Ontario's Best Small-batch Soap Makers
Ontario is full of creative artisans, unique makers and small family-run businesses. Local small-batch soap makers are often a combination of all three, and whipping up homemade soaps in amazing flavours, shapes and colours, is both a passion, and a way of life. From soap made from buffalo milk straight from the farm, to vegan-friendly creations, discover some of the best small-batch soap makers in Ontario.
Purple Urchin
Ottawa, Ontario
Started as a small home-based business out of Ottawa and Sault Ste. Marie, Purple Urchin is an Ottawa-based soap maker that has made it’s mark. Made with essential oils and high quality fragrance oils, all of their soaps are 100% vegetarian, biodegradable, with numerous vegan-friendly options.
Purple Urchin takes pride in protecting the environment wherever possible. Their soaps are palm oil free, preventing deforestation of rainforest in Indonesia and Malaysia where native forests are clear-cut to produce palm oil. Their soaps are packaged in compostable and biodegradable cellophane, and they also offer a refill program for liquid products, and allow you to bring your own bottle along to save on packaging.
Some of Purple Urchin's must-try soaps include their traditional bar soap in scents like Turkish Fig, Mojito, and Dead Sea Mud, or their liquid soap in lavender-limeade or rosemary mint. Their lilac bath salts, as well as their lemon brown sugar scrub, exfoliating coffee scrub and black pepper birch sore muscle scrub, are perfect to pamper yourself at home. For the cold winter months, Purple Urchin’s winter hand balm is a must, and their lip butter in flavours like raspberry, honeycomb, and maple walnut is the perfect remedy for lips craving moisture.
Rawdon Creek Soap
Stirling, Ontario
Located in the small town of Stirling Ontario, Rawdon Creek Soap is a unique small-batch soap maker creating luxurious hand-crafted soaps using water buffalo milk. Water buffalo milk is higher in fat than cow's milk, and is also jammed packed with vitamin E, minerals, antioxidants and proteins, which helps to nourish and moisturize dry skin. The milk is sourced from the nearby Ontario Water Buffalo Company in Hastings County, and is made with no hardeners or accelerants - bars often take over a month to cure naturally.
One of Rawdon Creek Soap's most unique products is their felted soap, a combination of both a loofah and soap, all in one. Locally sourced wool is wrapped around each bar of soap in a process called felting, which knits the wool strands together until the entire bar is covered. The wool helps prolong the life of the soap, and as wool is an antibacterial, breathable and odor resistant fibre, the felted soap is both mold and bacteria resistant. The felted texture helps create a thick creamy lather, and with scents like Plum Noir, Lake House and Cognac and Cubans, you'll want to stay in the shower for hours.
To add to the full at-home spa experience, Rawdon Creek Soap has also created the Covered Bridge candle line, named after Stirling-Rawdon's iconic covered bridge over the Rawdon Creek. These natural soy scented candles come in scents representing some of the unique small businesses and highlights of the region including Stirling Sugar Maple, Oak Hills, Quietly Coffee, Cooney Farms the Apple Store, and Batawa slopes. They also come in traditional homey fragrances like white linen, banana nut bread, cottage campfire and frosted pumpkin.
Garden Path Homemade Soap
Vankleek Hill, Ontario
Only a short drive into Ottawa's countryside, nestled in a small country properly surrounded by lush gardens, you'll find Garden Path Homemade Soap. Founder Tara MacWhirte began Garden Path Homemade Soap in 2009 after receiving homemade soap as a gift from a friend. After borrowing some equipment to make her first bars, she now produces over 50 different products on her 5 acre heritage farm.
