Woods Hole Scientist Adds Soapmaking to C.V.

If you're looking for last-minute Christmas gifts that could only come from Woods Hole, consider these soaps handmade by an ocean scientist who adds natural ingredients including local seaweed.

We stumbled across Rebecca Gast and her Woods Hole Soapworks creations at the holiday edition of the Falmouth Farmers Market, but you can also find her soaps at selected local stores for about $5 a bar (see below). 

Creatively wrapped in cut-up navigational charts with an image of the Woods Hole Drawbridge raised, Gast's soaps come in about a dozen varieties including Frankincense & Cedarwood, Rosewood Goat's Milk, Cranberry Spice and Sea Salt & Seaweed.

Patch: What do you do when you're not making soap?
Rebecca Gast:I'm a microbiologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, studying microbes in the sea.

Patch: How did you get into soapmaking?
Gast: A friend taught me how to do it, and I thought it would make good gifts for family and friends.

Patch: What kind of soap do you make?
Gast: It's lye soap; it's called cold-process, because you heat up the oils to melt them but you don't continue heating them.

Patch: Then what happens?
Gast: You add lye, so it reacts; you need to calculate the proper amounts of fats to add so that it reacts with the all of the lye to make the soap, and then I add a little bit of fat to it afterwards, so they're a little more moisturizing.

Patch: What kind of seaweed do you harvest locally for your Sea Salt & Seaweed soap?
Gast: It's called ulva. I also mail-order dulse; I try to stick with natural ingredients and natural colorings as much as possible.

Patch: And when it's not possible?
Gast: Some of these are fragrance oils. Cranberry doesn't have an essential oil, so I use a fragrance oil. But Cranberry Spice is fun, and it's pretty.

Patch: Where's the factory turning out these soaps?
Gast: I make them in my house, in Hatchville. I encourage everyone to try soapmaking. It's fun.

Patch: How would I even get started doing that?
Gast: If you go online and Google "cold process soap," there are tons of tutorials. There's a lot of information out there. 

Patch: You gave your soaps away as gifts for many years. When did you make your first sale?
Gast: In September, 2012.

Patch: Now that you've started your own business, where can we buy your soaps?
Gast: Under the Sun in Woods Hole, and in Falmouth at Twigs, Amber Waves and Falmouth Wine & Spirits on Palmer Avenue.

Patch: What's next for Woods Hole Soapworks?
Gast: I'm thinking about what you have to do to expand. It's just me right now.

Reach Rebecca Gast of Woods Hole Soapworks at wohosoapworks@gmail.com.