wants to spread the word about how important it is to know that a lot of products on supermarket shelves actually have a lot of nasty additives that many people’s skin reacts to.

Not only that, but the same nasty ingredients, when washed down the drain, end up in our waterways and are not good for our environment.

L’ada Soaps and Scents get a lot of feedback, people coming back saying that their skin has improved after using their bars and skin oils. This really gives purpose to why they make their soap, to know it is making a difference.

Deb uses a range of oils and butters to make her products. Different combinations of oils give the desired outcome of each product. Depending on if it’s body soap, shampoo, conditioner, cleaning and so on. 

Using the right oils and carefully selected natural ingredients mean that the soaps not only look beautiful, but also smell good and work really well for their intended purposes, creating a rich lather and leaving your skin feeling smooth.

Deb told us about how there’s no mistakes in soapmaking, just new recipes and new designs. Every batch of soap is different. Even if you do the same recipe one hundred times, the end product always looks slightly different and has its own creative elements.

L’ada Soaps and Scents was a finalist in the Casey Business Awards in the category of Small Business in 2023

L’ada Soaps and Scents was also a finalist in the Casey Business Awards in the category of Sustainability in 2022

Is Bar Soap More Environmentally Friendly?

Sustainability is a focus at L’ada Soaps and Scents. Deb often gets asked, is bar soap more environmentally friendly? Well the short answer is yes, yes it is!

Bar soap is made without the water, you add the water yourself. It is simply the product. As opposed to the liquid that we often get marketed to us, that has a small amount of the ‘product’, and a lot of water added. Your conventional hand soap, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, makeup brush cleaner, dishwashing liquid, stain remover spray, and face, body and scar moisturisers.

When water is added, you straight away have to use preservatives and emulsifiers and other additives. Often, these products also have toxic ingredients that are not great for our skin, and for the environment. A lot of people get skin reactions to these ingredients, but also from an environmental perspective, these toxins are washed down the drain and then end up in our waterways. They don’t get filtered out with the treatment of drain water.

The other thing to keep in mind about products that contain liquid is, they usually come in single use plastic bottles, and they are heavy. They also often come from overseas or different locations. So the heavy liquid products have to be transported, often all over the world. This makes quite a heavy carbon footprint, having to transport all of that stuff and all the fuel that has to be used.

Bar soap is so small and compact, being only the active ingredient and in solid form. It is unpackaged, and very light to transport. You add the water yourself as needed – no need to send the water all over the world!

Also using all natural ingredients means your skin loves the products, and many people find less reactions and much happier skin using real, natural soap bars.

How Is Soap Made?

Deb told us about how the soap at L’ada Soaps and Scents is made using the cold processed method. They only melt the solid oils. The liquid oils are not melted so as not to waste gas or electricity. The solid oils are melted and taken off heat, then the liquid oils are mixed in. Then a lye solution is added to the oil mixture which creates a chemical reaction, which is what ‘makes’ the soap in soap making. 

Then the fragrances and colours are added, and the mixture is poured into a mould. Then designs can be made with the colours by mixing in certain ways. Then it is left to set.

Once the soap is set, there are no remnants of lye solution in the soap anymore. Some people feel unsure about lye, as it is a chemical, however after the chemical reaction occurs, it is important to understand that there is no trace of lye in the soap anymore.

The chemical reaction turns the liquid into a solid. Similar to a cake, when you cook a cake it turns solid. Soap making is like that, but you use lye solution to make it solid. There’s a misunderstanding that people have about making soap without lye. Lye is needed to make the oils a solid to make soap, but there is no lye left at all in the soap and therefore it is not an ingredient in the product.

Deb also has some other sustainability practices that are used. She has a focus on no waste and uses all of the product that is made. All of the soap ends and offcuts are used in soap bags. The soaps are wrapped with a strip of recycled paper that Deb prints herself, and are otherwise unpackaged. There is no plastic packaging, the oils are in glass bottles and the washing powder is in a cardboard bag.

All of the soap making is done during daylight hours to minimise electricity use, and they have solar panels on the roof as well. 

Body Soap Bars

Handmade soaps will always be better to use on your skin than any commercially produced bar. L’ada body soap bars can be used anywhere, including in the shower, on your face and also as a hand soap.