What makes Garden Path Homemade Soap so unique is their beautiful and extensive herb and flower gardens, which are used to harvest ingredients to use in their bath and body products. If you stop by the farm, you even can explore the grounds on a self-guided tour (maps available by the front door), and follow the walking trails around the property which lead you past a lavender walk, multiple hives for honey (and pollinating), lush colourful flower gardens, and rows of therapeutic herbs. Some of the herbs harvested onsite that you'll find in their products are calendula, chamomile, lavender, lemongrass, peppermint, plantain, poppy seed, rosemary, lavender, rose petals and cedar. Garden Path Homemade also aims to increase the worldwide Monarch population, and in 2012 they were designated a Monarch Waystation by Monarch Watch, further highlighting their dedication to this vision.
Garden Path Homemade soaps are created using the cold press method, are made from all-natural ingredients, are biodegradable and use recyclable packaging. Besides the extensive selection of bar soaps, they also create hydrating hand lotions, body butters and lip balms, as well as bath bombs and bath salts for those who like the tub. They have a popular baby line called Wiggle baby, a men's care line featuring beard oils and shaving cream, all-natural soap for dogs, and home care products like stain stick removers, toilet bombs and beautiful scented soy candles.
Manitoulin Soap Factory
Sheguiandah, Ontario
Manitoulin Island is the largest fresh water island in the world, and one of the true hidden gems in Northern Ontario. The small family-run businesses that flourish in this special place add to its undeniable rural charm, and the Manitoulin Soap Factory is no exception.
Operating for over 11 years, the Manitoulin Soap Factory is a sudsy family affair. Run by Sue Garbutt, her husband Don, sister Eveline, aunt Eliie, daughter Donna, and 2 grandchildren, this family-centric business has perfected the art of small-batch soap making from their quaint rural store in Sheguiandah. Using 100% vegetable glycerin, their biodegradable soaps are all handmade, hand cut, and hand wrapped by a member of the family.
Choose from bar or liquid soap, body wash, body lotion, shampoo and conditioners, in both unscented formulations (for those with sensitive skin or allergies), as well as products using essential oils and fragrant oils (for those unique scents nature can't provide). Some of our favourite must-try flavours include sweetgrass, hawberry (the symbolic berry of the island), lemongrass, cotton candy, Canadian eh and even a “sexy man” soap! To make bath time fun, a selection of soaps embedded with mini dinos, insects and sea creatures are also available for the little ones.
While their new online store provides easy access to their selection of bath and body products year-round, visiting their quaint store is truly a unique and rewarding experience. During our visit, Sue gave us a tour around the shop, explaining the soap making process - encouraging us to ask questions and sniff to our heart's content. She even gave us a quick demo on how scents were added to lotions as well as a sneak peek (and sniff) at some upcoming scents in development. Meeting the makers, and seeing the passion they have for their craft is truly rewarding, and highlights why supporting local small businesses is so important.
Buck Naked Soap Company
Cambridge, Ontario
Buck Naked Soap Company's founders Rina and John created their small batch soap business out of necessity. When their son Elias developed skin irritations from traditional baby products, the pair decided to develop their own creation to help heal his skin. Their final creation was a chamomile and calendula soap, one of their soaps that continues to be one of their best sellers to this day, and which launched their careers as small-batch soap makers.
Buck Naked Soaps are all-natural, vegan-friendly, chemical-free, and use only natural ingredients - if you swallow some suds, not to worry! Their soaps come in some tantalizing nature-inspired scents like Canadian balsam fir and lavender, charcoal and anise, citrus and comfrey, juniper and spruce and even a marigold soap. They also have a great selection of milk baths and salt soaks, perfect for relaxing and unwinding at home. Try their jasmine coconut milk bath, juniper and spruce dead seas salt soak or purple Brazilian clay coconut milk bath for the ultimate in bathtub relaxation. Another one of their unique products is the Naked Bath Melts. A combination of luxury butters, oils and essential oils are combined to create a silky butter that melts into your bath water, and leaves skin soft and smooth.
For men with sensitive skin, Buck Naked Soap also has a men's Beard Things collection, with beard oils, pre-shave oil, post shave toner and beard balms, as well as their popular Canadian glacial clay shaving soap. For the 4-legged family members they also carry the Bark Naked pet line including all natural shampoo, paw butter and nose balm.
