Wellborn is our gentlest bar, made for the most sensitive skin. If your skin reacts easily, if it needs soothing rather than scrubbing, if you are washing a child or caring for an elderly parent, Wellborn is the bar to reach for. Goat milk and chamomile are there to calm, and everything else in the bar is there to stay out of the way. It works anywhere on the body, hair included.

Start by running the bar under lukewarm water, and keep the water lukewarm for the whole wash. Hot water strips the skin and undoes the good the bar is trying to do. Wet your skin and hair, then take the bar straight to your skin. Massage it gently over your body, into your armpits and groin, anywhere you would normally wash, and work it into your hair if you like. Many of our customers use Wellborn as their shampoo, and it is a favourite for children.

If you want a little help with cleaning, lather the bar onto a small organic cotton washcloth and use it softly. Go easy: on sensitive skin, a light hand does more than a firm scrub, and there is no need for a loofah with Wellborn.

Now the part that matters most: leave the lather on your body for two to three minutes. The goat milk, chamomile, organic oils and shea butter carry nutrients that your skin can drink in while the soap sits, and this is when the soothing happens. This is where the magic of Soap Therapy happens, so do not rush it.

While you wait, breathe in. Wellborn is barely scented on purpose. What you will notice is the soft, honeyed sweetness of chamomile and the clean, creamy note of goat milk, and nothing else.

Then rinse well with lukewarm water. If you used Wellborn on your hair, rinse twice: once after washing your hair, and once more toward the end of your shower so nothing is left behind. Pat dry with a cotton towel rather than rubbing.

A note on frequency. Sensitive skin does best when it is washed less often. For a full-body wash, we recommend using the bar two to three times a week, and where the skin is troubled or irritated, less is more: let those areas go longer between washes so they can settle. Always use lukewarm water, never hot. The face, armpits and groin can be washed with the bar every day if you need to.

A cold-process bar cured for two months is hard, dense and long-lasting, but it is still a natural soap without synthetic hardeners, so how you store it between uses makes a real difference to how long it lasts.

After each use, rinse any lather off the bar and set it on a coconut fibre soap rest. The loose, springy mesh holds the bar off the surface and lets water fall straight through, so the bar dries from every side and the fibre itself dries quickly too. It is a natural material, plastic-free, and can be composted at the end of its life. Avoid closed dishes or anything that lets water pool under the bar.

Keep the bar out of the direct stream of the shower. A bar left sitting in a puddle will soften and melt away far faster than it should.

Let the bar dry fully between uses. If two people share a shower, two bars on two rests will outlast one bar used twice as often.

Unused bars keep best somewhere cool, dry and dark, such as a linen cupboard, with a little air around them. Stored this way, away from moisture, a bar has no expiry date. It will keep curing and hardening slowly, and it will still be good to use years from now. The scent softens gradually over time, and natural botanicals can deepen slightly in colour; both are normal and neither affects the soap.

Cared for this way, a Ritual bar (160 g) lasts one person about a month to a month and a half, and a Practice bar (80 g) about half that. The Travel bar (40 g) is good for a week away from home.

Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil

The base of every Soap Therapy bar. Rich in oleic acid and squalene, it cleans gently and leaves the skin soft and moisturized rather than stripped.

Organic Unrefined Coconut Oil

Gives the bar its cleansing power and its rich, bubbly lather, and helps the bar stay hard and long-lasting.

Organic Fair Trade Unrefined Shea Butter

Adds a creamy, conditioning richness to the lather and leaves a light protective layer on the skin. Left unrefined so its natural vitamins and fatty acids stay intact.

Organic Extra Virgin Castor Oil

A natural humectant that draws moisture toward the skin and makes the lather silky and stable.

Distilled Water

Dissolves the sodium hydroxide so it can turn the oils into soap. Distilled so no minerals interfere with the bar.

Sodium Hydroxide**

The alkali that transforms the oils into solid soap through saponification. It is fully used up in the process; none remains in the finished bar.

Citric Acid

Fine-tunes the pH of the finished bar so it stays gentle on skin and rinses clean without leaving a film in hard water.

Organic Goat Milk Powder

The heart of Wellborn. Naturally rich in fats, lactic acid and vitamins, it makes the lather creamy and mild and leaves even reactive skin feeling calm, soft and comfortable.

Organic Chamomile Flowers

Blended into the bar for their soothing character. Chamomile has been used for centuries to settle irritated skin, and gives Wellborn its faint, honeyed sweetness.