Our story
From the Tonoyans to you.
Ochar started at our kitchen table. We wanted soap with a short list of ingredients we could actually pronounce, and the easiest way to get it was to make it ourselves.
The name came easily. Ochar is the Armenian word for soap, the word we grew up with. It’s short and honest, and it says exactly what’s in the box.
We still make every bar ourselves, in batches small enough to mix by hand. Each one cures for six weeks before it’s ready, and every batch is checked by one of us before it reaches the shop.
Short labels
Every ingredient is listed on every bar, in plain words. If we wouldn’t want to explain it, it doesn’t go in.
Slow soap
Cold process and a six-week cure. It takes longer, and it makes a harder, milder bar that lasts.
Made by us
Nobody else makes our soap. Every batch is mixed, poured, cut and boxed by one of the family.
The making
How a bar comes to be.
Cold process soap can’t be rushed. Here’s what happens between the first weigh-in and the day a bar goes on sale.
Day one
Weigh and pour
Oils and butters are weighed to the gram, warmed, and brought together with lye. Scent and colour go in last, then the swirls are poured by hand into moulds and left to set.
Day two
Cut
The loaf comes out of its mould, firm but still soft enough to slice, and is cut into bars by hand.
Weeks one to six
Cure
The bars sit on open racks while the water evaporates. They turn harder and milder each week, which is why a cured bar lasts so much longer than a fresh one.
After that
Trim and box
Edges are smoothed, each bar is checked, and it goes into its box, ready for the shop.
Come and smell the shelf.
Or as close as a website gets. Every bar has its ingredients listed in full.