Dermolia, the workshop

The workshop

Dermolia was born in Zurich in 2017. Since July 2024, the workshop has been in Sool, in the canton of Glarus. Every soap is poured, cut and wrapped there by hand, by Stephane Andrieux, its founder.

The path

My first soaps had a bit of everything in them: shea butter, avocado oil, aloe vera leaves, chestnut honey from Ticino, lemon, lavender, coffee grounds, and even fresh coriander. A good pizzaiolo masters his margherita before inventing other pizzas. So I started again from scratch, with the chemistry treatises on soap and a single ingredient at the centre: extra virgin olive oil, three levels of superfatting and simple shapes.

And since the oil makes up almost the whole soap, I had to know it properly: in Spain I trained at the Escuela Europea de Cata, with three levels of sensory analysis of extra virgin olive oil in April 2018, then the olive mill master and elaiologist course (“Maestro de Almazara/Elaiólogo”) in October 2018. These courses were led by Mar Luna Villacañas, the author of the oil I use today.

Soaps and balms

The soaps are made by the cold process, without cooking, with 10, 15 or 20% superfatting: part of the oil is not turned into soap and stays on the skin. They cure for at least three weeks before they are sold. The balms contain only two ingredients: organic extra virgin olive oil and organic Swiss beeswax.

The olive oil

The organic extra virgin olive oil comes from the Tapiador family (Aceites Juventud, Spain), with no middleman. It is the work of Mar Luna Villacañas, its author. It is the same oil the shop sells in bottles.

Safety

Every product has a safety report from an independent laboratory, MySwissLab. To date, around 500 kg of soap have left the workshop.

Find out more

You don’t have to take my word for it: the “Learn more” page brings together the official sources, with the olive oil map, the soap map and the essay on soap.