COVINGTON, Ind. — Jess White of Covington, Ind., is a vegetarian, so she routinely examines the labels on all the food products she buys.

As a natural corollary, she also started checking the labels on her bath and body products, such as soaps and shampoos.

“I found that unlike commercially made soaps, handmade soaps are more skin-friendly,” White said. “I started searching for handmade soaps that I liked, but they were hard to find.”

Then, about six years ago, White found a book on soap making and decided to try her hand at it.

“I thought, how hard can it be,” she said, “but I later found that it takes a lot of trial and error to develop a good technique that results in a good product.

“I just smell my soaps and they make me happy, and I want them to make other people happy, too. When you’re in the shower, the scent in the essential oils literally explodes, and the whole bathroom smells wonderful.

“Even though my first attempt at making soap was a disaster, the idea of soap making just clicked with me,” she said. “My very first batch of soap turned out crumbly and gooey, but I kept practicing over and over again until I was satisfied with the results. I don’t like to give up on anything.”

The first public sale of her soaps was last July, when White was a vendor at the Summer Moon Gathering outside Covington. She dressed in period clothes from the early 18th Century and displayed the individual bars of soap on small blue willow-pattern china plates — also from that period in history.

Currently, White markets a lip balm and seven kinds of handmade soaps: charcoal bar, earth bar, Dead Sea mud bar, carrot bar, coffee bar, oatmeal stout bar, and a lathering shampoo bar made with lavender and rosemary. She soon will release a new product — a basil and lime soap, which she is very excited about.

The Dead Sea mud bar has been this artisan’s best-seller so far. “Maybe it’s the unique name or the pleasant, earthy scent that has made this variety so popular,” she said.

Her soap bars weigh a hefty 8 ounces and they sell for $4.75 apiece. “I want people to feel they’re getting their money’s worth,” she said.

White was pleased with her sales at the outdoor festival and found people had a lot of interest in her soaps.

White has named her product line “Ugly But Clean Soapworks” because the bars are not perfectly shaped, or pretty and white.

“Instead, I welcome imperfections, irregularities, and the not-white colors — everything that gives our soap a unique look. I’m always creating and looking for new ideas for my soaps,” White said.

She develops her own original soap recipes. “I learn through trial and error, and I love to get feedback from friends and family members who I’ve shared my soap with,” she said.

White uses her shower as sort of a laboratory for testing new soaps.

“I have a half-dozen small bars of soap that I ask my husband, Campbell, to test in the shower,” she explained. “I appreciate that he has been so supportive of my unconventional hobby.”

Now that she has her craft perfected, White spends only a couple of hours on soap making each Saturday just to keep up with orders. Each of her molds makes 42 bars of soap.

“I have to be pretty confident in my recipe before I make that many bars,” she said.

She always works in a well-ventilated area and uses goggles, gloves and an apron to protect herself from the caustic lye.

White starts by dissolving lye in water, which heats up naturally to about 200 degrees Fahrenheit. She then heats up a mixture of a half dozen organic oils to about 100 degrees.

A cooking thermometer tells her when the lye mixture has cooled down to the same temperature as the oils. White then pours the two mixtures together into a large stainless steel vat. The chemical reaction between the lye and the oils creates soap, a process called saponification.

Next, the lye-fat mixture is thoroughly stirred with a stick blender to achieve “trace,” or thickness.

After much stirring, the mixture turns to the consistency of thin pudding. That’s when White adds a variety of natural ingredients, such as essential (pure plant) oils, botanicals, herbs, spices, oatmeal, charcoal, or bits of fruit.

“Here’s where the imagination and creativity come in,” she said. “Whenever I open up a spice jar in my kitchen, I ask myself if it would work well in one of my soaps.”

Not only does White consider the scent of her handmade soap, she also considers the texture. “For example, I use old-fashioned oatmeal for a chunkier texture, and instant oatmeal for a smoother feel.”

The essential oils that White adds to her soap mixture not only smell good, but they also have therapeutic properties, such as softening skin or soothing eczema.

The soap mixture is next poured into molds and covered with a plastic wrap to continue the saponification process for 18 to 48 hours. The soap heats up once again on its own and goes through a gel phase, in which it appears transparent for several hours before returning to its opaque look.

“Soap making is a very tedious and exacting science, because you have to find the perfect balance between the fats and the lye,” White said.

When the soap is firm, it’s removed from the mold and cut into bars. And as with fine wine, age is important. The longer that soap is cured, the harder it becomes — and the longer it will last.

White cures her soap at least a month before wrapping the individual bars in corrugated cardboard and her unique signature label.

“I’m very proud of all my soaps,” she said. “I have a good product that’s all natural, and I want to make people’s lives better by using it.”

Ellen Levon of Chesterfield, Ind., is a big fan of White’s soaps.

“I love their scent and the bars last longer than other handmade soaps that I’ve tried. Also, I like to buy organic, especially when it’s local,” Levon said.

White has a master’s degree in historical archeology from Purdue University, and she currently works at Douglass and Nelson Abstract Co. in Covington. She also plays the Scottish snare drum in the Fountain Trust Pipe Band and is in solo competitions with her instrument.

FYI

Jess White can be e-mailed at Jess@uglybutclean.com, or thejesster@usa.net, and her Web site is http://www.uglybutclean.com. She also sells her soaps on http://UglyButCleanSoap.etsy.com.