Rondavel

General information

Inspired by living close to the bush in Malawi, we aspired to make the perfect bar of soap from scratch. Vowing to use only natural, beneficial and environmentally friendly ingredient and to keep things simple, our first batch of soap was made using only skin-loving, local macadamia nut oil. The result was a disaster - loving, toffee-like mess - but it was still soap, and so the adventure began.

We've come a long way since that first batch ( which did eventually harden, when we found it in a storage box years later ) and along the way we learned to make a pretty decent bar of soap. Our soap-maker, a perfectionist, set out to make the perfect soap recipe: luxurious, rich and stable lather, a little bubbly; the right balance between cleansing and moisturising, and drying quickly between uses. We sourced the ingredients, put them together, and it worked brilliantly.

Six years later, we are back in South Africa in the KZN Midlands and we're producing fantastic soaps with some interesting, locally lekker ingredients, including Nottingham Road Brewing Company's handcrafted beers, yellow mielie meal and dandelions from Nanna's garden.

The difference between Rondavel natural handmade soap and synthetic commercal soap is incredible. Not only in the production process ( our handmade soap is made using the traditional cold-process method, which leaves the glycerine in the final product ), but especially when using it. Using pure essential oils to scent our soaps ( over 5 ml in each bar ), your skin and your mood are revived and restored. Rondavel soap nourishes and moisturises your skin - this means that when you get out of the bath your skin won't feel like as though it's cracking into hundreds of pieces like some faux-aging crackle effect.
This is because our soaps are superfatted with special tree oils, like Baobab, Moringa, Cape Chestnut, and yes, Macadamial nut.

Like the little houses our business is named after, the soap packaging stays true to the idea that simple and functional is beautiful. Using waxed paper, brown paper, stamps and local fabric for a contemporary edge, all the packaging is done by hand, with the result that each bar is unique - like the people who made it, and the people who hold it in their hands.