CHARLOTTE & CASTEL Sea Salt Soap

This could be looking out to sea off the coast of Bermuda.... but no, it's the view from the north shore of Great Lake Erie on a sunny day in January this year.  Colours are deceiving indicator of water temperature.

Charlotte and Castel Sea Salt Soap is also inspired by the beauty of the ocean.

I met creators Quintin and Melinda at last week's Urban Collective show in Toronto.  Quintin is originally from South Africa and Melinda from Midland Ont. Their professional careers crossed paths- she, a trained chef and he, a diver -  met aboard the largest ocean going catarmaran Hemisphere (145 ft!!!) while cruising the Galapagos.  Both equally enamored by the sea , soon became so with each other!  The couple left their sea legs behind and came ashore to build their artisinal sea salt soap company  Charlotte & Castel. 

Both Quintin and Melinda are impassioned evironmentalists concerning the oceans; they had first hand experience witnessing the huge horrific soup of plastic garbage in the middle of the Pacific, a sea of plastic, literally.  It cemented their concern to make their soap in the most non plastic way.  Nada.  Their is no plastic in the package; there is no glue in the carefully folded cardboard box, an ingenuous origami folding technique.  The printing is letterpressd in friendly blue ink.  And the soap is  amazing.

This attention to detail is exquisite but does not overpower the beauty of the soap which looks delicious enough to eat.  And that is not surprising given the fact that Melinda is trained as a pastry chef .  She says the same utensils cross over.  And well the name too.  No, they did not name the biz after me.  Charlotte and Castel happen to be two of Melinda's favourite desserts. some of their soaps have lovely granite like patterns using special botannicals and organic scents.

Shortly after the previous photo of Lake Erie there was a flash freezing; the surface turned a glassy ice and the wind whipped the snow across the ice as it froze creating this frosting effect like  on a cake.   I wonder if Melinda could incorporate this technique into their soap making.?????Freeze dried sea salt soap, anyone?