The Soapmakers

or WHY THIS BRICKIE IS MAKING SOAP.......

We are a husband and wife team - Joe and Angie Fimmano. After  researching for an emollient soap we found an ancient recipe for Olive Oil soap. At this point I should mention that I am a builder/bricklayer with over forty years' experience working with base chemicals. The first batch attempted back in 2014, worked beautifully which is apparently not always the case with this type of soap. The first bar went to work for Angie with her textile art and felting and it lathered and cleansed better than any other soap we had tried (greasy and gritty work for any soap) and yet left hands not at all dry. We couldn't wait to try it with showering and sure enough it exceeded our expectations. Oh and guys the lather and glide for shaving is amazing.

Olive's Oil Soap bars are hand made using *pure Australian extra virgin olive oil, lye (sodium hydroxide) and water - that's it, no added fragrances or oils - just three ingredients. They are combined with heat, stirred vigorously till the mixture reaches 'trace' or begins to thicken, poured into moulds, turned out and cut into bars and then allowed to cure for at least four weeks until they reach a gentle pH of 9 or less. We wrap them simply in recycled paper and string.

This soap is different to commercial soaps and at first use you may notice it handles differently. This is due to the presence of the soap's inherent glycerin which is revealed during the saponification process. The glycerin comes from the olive oil which presents in an exposed form after the oil is turned into soap and its presence can leave skin feeling very soft and moisturized. Commercial soaps often have the glycerin removed and then added back in a smaller quantity but this can result in a soap leaving skin feeling dry. Glycerin is a valuable by product to the cosmetic and food industry and is often harvested from the soap process, but we have retained ours in this soap to give it the beneficial emollient quality of pure olive oil. We hope your skin loves you for it.

Our products can be found in The Flame Tree Food Co-op Thirroul, as well as purchased from this website.

Thanks for reading and we would love to hear from you.
Joe & Angie Fimmano


*We use pure Australian EVOO when available, otherwise we use imported mediterranean EVOO when Australian supply is unavailable.