The Dark Island Soap Co: Bonnybridge woman launches cottage industry from her kitchen

Following the death of her much-loved father in 2022, Chiara MacLellan decided it was time for a career change and to broaden her horizons.

Despite being busy looking after daughters, Anya, nine, and Freya, four, she found time to train as a Reiki practitioner. The Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation, Reiki also promotes healing and is administered by "laying on hands".

However, Chiara was also looking for something creative and decided to find out all she could about soap making.

The former painter said: “I didn’t know very much about it at first but quickly completed a diploma course and my first batch was produced at the end of 2022."

And so the Dark Island Soap Co. was born.

Chiara, 39, and partner Christopher Fugmann, used to live in Edinburgh, but relocated to High Bonnybridge in a bid for a quieter, simpler life. She now makes all her cold pressed soaps in the kitchen of the family home.

"I like the creative process and all it entails, including how I can add dry flowers to enhance the final product,” she explained.

"Botanicals are added to the soap by infusing them in oils for at least a month.”

She added that cold process soap making is the original, traditional method of making soap by combining fat or oil with sodium hydroxide (lye), then blending in an addition of essential oils, fragrance oils, and any colourants 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 four to six weeks.

"Some people don’t like using lye but if you wear the proper protection it is fine. I find the whole process of making soap very nice and peaceful.”

Once her soap was made Chiara had to find customers and since the first batch was produced she has been busy securing orders from as far afield as Benbecula, Skye, Stirling and England. However, she’s always looking for new stockists and is keen to get a foothold in the Falkirk area.

She also hopes to attend craft fayres as she enjoys speaking to customers face-to-face to tell them more about her products and their benefits.

Chiara added: “Generic store bought soaps devoid of glycerine can leave skin dry, ashy, itchy, and looking far from its best. Handmade soap, however, traditionally made so as to retain its glycerine content, will leave your skin more moisturised and healthy-looking, which is exactly what you'll get from using our traditionally made, cold process soaps.”

When looking for a name for her business Chiara decided to honour her later father, Donald MacLellan. He hailed from Lochboisdale in South Uist, , known as "The Dark Island."

He came to Edinburgh as a teenager to train as a mechanic, serving his apprenticeship with Croall & Croall of Stockbridge and became a Volkswagen specialist, going on to own and run his successful motoring business in Morningside, Edinburgh for over 50 years.

Chiara added: “It is a privilege to dedicate this business to my father, and keep his memory alive.”