... while Sue goes on holiday (I know! How could she? She'll be wanting paying next!)

So The Soap Shop on Wells quay will be CLOSED between Friday 11 October and Saturday 19 October inclusive. We will reopen as usual on Wednesday 23 October at 11am. If it's a dire emergency and you can't live without our soaps, please order through this website - it isn't quite the same personal service, but we'll do the best we can!

Along with many other people, I was shocked at the amount of plastic waste we produce in this country, as revealed in various news stories recently. At The Natural Soap Company, we have always tried to watch our plastic use – at the moment there's not much I can do about the bottles we put our shampoos and shower gels etc in, though the bottles we use are completely recyclable and I am looking into some alternatives. However, our soaps are wrapped in paper, with paper labels and entirely recyclable.

Which brings me on to the ways we send soaps to customers. We use brown cardboard boxes for every order we send out, whether it's a retail or a wholesale order. I have just bought some brown paper FRAGILE tape to use on our wholesale boxes which is recyclable, along with the box, so that we will no longer use plastic Fragile tape to seal our boxes. We have been using brown paper tape on our mail order boxes for over a year.

We want your order to arrive in good condition, and soap is heavy, so we need to put protection in the box. I have been buying packing chips made from 100% non-genetically modified corn starch which are 100% biodegradeable and fully compostable, manufactured from annually renewable sources, for years. This is what is packed around your soaps when they arrive. THEY ARE NOT PLASTIC – pour some hot water over one of these chips and see how quickly it disappears!

We're now offering our soaps on a subscription basis.... every month for a year, we'll send you, or the person of your choice, one full-size 100g luxurious handmade soap bar. We'll send only fresh stock and work our way through our range to give you a different experience every time.

A soap sudscription makes an idea gift for a birthday or anniversary or as a special thank you as it's something that goes on providing a little treat and a lift for a whole year. Priced at £60 for 12 bars including post & packing, it's convenient, great value and offers a saving over buying the bars individually.