I began making my own simple and environmentally aware cleaning products in the late 80's. One of these was a laundry liquid based on soap.  It was then that I began to delve into what the ingredients of commercial soap were.  Discovering that, apart from being, at that time, almost exclusively being beef tallow based, they contained an array of artificial colours, fragrances and chemical hardeners.

My research turned toward how to make pure soap.  Although I could find only animal fat based recipies, I learned much about how to make pure soap from fatty acid and lye.  I spent several years exploring how to make lye from ashes, to create a balanced base that would not destroy the skins delicate acid mantle and then ultimatly to find a plant oil for the fatty acid.

My garden provided herbal remedies to enrich my natural olive oil base. My artistic background and long time interest in herbal remedies and essential oils achemised into a range of soap and soap based products that look and smell beautiful as well as being nourishing for skin and hair without being damaging to our environment. I was then able to use these in soap based cleaning products. The BARE Clean range was inspired by the products I have been using in my own Bathroom, Laundry and Kitchen all these years.

Fast forward to the early 2000s.  I was supplying friends and family as well as many people approaching me to purchase my products.  It was when I moved to Tamban in 2004 I trialled switching out the olive for locally produced Macadamia nut oil.  The results were fabulous.  A finer lather and a more neutral base scent that didnt mess with the essential oils I had begun to include. In 2005 BARE Soap was born when a friend ordered a box full to sell on to her clients and insisted I come up with a name. 

From 2009 BARE Soap went through an evolution, as did I.  Being welcomed into the Yolngu family of my children introduced me to a whole different world of earh based remedies.  My soap making skills were welcomed by the women and together we dreamed up 'Yalngi', a range of soaps containing eight of the skin nurturing natural ingredients gathered on the Datiwuy and Gumatj land they, and now I, call home.  The pristine nature of these remote traditional lands and the unbroken line to ancestral earth based wisdom is evident in the energy held in these remedies.    By the time I collaborated with the Datiwuy and Gumadj women of Rorruwuy to produce Yalngi soap in 2009, I had born 5 children. I became known locally as 'that soap lady, always covered in children'.

Now that those children are grown I have time to move beyond the scope of my local area.  Ive consolidated the elements of my journey with soap.  Although the BARE Home care range has not changed much over the years, my body soap line had grown and grown until, by 2019, I was producing 25 different soaps, including the Yalngi line. 

Many other fabulous pathways had opened in my world by then including BARE Weaving and BARE Transformation. At one time I considered dropping soap making altogether. Something my children and other family and friends were not in favour of.  Instead I streamlined the elements of my experience with earth remedies. Today ingredients from the 'Yalngi' range appear in each bar of the BARE Elements range as well as in many of our BARE Body products.

The Elements range was born just in time to answer the call from past customers around the country who asked it be sent to them by the box load during the lockdowns over the next 2 years.

BARE Soap sustained me in a time when my other work in the world suddenly decreased in demand. It was then that BARE Soap began to grow another branch.  My Daughters, now in their teens, became more interested in skin care.  I obliged by working with them to formulate different products based on simulating the more expensive and less natural ones on the store shelves. 

Now, in 2023, my youngest daughter, Antje Rainbarrwuy has joined me in creating the BARE Body line of products to provide another layer of nurturance for bodys that want to be BARE. She has become a huge part of BARE Soap and has greatly inspired the BARE Body range.  Im a minimilist when it comes to skin care. Antje's desire for divinely scented, luciously nourishing, pure and natural skin care to use in her daily routine has resulted in a range of body products that are as ethical as they are lush!

Myself, my family, friends and customers have all enjoyed the evolution of BARE Soap and have our favourite products that suit our individual life styles.  We hope you enjoy discovering the soap, body and cleaning products in the BARE Soap range that are right for you.