Soap & Wash's Golden Rapeseed - A soap made from Swedish rapeseed oil

Golden, nutty smelling and silky smooth - cold pressed organic rapeseed oil is something out of the ordinary and I knew as soon as I came across a bottle that I had to make a soap made from 100% Swedish rapeseed oil. The thought that we have such a perfect beautiful oil completely produced in Sweden but no historical or contemporary production of soap on the oil, could not be released. The world needs an ecologically pure rapeseed oil soap, so now Tvåla & Tvaga puts rapeseed oil soap on the map.

The road to launching Gyllene raps has been long, fun and sometimes bumpy. It all began when I started making handmade soap ten years ago and when I started experimenting with different oils. What a plethora, what a range of quality and how different the soap becomes depending on the oil! This is still something that fascinates me enormously, how different oils and fats can make such different effects in soap. In my original recipe, I chose to add a lot of rapeseed oil, partly for roundness in scent and for softness to the lather. I found Bärby Östergård's claim-labeled rapeseed oil in an organic food store near Tvåla & Tvaga in Haga, where I also made the soap. At first, my production was very small, but soon I needed to turn directly to Bärby Östergård to buy larger quantities. Bärby Östergård is run by Bengt and Inger and the farm, which has been in Inger's family since the 1600s, is beautifully situated in Bohuslän. The couple's passion for the sustainable and authentic really permeates everything and Bärby Östergård's rapeseed oil production is now one of the country's few KRAV-labeled rapeseed oil producers. I was immediately captivated by Bengt and Inger's commitment, love and drive and began to really understand what a huge difference there can be in rapeseed oil, in how the rapeseed is grown and pressed. Rapeseed has been cultivated in Europe since the 14th century but has mostly been used over the years as animal feed and lamp oil. The non-organic version contains high levels of the toxic erucic acid and my understanding is that it has dragged down the reputation of rapeseed oil and that it is still hanging on today. But the fact is that the organically grown rapeseed and its oil is absolutely fantastic both as food and in skin care, packed with essential fatty acids.

I decided to make a pure rapeseed oil soap on 100% Bengt and Inger's rapeseed oil started working in 2014. At the time, no one made a similar soap, which was puzzling to me until I started test soldering and using the soap, -it becomes incredibly soft and slimy, almost difficult to use.

The project was put aside and so were my test batches of soap. After moving to the soap factory in Kronhusbodarna in 2017, I found a piece of pure rapeseed oil soap from 2016, slightly yellowed but still wonderfully fragrant. Those in the know know, but if you fall over a piece of soap, it must be tested. There is a strong force that governs that operation, surely a law of nature. My goodness, what a soap, creamy yet fluffy lather, lovely scent and nice feeling on the skin, -this really brought out the skin care properties of rapeseed oil. Even looser and softer, but still very pleasant to use. The code was cracked and soap made from rapeseed oil needs and benefits from storage, longer than usual. Thinking immediately of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean olive oil soap making, the fact is that rapeseed oil and olive oil have a lot in common. The fatty acid composition of the oils is similar and therefore soap made from the oils is also similar, and it has long been known that olive oil soap benefits from storage. I think it's time to refine rapeseed oil and create a soap to be proud of, in the same way that man has done for thousands of years with olive oil. A dizzying thought, but who knows what the history books say about the Nordic rapeseed oil soap in 4000?

In March 2022, my soapmaking colleague Charlotte and I started the production of Gyllene Raps and my assessment is that at least 6 months of storage does the trick. We have followed the soap's lather development and storage process month by month and it is with great pride that I can now offer the world a pure Swedish rapeseed oil soap. It is a little softer than our other soaps, does not lather the most but with the right soap dish and will it becomes a favorite for the whole body. For me, Gyllene Raps is much more than a piece of cleansing soap, it stands for simplicity in a really difficult question of sustainability. Just being able to have direct contact with those who process a crop into oil that we can process into soap is magical and I am convinced that we need to work more like this in everything we do to protect our earth and us as humans.

Lather up and enjoy! /Anna