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 their products, and they are fully insured. Complying with the GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) guidelines, and holding full PIF (Product Information File) reports. All of their 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 & 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 fiancé and two daughters. At the end of 2022, Chiara, a former painter, studied for and completed a business diploma in soap making, learning about the importance of creating cold process soap safely. She is a fully self-taught soap maker, and made her first cold process soap at the end of December 2022. Along with being a traditional soap maker, she is also a certified Usui Reiki practitioner, who is training to become a Reiki Master Healer. Being a natural healer and seer, Chiara already has a diploma in Shamanic Energy Healing and Crystal Energy Healing.
The Dark Island Soap Co. make their 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. create their own exclusive recipe, so you won't find the exact ones anywhere else!
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 The Dark Island Soap Co.'s website, they plant a tree somewhere on the globe. For wholesale orders, they 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 by The Dark Island Soap Co.'s website, more trees are planted throughout the globe with Tree Nation, off-setting the emissions made.
The Dark Island Soap Co. prioritise reusing and recycling. They use packaging that arrives from stock orders to break down and use as protective padding for your orders, and also, to 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 their dedication to being a plastic free and eco-friendly business.
