‘What is elegance? Soap and water!’

“What is elegance? Soap and water!” Cecil Beaton once said.

And that’s a handcrafted elegance Angela Scanlan has spread across the state through her home business right here in Parkersburg since 2009.

Through her business, Windy Ridge: Handcrafted, Scanlan offers bars of shea butter body soap made from scratch.

She takes lye, water and oils to make a basic soap. Generally, she uses coconut, palm, olive oils or shea butter and sometimes adds essential oils, fragrance oils, botanicals, honey, beeswax or oatmeal to create the perfect natural soap without harsh chemicals.

The lye breaks down the water and oil to create soap in a process known as saponification.

She pores the soap into a mold and lets it sit until it’s dry and ready to cure. The soap takes only half an hour to make, but generally cures for a month to six weeks before it is ready to use.

Read the full story in the February 21 edition.