Making it in our factory

The « Marseillais » process is a traditional and discontinuous soap making process, during which the cooking of the paste is done in cauldrons.

It can be broken down into several characteristic steps and takes place over a cycle of about 80 hours.

	"L’empâtage" : Vegetable oils and soda are put into the cauldrons and brought to boiling point while being stirred. Saponification begins here and so a soap paste is gradually formed.
	"La cuisson" : During the cooking stage, soda is added in excess in order to saponify the fatty bodies which didn't react during the "empatage" step. This mixture is left boiling at 120°C for several hours.
	"Le relargage" : The paste is "washed" twice with salty water (half a day each time) and then excess water, impurities in the fatty bodies and glycerine are removed, followed by several washings with fresh water. "L'épinage" : Excess liquid is removed by decanting.
	"La liquidation" : The soap is boiled fast for the last time while adding pure water. The role of the master soap-maker is particularly important here because it's the moment when he "tastes" the soap, that is he checks its consistency and its homogeneity. It is then all left to rest between 18 and 48 hours and in this way the soap can be labelled as "extra-pure".

Boiling during the day and resting at night, the paste "works" for 8 to 10 days.

	"La cristallisation" : The transition from a liquid to a solid state is done by sending it through an atomizer (vacuum conditions) in which the soap is pulverized.
	"Le Moulage" : The soap goes through a series of "boudineuses" in which it is compressed to become a homogeneous paste. It comes out of the "boudineuses" onto a drawplate which allows the rough-hewing of its shape (bars or "bondons"). The solidified soap is cut up into cubes and then marked on six sides for traditional Marseille soap..