l'essence

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who participated in our Limited Christmas Sale. We had missed making for you and loved sending out boxes of our goodies to you in time for the holiday season.

We also wanted to let you know your support helped us raise over $400 for the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, contributing directly to medical care for children who need it most.

I’m deeply grateful for your trust, and the way you chose to give with conscience this season. You can also make additional donations by visiting www.pcrf.net if you were unable to contribute this time or would like to support further with a one time or monthly donations.

In gratitude 🙏✨

Louisa

Sea sponges grow in quiet underwater gardens, filtering the tide. Their softness is carved entirely by nature. And we love them as the perfect companion to our botanical soaps, creating a soft luscious lather.

The art of bathing, the L’essence way 🫧

The art of bathing, the L’essence way 🫧

The art of bathing, the L’essence way.

Before a bar of soap touches your skin, its story is already 1300 years in the making. Long before modern bars were produced, wrapped and sold, it was discovered in the Levant that oil, water, and alkali could be transformed into something cleansing and essential.

What’s remarkable is that no matter if your soap is French-milled luxury, from your grandmother’s kitchen, or an artisan studio like my own, its origins ultimately trace back to that early Levantine craft. Nablus, located in the West Bank, became one of the great centres of this tradition, and this alchemical knowledge became the foundation of every bar of soap we know today.

Step inside one of the remaining soap factories in the Old City of Nablus and the first thing you’ll notice is the warmth. The air carries the gentle scent of olive oil heating in a vat in the ground, rising with steam and the faint mineral note of lye dissolving into water. This simple chemistry has been unfolding here for centuries.

In earlier generations, teams of men stirred the mixture by hand for days, guiding long wooden paddles through the thickening mass. Today, some workshops use partial mechanisation to ease the heaviest labour, but the craft remains unmistakably human, where timing, intuition, and inherited knowledge all converge.

When the soap reaches the right consistency, it’s poured across the wide stone floor. Workers step lightly onto the warm surface, pulling long wooden rulers through the soft slab to score it into perfect cubes. Each piece is then stamped with the maker’s emblem, a small but proud continuation of a family’s legacy.

Then comes the most striking sight of all, the drying towers. Fresh bars are stacked into tall, airy structures that allow air to circulate around every bar as it cures. The soap dries slowly for months as rooms fill with these pale olive cubes, their earthy scent subtle yet distinct, waiting to be wrapped and carried into homes across the world.

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In conjunction with our Limited Christmas Event, we are fundraising for The Palestinian Children Relief Fund who provide on the ground medical and humanitarian aid for the children in Gaza.

This is our second time raising funds for this organisation, the first time was in 2022. It was critical then, and as we’re all aware, desperately more so now.

We have a selection of genuine Palestinian soaps you can purchase to support the cause – we’ll reveal shortly – but I wanted to correct something from my post yesterday. I mentioned a portion of sales from these soaps would be going to the PCRF but in fact 100% will go to support the organisation.

In choosing these soaps, we have already supported the fragile soap making and olive producing industries in the West Bank.

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Our Limited Christmas Event + Fundraiser is almost here.

Available will be a small, intentional 48-hour sale featuring a curated edit of L’essence favourites, handcrafted in small batches and ready for gifting.

48 Hours Only

🐪 Opens Mon 1 Dec, 7.30pm AEST
🐪 Closes Wed 3 Dec, 7.30pm AEST
🐪 Shipping by Sat 6 Dec

This year, we’re also honoured to include a fundraiser supporting the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, with a limited allocation of authentic Palestinian soap. A portion of proceeds will directly support medical and humanitarian aid for children in Gaza.

Cannot wait to bring it to you from next Monday at www.lessence.com.au. Stock is limited XO