Spirited Soaps Latest News

Ailsa on STV

In June 2009 Ailsa Hayes and her Spirited Soaps Company was featured in STV's series "the Hour". They made a short clip in which you can see Ailsa herself: Click here to watch the video

Opening of the new shop

Ailsa Hayes, the proud owner of Islay's Spirited soaps Company, opened her new shop in Bowmore's Main Street. The shop looks and smells magnificent and is a welcome addition to the good shopping facilities already offered in Bowmore. Spirited soaps started trading in December 2005. The idea was to produce a unique gift from the Whisky Isle which would have a wide ranging appeal. Many other Hebridean Isles have soap companies, nothing new there, but if there was a way to link with Islays world famous distilleries, then that would be something special. After months of experimentation in the kitchen, the first bar was produced using 10 year old Bruichladdich Single Malt. A transparent amber gem which resembled a solid dram! The Distillery was approached with the idea and was incredibly supportive of this innovative use for their Malt! The next trial batch was made using Ardbeg and again this was met with a very favourable response.

The next few weeks involved getting the process scalable and working out packaging. It was decided to keep the packaging as natural as possible so hessian and raffia were selected. This also fitted well with the rustic distillery image. The first five scent blends were also introduced ? Fresh, Floral, Citrus, Spice and Earth. Mark Reynier of Bruichladdich Distillery mentioned that he loved the aroma from inside the whisky cask itself. The aged oak marinated in malt mixed with the smoky aroma of the charred spars. How do you capture such a scent? Well you have to shave the inside of the cask! The shavings are then cooked with the soap mixture. From this the jet black ?Laddie Bar? was born. The Laddie Bar captured the imagination and news of the unique soap made it to the national press and international whisky magazines.

Spirited soaps is now manufacturing transparent whisky soap for Bunnahabhain, Kilchoman, Laphroaig, Isle of Jura as well as Ardbeg and Bruichladdich on Islay. Further a field ? Benromach, Glen Moray, Dalmore and Tullibardine. They are stocked throughout the UK, Portugal and Germany and now available in our very own outlet in Bowmore!