A proud member of the Guild of Craft Soap & Toiletry Makers, a peer support network for all compliant artisanal crafters in the soap and toiletry industry. When you see this sign for a business that makes soap and toiletries, you know they have been checked to comply with all UK and EU legislations regarding insurance, product safety checks (including CPSR reports), and being a valid, registered business.
The Dark Island Soap Co. are a registered UK business, complying to all UK and EU legislations, holding full CPSR (toxicology) reports for all of our products, and we are fully insured. Complying with the GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) guidelines, and holding full PIF (Product Information File) reports. All of our products are logged on to the Government's CPNP (Cosmetic Product Notification Portal) portal for Trading Standards and market surveillance, which is a legal requirement before selling skincare products on the UK market.
Soap Alchemist, Herbologist, Usui Reiki Practioner & Owner
Meet the creator and owner of The Dark Island Soap Co. Chiara, originally from Edinburgh, now resides in the beautiful Stirlingshire countryside with her young family, where she has been a full-time self-taught soap maker since 2022. At the end of 2022, Chiara studied for and completed a business diploma in soap making, learning about the importance of creating cold process soap safely, making her first cold process soap in December, 2022. Along with being a traditional soap maker, Chiara is also a herbologist and creates wonderful herbal and botanically infused soaps. In the autumn of 2022, after the loss of her father, Chiara, a natural healer, studied Reiki therapy. She is now a certified Usui Reiki (level 2) practioner, with a Shamanic Energy Healing and Crystal Healing diploma, who is now training to become a Reiki Master Healer (level3).
Here at The Dark Island Soap Co. we make our cold process soaps from a base recipe of certified organic natural oils and raw, unrefined organic shea butter. Cold process soap making is the original, traditional method of making soap by combining fat or oil (animal or plant based) with sodium hydroxide (lye), then blending in an addition of essential oils, fragrance oils, and/or colourants as required. This treatment causes a chemical reaction called saponification which takes up to 48 hours, and the final stage of "curing" (which hardens the bar) takes between 4-6 weeks.
The Dark Island Soap Co. are proud to support charities in Uist, where often they are overlooked being so remote. So far, they have donated their products in Uist to Parkinson's Disease, Mental Health Awareness, and for Carers on South Uist who do a wonderful and selfless job every day. If you are a registered charity in Uist, please get in touch! At info@thedarkislandsoapco.com
Fundraising in Uist to support the work of Parkinson's UK in Scotland.
Learn MoreThe Beacon is a mental health support group which is working towards becoming a non-profit charity. It is run by a team of local volunteers who have lived experiences of mental health.
Learn MoreWestern Isles Community Care Forum SCIO (SC023918), established in 1992 as a forum which represent the interests of carers and users of voluntary care services throughout the Western Isles.
Learn MoreFor every order that passes through our website, we plant a tree somewhere on the globe. For wholesale orders, we plant 10 trees! Striving to do more for the planet as a business.
Learn MoreBeing a net zero website means that for all the traffic that passes through our website, more trees are planted throughout the globe with Tree Nation, off-setting the carbon emissions made.
At The Dark Island Soap Co. we prioritise reusing and recycling. We use packaging that arrives from stock orders to break down and use as protective padding for your orders, and to also use as secondary "safety boxes" to house your main order boxes in. If we ever receive plastic, you may see it in with your order (as bubble wrap to take an example), as we would rather reuse this harmful material (hoping that you will, too!) than just discard it straight to a landfill.
The Dark Island Soap Co. are proud members of the Plastic Free Communities; Surfers Against Sewage, showing our dedication to being a plastic free and eco-friendly business.
