Hi! i’m mj - yes, that’s actually my initial - and i’m the person behind barbook
i started making cold-process soap because of one problem: every soap on the market is filled with harsh ingredients that my sensitive skin cannot tolerate, so like any twelve-year-old will do, I made my own.
the first few batches were… interesting, to say the least. but i’ve learned from my mistakes, and the internet. Slowly, my soap knowledge expanded to what I have today.
barbook is the polished, extension to my journal, that documented every step of my journey. The researching, testing, unusable batches, weird colour, textures, bars that turned out better than i imagined, and bars that are questionable.
barbook grew out of all those notes. it’s where i keep the recipes i’ve made, the things i’ve learned, the science i wish someone had explained to me when i first started, and all the little details that are usually buried across fifty different websites.
i’m still experimenting, still learning, and occasionally still making very ugly soap. this isn’t meant to be a perfect textbook — it’s my soap-making notebook, just digital, and shared with anyone else who happens to be curious too.