L’ada soap is gentle and naturally made, so it won’t strip away the natural oils on your skin. Deb often gets comments on the lather, fragrance and moisturising effect of her soap bars. Made with all natural ingredients, many people find that the soap doesn’t irritate their skin like conventional soaps and products would. They are a great find for non toxic skincare.

A bar of soap will last awhile, but it depends of course how often you use it, so this will differ household to household. It will depend on how many times a day it is used, and whether you rub the soap on your skin or use a washcloth. Roughly a bar should last about 4 weeks on average, or longer.

Deb loves to hear what fragrances and essential oils her customers would love to see, and she often chats to customers to hear their thoughts. This has led to the development of the range of luscious essential oil body soap bars on proud display on her website and market stand.

L’ada Soaps and Scents has a range of body soap bars for any taste, including lavender, lemon myrtle and pine, lemon and patchouli, rose geranium, a champagne soap, and a few wonderful essential oil blend soaps. There’s a fragrance free coconut milk soap for sensitive skin if you prefer one without the essential oils.

Coffee Exfoliating Scrub

The coffee exfoliating scrub soap bar is ideal for encouraging blood flow and helps to remove all the dry and dead skin on your body. Use it a couple of times a week in the shower, you can rub the soap bar directly on your skin. It leaves your skin invigorated and ready to absorb some body oil!

Also a shout out to the natural ingredients and using coffee as the exfoliator product, instead of plastic microbeads that are no good for our waterways!

Foot Scrub Soap

The foot scrub soap bar is enriched with ground oats and ground coffee, coming together to exfoliate your feet and leaving them feeling soft. Use in the shower, rub the soap bar directly all over the skin of your feet and they will thank you.

And again, with using oats and coffee as the exfoliation product we are not using plastic or microbeads which is always so lovely to see.

Bar Hair Conditioner and Bar Shampoo

We’ve all grown up using liquid shampoo and conditioner that comes in single use plastic bottles, and are full of nasties for your skin and hair and not only that, again those nasties end up down the drain but also transporting such a heavy product all over the world is not environmentally friendly. 

These beautiful handmade and natural bars at L’ada Soaps and Scents last a long time, longer than the liquids do. The bar shampoo will last a family about 4-6 weeks and the bar hair conditioner will last 6-10 months. But also without the water added, they are very light and easy to transport. The natural ingredients are wonderful for your body as well. So gentle on your scalp, once you try these you won’t go back. 

What you do to wash your hair is you wet your hair, and rub the bar shampoo directly on your scalp and then hair. It lathers right away so that you can give it a good wash, then rinse it away. There’s no detangling agent in the shampoo bar, just a combination of beautiful oils. You can choose to get one with a lavender and tea tree fragrance or a fragrance free one.

When you first start using it, your hair might go into an adjustment period and feel a little waxier or greasier as your body starts to overproduce natural oils to make up for when they were being stripped away by conventional shampoos. Give it a bit of time though, when your body realises you’re no longer stripping the oil away, all of this will balance out and you will love the natural shampoo bar and how your hair feels using it.

It is interesting to note that conventional shampoos strip the oils from the hair, and cause overproduction of natural oils therefore making us feel like our hair goes greasy fast, making us use more shampoo more often. Not really a great cycle for our scalp!

For the bar hair conditioner, it includes some lovely oils as well as detangling agents and will provide your hair with gentle detangling and moisturising. It is also infused with a lavender fragrance. Similar to the shampoo, the conditioner bar will last you longer than conventional liquid conditioner, be more environmentally friendly and be better for your scalp. 

After rinsing out the shampoo bar lather, squeeze excess water from your hair, then gently rub the conditioner bar all down the length of your hair. It will not lather, just nourish. Ideally comb it through gently with a shower comb. Leave for a few minutes, then rinse out. 

After your hair dries, give it a good brush to evenly distribute the natural oils. You hair will love you.

Dish Soap Bar

L’ada Soaps and Scents also makes a dish soap bar, which is to replace the conventional liquid dishwashing detergent. 

The conventional dishwashing liquid comes in single use plastic bottles, and is full of harsh chemicals that we are potentially eating, soaking our hands in and also washing down the drain. Similar to shampoo and conditioner and other liquid products as we talked about before, the heavy liquids are not environmentally friendly to transport. You can add the water yourself!! Why are we paying companies to carry water anyway?

