Mater Hand & Body Soap

MATER spoken like water
MA•TER \ˈmȯ-tər, ˈmä-tər

Mater Soap pays homage to utilitarian objects that quietly serve our daily lives. ​​We create a variety of cold-process bar soaps and organic body products. Keeping our batches small and handmade, we strive to perfect the simple and subtle alchemy of soap-making and body care.
The minimalist beauty of traditional soap formulation and the power of plant oils and extracts inform our craft. By using natural, sustainably-sourced plant ingredients like smoky pine tar, red alkanet root powder, and salty sea plants, we provide bathers with products that nourish the body and the mind, and enhance the bathing ritual.
Take your time. Breathe deeply. Don’t rush, even with the dishes.
We are inspired by sculpture, architecture, and textiles— the meeting of joyful experience and simple, absolute function. Mater Soap chooses materials and composes recipes that speak to the well-being of both the bather and the planet, with products that are enriched by ingredients chosen with intention, care, and a conscious effort to minimize ecological impact.

Mater means “mother” in Latin. Mater Soap is named to honor the natural world from which we create. It is a nod of gratitude to the actual and symbolic mothers who nurtured us, broadened our concepts of beauty and empowerment, and showed us how to steward/cultivate in return. Mater bathers see themselves and nurture their bodies and spirits. They cultivate the beauty within on their quest to simplify. In a world of heedless excess, they care for, rather than waste.

The Woman of Willendorf is one of the earliest artifacts representing the human body. Who is the author of this mysterious, precious small stone figure? What is her purpose? One theory of her provenance is that she represents the earliest portrait of a woman made by herself, based on the birds-eye-view shape of the figure’s body, lack of facial features and tiny feet —a self-portrait. The more common belief is that she is a “fertility figure, a good-luck totem, a mother goddess symbol, or an aphrodisiac made by men for the appreciation of men” (Kathleen Kuiper, Encyclopedia Britannica). She speaks to the redefinition of traditional concepts of beauty and empowerment, reclaiming personal body narratives. She sees herself.
The Woman of Willendorf is a 4"-tall Paleolithic sculpture, created around 30,000 BP. It is believed to have been carved in oolitic limestone, most likely in northern Italy. Also known as the Venus of Willendorf, it is in the collection of the Vienna Museum of Natural History.