By Matt, founder of Heli Botanica
I make every Heli Botanica soap twice, once with tallow and once vegan, for much the same reason I've cooked two versions of the same meal for 28 years: I eat meat and my wife is vegan. The two bars follow the same rules, leave skin feeling comparably soft, and I use both, in rotation.
That's the short answer. The longer one involves a hobby, a supermarket, and a fair amount of soap that didn't make the cut.
How did a soap hobby become Heli Botanica?
Partly by chance, partly by choice. I started making soap as a hobby a couple of years ago, and from the very first batch I wanted it to be natural and stripped back.
Some context. I have rosacea, and until then I'd never had a skin routine of any kind. What I did have was a long line of shop-bought soaps that left my skin feeling greasy. So I started reading labels, and the more I read, the more I wanted something with less in it: fewer ingredients, and nothing there without a reason. This isn't a story about soap fixing anything. It's a story about a man who wanted a simpler bar and, somewhat to his own surprise, decided to make it.
Why did I start with tallow?
The research kept leading me back to tallow. I'm a meat eater, and I like the nose-to-tail way of thinking: if you're going to eat meat, use as much of the animal as you can rather than wasting the parts that aren't steak. Tallow fits that neatly: it's part of the animal that would otherwise be easy to overlook.
So I tried making my own.
What was the first bar like?
My first soap was pure tallow, made with ingredients from Tesco. It came out pure white and rock hard. It cleaned, in fairness. What it didn't do was lather, not in any way you'd call real lather. It was soap in the way that a plain boiled potato is dinner: technically correct, and not something you'd hurry back to.
But it was a start, and it told me tallow was worth the trouble.
How was the Heli Protocol born?
What followed was a lot of experimenting. Some of it was promising. Much of it was educational, which is the polite word for it. Along the way I set myself some rules, mostly to stop myself throwing every oil on the shelf at the problem:
- Tallow is the main ingredient.
- Oils are kept to a minimum, ideally three.
- Every one of them has to serve a purpose.
Those rules grew into what we now call the Heli Protocol: fewer oils at higher percentages, scent from pure essential oils only, and colour from nature. They sound strict. They are. That's rather the point.
What's in the tallow bar now?
The finished formula is 65% tallow, with coconut and sweet almond. Three oils, each with a job:
- Tallow does the heavy lifting.
- Coconut adds the cleansing.
- Sweet almond leaves skin feeling soft and fingernails conditioned.
I can't claim much for the fingernails beyond the fact that I noticed, but I did notice. Family and friends tried the bars and found the same. Speaking for myself: as a 50-year-old man, I suddenly had a skincare routine that took one shower and left my skin the softest it's ever been.
The Tesco days are behind us, I should add. The tallow we use now is cosmetic-grade, from a specialist soap supplier, so that every bar meets the safety assessment (CPSR) a cosmetic needs. You'll find the full reasoning in inside our tallow soap bar, and the bars themselves in our tallow soap collection.
Why make a vegan version as well?
Because my wife is vegan, and I've been making two versions of the same meal for 28 years. A second soap was never really a question. It was simply what happens in our house.
It was, however, much harder than the first. There were many failed attempts. Most vegan soaps are built on palm oil (common in commercial soap) or olive oil. Palm was out: I think it's unethical, and it contributes to deforestation. Olive I tried, repeatedly, and the results disappointed. To make an olive bar hard enough, I kept needing more oils and additives, and every one I added took me further from the protocol. A vegan bar that broke the rules wouldn't really be a Heli bar.
Why avocado instead of olive?
So I switched to avocado. It's largely a by-product, it has a different lipid profile from olive, and it gave me a harder bar with a creamier, richer lather. That was the moment the vegan bar stopped being the awkward sibling.
Around it are two supporting oils, three ingredients in all:
- Avocado leads, at 51%.
- Coconut adds the cleansing.
- Organic unrefined cocoa butter adds hardness and longevity, and a moisturising, emollient quality.
The result is two comparable bars with similar properties, one tallow and one vegan, made to the same rules. The full story is in inside our vegan soap bar, and the bars are in our vegan soap collection.
So which one should you choose?
If you're vegan, or you'd rather not use animal products, the answer is easy: choose the vegan bar. It wasn't made as a compromise, and it doesn't behave like one.
If you're comfortable with both ethically, my honest advice is to do what I do and use both in rotation. They feel different in a way I've come to enjoy:
- The tallow bar leaves my skin very, very soft. I sometimes notice it randomly during the day, which is not something I ever expected to say about soap.
- The vegan bar leaves skin soft too, but it feels more like wearing a lotion. That's the cocoa butter.
If you'd like the side-by-side detail, I've set it out in tallow vs vegan soap.
Where are the soaps made?
Every bar is handmade by me in small batches in North Wales, between the mountains and the sea. We make them by cold process and cure them for six weeks, which gives a harder, longer-lasting bar, and the five scents are named in Welsh after the landscape around us, from mountain air to coastal dunes. There's a separate post on what our Welsh scent names mean.
Our first batch of 500 bars launches on 30 October 2026. Long term, I'd like to render our own tallow too. For now, I'm content that the hobby that started with a rock-hard bar from supermarket ingredients now has rules, a name, and a wife who approves of at least half of it.
Frequently asked questions
Why does Heli Botanica make both tallow and vegan soap?
Matt, our founder, eats meat and likes the nose-to-tail approach, which led him to tallow; his wife is vegan, and he has made two versions of the same meal for 28 years. Making two comparable bars, one tallow and one vegan, followed naturally.
Is the vegan bar a compromise?
No. It went through many failed attempts until avocado replaced olive, giving a harder bar with a creamier, richer lather. It follows the same rules as the tallow bar and is designed to be comparable.
Where does your tallow come from?
We use cosmetic-grade tallow from a specialist soap supplier, sourced in the EU (France), so that our bars meet the requirements of their cosmetic safety report (CPSR). Long term, we plan to render our own.
Can I use both bars?
Yes, and Matt does exactly that, using them in rotation. The tallow bar leaves skin feeling very soft; the vegan bar leaves it soft too, with a feel closer to wearing a lotion, thanks to the cocoa butter.
Where are Heli Botanica soaps made?
Every bar is handmade by Matt, our founder, in small batches in North Wales, between the mountains and the sea, using the cold process method and a six-week cure.