The dish soap bar is wonderful to get grease off your dishes, and also gentle on your hands. Simply place the soap in a soap dish by your kitchen sink, and grab a dish cloth, wet it and rub the soap with the cloth, then go ahead and wash your dishes. Let the soap dry between washes.

You can also use it to clean your stove tops and kitchen, and any cleaning you want to do around the house. Simply wet a cloth, and rub it on the soap, then go ahead with cleaning.

Makeup Brush Cleaning Soap Bar

Similar story again, we have been used to using harsh chemicals in plastic bottles to clean our makeup brushes. It is astounding how many different “cleaning” items are marketed to us. 

This beautiful makeup brush cleaning soap bar has the right balance of both cleaning and softening our precious makeup brushes and sponges. This bar will last you over 12 months as well.

Simply wet the soap and your brush, and rub the brush onto the soap to get a lather, then rinse under running water. Keep repeating until the water runs clear. Then let both the soap and the brush dry.

Shaving Soap Bar

OK hands up who is sick to death of buying cans of shaving foam? Full of chemicals and coming a single use plastic bottle that is difficult or impossible to recycle, we know for sure we won’t ever buy one of those again.

The shaving soap bar is chemical free, moisturising for your skin, can be used anywhere – for men and women. And it works up a great lather which is the best part. You can either rub it directly on your skin to work up a lather, or use a shaving brush. We the shaving brush and the soap, and rub the brush in a circular motion on the soap to work up an extra lovely lather, then use the brush to apply the lather to your skin.

Then shave as normal!

Stain Remover Soap for Clothes – Laundry Soap Bar

The Laundry Soap bar made by L’ada Soaps and Scents is a stain remover soap. It is one of their best selling products as it is quite surprising how many stains it will get out! Oil stains (even old ones), wine, bolognese sauce, avocado and other favourite baby mess, as well as grass, blood stains and anything else.

Once you start using it, you’ll never look back! Here at Sustainaroo Travels we’re so excited to no longer need to buy those chemical stain removers that come in a single use spray bottle as well, and are not good for the environment after they go down the drain. It is fragrance free and chemical free so it’s also nice to your skin. 

The stain remover bar is used directly on your stain. What you do, is you put a bit of water on an end of the soap bar, and a bit of water on the stain, and rub the wet soap onto the stain, then throw it straight in the washing machine.

How To Store Bar Soap

Another question Deb often gets is about how to store bar soap. Soap bars are beautiful to use and will serve you for a long time, but they do like a little bit of easy care. The main thing is, soap doesn’t like to be left in a puddle of water. So in between uses, make sure they are left in such a way that they can drain and dry.

In the shower, you might use a shower soap dish with holes under it so the water drains. On the sink, it might be a wooden soap dish with holes on the side of the sink. In the laundry, the same with a soap dish by the sink.

Water will drain from wet soap, so place the wooden soap dish with holes in it on either the edge of the sink where the water will drain, or on top of a small plate, or something that will catch the water. Otherwise you’ll have a puddle under the soap dish.

The other option is using a small pouch to store your soap in, and hanging it to dry in between uses, either in the shower or over your sink.

You can buy a very cute exfoliating soap bag from L’ada Soaps and Scents, and either fill it with your own soap ends or Deb can fill it for you with soap ends from her soapmaking. Deb doesn’t like to waste any precious soap, so all of the soap ends and offcuts are used by being added to the exfoliating bags for people to use in the shower.

This will make sure that you get a long life out of your soap, and also keeps the soap clean. Puddles of water can attract bacteria. 

Does Bar Soap Expire?

Soap does not expire and it does not have an expiration date! Deb explained that soap actually gets better with age as it gets harder over time. The water content evaporates over time which makes the bar harder and longer lasting.

As long as you keep your soap dry between uses, you can use it and keep it as long as you like. So handy!

You don’t have to worry about the soap getting too old, so you can stock up and have it in storage indefinitely. Also, when a bar is in use, as a hand soap by the basin or in the shower on a soap dish, you will get quite a bit of time out of your bar of soap. It does depend how much it is used every day, but you’ll get at least 4 weeks out of a bar that is used all the time. A bar that is used less will last much longer.

Face and Body Oil

The face and body oil from L’ada Soaps and Scents is a truly great alternative to all the moisturisers we are marketed at conventional beauty stores.

