On a finca in Spain, surrounded by olive and almond orchards, Margot Rutten made her first soaps. The ingredients came straight from the nature around her. What began as a solution for her children’s skin problems grew into SOAP7: an artisan soap maker without synthetic ingredients, made with love for people and materials.
The beginning
Margot moved with her family to Spain, partly because her children suffered from eczema. Her Spanish teacher mentioned that making soap yourself was very common there — by nuns in monasteries, for example. “I started researching and discovered that I could source many ingredients directly from our finca or the surrounding olive and almond orchards.” The natural, gentle soaps with plenty of olive oil worked well for her children’s skin. “I immediately decided that I would never use synthetic ingredients.” A decision that to this day forms the foundation of everything SOAP7 makes.
A new love, a bigger business
Customers were enthusiastic about the soaps, even though soap bars were not yet widely embraced at the time. “Bars of soap to wash your hair with? That was still quite unusual,” Margot says with a laugh. After returning to the Netherlands in 2006, Margot continued with SOAP7. Scaling up from kitchen production to a professional business was a major challenge — one that fortunately found a surprising solution. “By chance, I fell in love with Han, a lovely man with a background in chemistry. Together with him I built SOAP7 into what it is today. We work with a small team, including people with a distance to the labour market, to give everyone a chance to participate in society.”
The craft behind the soap
SOAP7 makes natural soaps using the cold process method: an age-old technique in which plant-based oils and fats are transformed into soap. Natural colorants such as pink French clay and turmeric, along with essential oils from plants, give the soaps their colour and scent. After being poured into moulds, the soap bars cure for at least a month before they are ready to use. The range has since grown to include soaps, deodorants and body butters — all biodegradable and free from plastic packaging. Cutting scraps are reprocessed into an extra sustainable soap.
SOAP7 also produces custom soaps for hotels and companies that want their own ingredients incorporated into a bespoke soap.
Proud of what has been built
What is Margot most proud of? “That I built a beautiful, sustainable and successful business from an idea, with a large number of loyal customers who are enthusiastic about what we do.” The personal contact with customers and clients is something she would not want to miss — nor the creative process of developing new products.
Quality over growth
Growing bigger is not the goal. “Our goal is to keep making high-quality products, with satisfied customers and clients. That is what gives us the most happiness in life.”
Being part of Locally Made feels like a confirmation of what SOAP7 stands for. “Locally Made is very involved with smaller businesses and radiates the same quality that we strive for with SOAP7. Our business is mainly known in the north of the Netherlands, and with the Locally Made quality mark we hope to gain more recognition in the rest of the country.”
Margot’s tip
Margot closes with a lesson she had to learn herself: “You have to be able to deal with setbacks, and that requires resilience. Stay true to your intrinsic motivation, rather than focusing solely on making money and growing.”
Want to know more about SOAP7? Visit the website.
