History of Canterbury Cabin

How did I get started making soap?

In 2001, while visiting my dear mother, she mentioned that she would love to learn how to make soap. I smiled and said ‘Oh, that sounds interesting’, while thinking to myself ‘Why in the world would anyone want to make soap when there’s perfectly good soap in the store?’ Since my mother was so interested in learning how to make soap, I decided to enroll her in a local community education class for old-fashioned cold-process soapmaking as her birthday present. I enrolled myself in the same soapmaking class figuring that I would just keep her company during the class. Well, class started and the instructor was talking about the fabulous properties of handmade soap and how commercially-made soap from ‘the store’ just couldn’t compare to handmade soap because of all the natural glycerin that stayed in handmade soap. She went on to explain that commercially-made soaps have the glycerin extracted from the finished soap and it gets used for other products and they also usually add a detergent to the soap. I still wasn’t sold on the idea of making my own soap though. Then the instructor pulled out all the natural oils, and the various essential oils to fragrance the soap, and the natural colorants….hmmm, now my interest was peaked. I LOVE color and I LOVE fragrance and I LOVE all the natural oils.

We started measuring, melting, blending, coloring, adding essential oils, and ground oatmeal too….I was getting so excited about the finished product and it wasn’t even poured into the mold yet. Half-way through making my batch of almond oatmeal soap I was hooked/addicted to soapmaking! My mind was spinning in delight. All I could think about was all the potential combinations of natural oils, colors, fragrances, herbs, oatmeal, and ooh….what about adding goat milk?! I could barely contain my excitement. I proudly poured my amazing Almond Oatmeal soap into my little make-shift shoe-box mold, when I received a huge disappointment…the instructor said ‘Now, the soap needs to fully cure for a minimum of six weeks before you use it’. What!? Are you kidding me? I had to wait six weeks to use this fabulous soap? Well, I impatiently waited the six weeks, then anxiously grabbed a bar of the soap…wow, it really lathers up and it felt great and it wasn’t drying to my skin….and the scent… Amazing!

I immediately began researching and developing soapmaking skills with the intent of creating my own business, and Canterbury Cabin was created.

2002 - Hand & body crème and natural lip balm were added to the product line.

2003 - Paraffin candles were added to the product line.

2004 -100% soy candles were added to the product line.

2005 - Started phasing-out the paraffin candles due to the increased demand for soy candles.

2007 - Attended the Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild conference in St. Louis, Missouri and won the ‘Best Use of Fragrance’ Award for three Canterbury Cabin goat milk soaps entered as a group…Rosemary Oatmeal, Cinnamon Oatmeal, and Ginger Citrus.

2008 - Attended the Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild conference in Burlington, Vermont and won ‘Best Fragrance in a Cold-Process Soap’ award for the Canterbury Cabin goat milk soap Anise Lavender.

Thanks to our wonderful customers….Canterbury Cabin grows a little more each year.