Soap & Wash's soap maker and CEO, Anna

Hi Anna, CEO and soap maker at T&T!
You are back more on site and above all back in the soap making after your maternity leave, how does it feel?"Absolutely incredible! Both so fun to be on site again, see my fantastic staff in action and meet you good customers again, oh so fun! Then this with making soap again, so wow! I understand why I got hooked on soap making 10 years ago."

So it's 10 years now since you started Soap & Wash? "Yes exactly! Or at first the company was called Melissa, that's what I bought and needed some time to work out the name T&T, which then felt right from the first moment."

How did you decide to start a soap shop? "I've always wanted to run my own business and in retrospect I can see that I've always been drawn to scent, both in perfume and food. When I moved to Gothenburg from Gotland at the age of 19, I got a job in a shop where we sold soap, skincare and other things. I was quickly fascinated by how many people came to buy soap, and a lot of soap at that. It was the French goose egg soaps we sold then, as now, that were so popular. To become a good salesman, I started testing them and other natural soaps myself. I studied to understand the difference between good and bad soap. Suddenly I got the chance to buy the shop because my boss was going out of business, I said yes and decided to start a pure soap shop filled with natural soaps from all over the world."

If you compare Soap & Wash now with then, what is the biggest difference? "That I've gotten older and have a sick soap collection, haha, no but the biggest difference is the size of the company. Back in 2012, I worked all by myself for 3 months until I hired Ida for a few holidays a month. Now we are a total of 7 employees, located in two premises and I have Charlotte employed as a full-time soap maker. The range is even more specialized and we offer in the Haga store a very, unique very wide range of craft soap. One nice thing, though, is the similarity in my view of my business and of soap. I love to see the company in the bigger picture and have always tried to find new ways and approaches. The love and fascination for real soap is exactly the same. I really can't get enough of good soap and as long as the conventional in my world bad still looms, we have a lot of work ahead."

What are you most proud of when it comes to soap? My original recipe! The base of many of our homemade soaps. A really quite crazy recipe, which if you study soap chemistry a little, should not be so good. But I didn't give up and cracked the code, the result if you ask me is really good soap. Hard and durable, creamy lathering and extremely moisturizing. Then my good soap gang of course, so wonderful people I get the honor to work with. It means a lot!

Liquid soap is still largely dominant in the market, do you think that solid soap will ever again take over? "Absolutely, I am convinced. Anyone who has used a good hand soap knows what a difference in experience it is. Since we live in a time that inspires sustainable choices, the good solid soap is the winner."

Good and bad soap, can you explain the difference?
"Good soap in our world is soap always made from saponified oils and which may retain its natural glycerin created during saponification. This way you get a naturally mild surfactant that can never harm the skin or the environment. Bad soap can take many forms, but the common denominator is that if it is not made from saponified oils and does not contain natural glycerine, it will dry out and be generally unpleasant."

How do you know if a soap is good or bad? "If you really want to make good soap choices, it's great to learn a bit about the INCI language, the international language for ingredients on cosmetic products. Then always look for "sodium" followed by something you know as oil. For example, "sodium olivate" means saponified olive oil."

What is your favorite soap? "Of mine, clearly Dreamy. And then I can't be without an Aleppo soap called Syrian Nights, smelling of musk, saffron and amber. Magical!"

What challenges do you face ahead at Soap & Wash? "If you ignore the horrors we can't influence, it's probably actually a lack of space. The soap factory is actually small for us, but I've decided to work hard there for as long as possible!"

Speaking of the soap factory, how many soaps do you make per year? "This year the goal is at least 20,000, in 2021 Charlotte made 15,000 all by herself. I think that's impressive, especially considering that we make 44 at a time."