Oil is the best thing you can do for you skin. Natural oil (not synthetic oil), so smoothly absorbs into your skin and nourishes in, inside and out.

It is a wonderful type of non toxic skincare, and your skin will be so rejuvenated. The conventional moisturisers that are sold to us have oils in them too, but also water, and additives and often, chemicals. There’s actually no need for those extra things, and no need for all the plastic waste either.

A natural face and body oil does the work of all of those moisturisers, and works all over the body. It comes in a glass bottle, and you only need a few drops. Simply use the dropper to pop 4-6 drops onto your hand, then gently rub your hands together and spread over your face, hands or body.

Skin Therapy – Skin and Scar Serum

The Skin Therapy Skin and Scar Serum from L’ada Soaps and Scents is a workhorse for healing your skin. Using a blend of oils and essential oils, it helps with all types of scars, stretch marks, face lines and wrinkles. It is a deeply nourishing oil that will work magic on all skin types.

Deb formulated this beautiful serum when she had had a surgery after going through thyroid cancer. A deeply personal serum that worked magic on her own skin, she loves to share this skin healing with her customers and the community.

Have a look here at the oils and her journey.

Eco-Friendly Laundry Powder

Deb makes a washing soap that is then milled into a powder and mixed with a couple of other ingredients to make the eco-friendly laundry powder to use in your washing machine.

It is so lovely to wash your clothes with real soap, and you need less than you would use by getting a conventional washing powder. For a front loaded you will get about 100 washes, and for a top loader you will get about 60 washes out of a bag.

The washing powder is fragrance free, and has no chemicals, no fillers or dyes or foaming agents, and is good for sensitive skin. It is much safer for your skin and your lungs as you’re not wearing clothes that have been washed in chemicals, and you’re not breathing in harsh chemicals every time you enter or use your laundry.

Also you’re not washing chemicals down the drain and into the environment.

Lavender Essential Oil For Laundry

L’ada Soaps and Scents also sells a lavender essential oil for laundry. As the eco-friendly laundry powder is fragrance free, you can use essential oils in your wash to add a mild fragrance to the wash.

You can use any essential oils you like, but Deb especially loves lavender essential oil.

Where to Buy

L’ada Soaps and Scents products are available at a number of stockists around Australia, scroll down to the bottom of their Wholesale page for the list.

They are sold at Providence Foods, check out our two part interview with the owners, Maddie & Andreas part 1 & part 2.

As well as a number of other places including The Good Food Emporium 

Deb is a regular stall holder at these local markets:

  • Cockatoo Country Market, which is on the first Saturday of every month except January. It is open 8:30am to 1:30pm. (It will not open on fire danger days)

Keep an eye on L’ada Soaps and Scents’ facebook page to see when the next market is on.

How To Travel With Bar Soap

Another question that is often asked is how to travel with bar soap. Bar soap is super handy when you are traveling, and from a sustainability perspective, it’s more environmentally friendly too.

Bar soap replaces all liquid products when you are travelling. You can either take a whole bar, or cut a bar into smaller pieces and just take one piece to last your trip. You can cut soap with a sharp knife on a chopping board.

Then place the piece you want to take in an airtight container with a lid. You can take shampoo and conditioner bars, body bars to use in the shower and wash your hands, and dish soap for your dishes at your accommodation and the laundry soap for stains and to give some clothes a quick hand wash too.

You can place each one in a separate tin or container, and after you use it, just leave the lid open so the soap ca air dry between uses. When you’re travelling, pop the lid on and pack the container in your travel bag.

Can You Bring Bar Soap on a Plane?

Yes you can! As it’s a solid, not a liquid, bar soap is not subject to liquid limits on international flights, so you can bring as much bar soap on a plane as you like!

It saves you from having to use single use plastic bottles while travelling, it means you don’t have to deal with spillage in your luggage from liquid products and also it helps you pack light!

It also goes further as it last longer than the liquid products, so you only need to take a little bit.

Use Soap For Day Trips Too

Soap is handy not just when you’re away, but if you’re out and about in your own town or off on a day trip to.

Take a bar of soap in a container in your bag, and use it if you’re in a public bathroom, or having a shower at the gym, or anywhere else you need.

Check Out L’ada Soaps and Scents

https://ladasoapsandscents.com.au
You can order directly from the website. Free shipping on orders over $125 Australia wide.

Phone: 0408 559 232

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