Next time you are in a supermarket or chemist - stop and read the ingredient label on a popular brand of baby soap you may well come across "sodium tallowate" - and what is this ?
Well, it is a basic ingredient of soap making involving sodium hydroxide (an essential chemical to make soap) and animal fat (tallow).
Ugh - no thanks - all the Scottish handmade soaps I sell on
www.naturalbeautyscotland.com are made with vegetable oils and have lovely Scottish ingredients such as heather (pictured below), whisky, oatmeal, gorse and seaweed - check out the
ingredients on this page.
I came across this interesting grave in Old Calton Kirkyard in Edinburgh - I am intrigued by this - I wonder what sort of perfumes (or indeed soaps) William Raeburn made? I googled him and found an entry for a William Raeburn living in the east end of Glasgow in 1787 - and he is perfumer to His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales! He also had premises in North Bridge, Edinburgh. The Prince Regent (later William IV) was well-known as a enjoying the very best of things (to excess) and perfume would surely have been one of his essential luxuries. I will research further the types of perfumes William Raeburn might have made... soap would have been a luxury at this time - and washing was only slowly becoming acceptable!
