When I began making soap in 2016, The Australian Olive Oil Soap did not yet exist.
I began under another name, creating many different kinds of natural soap with different oils. At that stage, I was still discovering what I wanted my products—and eventually my business—to become.
For nearly two years, I learned, experimented, made mistakes, and tried again. I studied what different oils and butters contributed to a bar of soap. I watched how each formula behaved while it was being made, how it changed during curing, and how it felt when my family and I used it.
Some oils created bigger bubbles. Some made a harder bar. Others sounded beautiful and luxurious on an ingredient list.
But the oil I kept returning to was olive oil.
After everything I had learned and tested, it felt right for the products I wanted to make, for my family, and for me. I loved its simplicity, its quiet character, and the way the soap became more beautiful when it was given enough time.
I did not begin with the name AOOS and then search for an ingredient to fit it. It happened the other way around: I chose olive oil through experience, and the name grew from that choice.
Finding an Australian identity
I was not born in Australia. I came here as a migrant and built my family, my life, and eventually my business here.
When the time came to shape the identity of my work, I wanted to choose something that represented the country I now call home. I wanted the heart of the product to begin with an ingredient grown and produced in Australia.
Australian olive oil became that connection for me.
It connected the craft I had been learning with the place where I was building my future. It gave the soap a sense of place and gave my small business a clear foundation.
In 2018, after two years of learning and testing, I gave the business its name: The Australian Olive Oil Soap.
The name was not created as a marketing idea. It came from the ingredient I had already chosen and the soap I had learned to trust.
Looking back now
There have been many more experiments since then. I have worked with coconut, castor, babassu, cocoa butter, shea butter, botanicals, clays, and many other ingredients. Each one can bring something useful and beautiful to a product.
But olive oil has remained at the heart of AOOS.
Looking back now, I am proud that I trusted what those first two years taught me.
I did it. I made the soap I had been trying to find. I chose an ingredient that reflected both my way of making and the country in which I was creating a new life. From that choice, I built AOOS.
Olive oil may not be perfect for every person or every product. But for my family, my craft, and the business I wanted to create, it was the right choice.
It became the perfect foundation for AOOS.
--- Amy xo