Forest Bath is a completely biodegradable product series of three bar soaps made by hand in Finland, which, in addition to its practicality, contains high-quality raw materials, respecting the diversity of nature. The entrepreneurial duo of Elsa Ekopaja in Heinola, Mari Tiira and Jenni Äijälä, bring to the market an environmentally friendly product series that you can easily and safely take with you on an excursion, cabin, trip, caravan trip or even to a hotel.

Forest Bath products are light to take with you and they travel neatly and neatly in a resealable bag. All pieces have a string, thanks to which the product stays well in the hands, and from which it can also be conveniently hung between uses. Forest Bath products are vegan and odorless and waterless. The products of the detergent series wash effectively even in cold water. Bar soap weighs 20 grams and its estimated consumer price is €7.90.

The Forest Bath series currently includes three products:

Outdoor Soap Marigold is a bar soap containing marigold for gentle washing of the whole body.

Outdoor Shampoo Nettle is a bar shampoo containing nettle for all hair types.

Outdoor Dish Soap is bar soap suitable for washing dishes and laundry and other cleaning.

"We are really proud and excited about the look of the Forest Bath series and the feedback we have received," say soap manufacturers Mari Tiira and Jenni Äijälä. "There are already plans for new additions to this biodegradable product family," the duo flash.

Forest Bath was developed to meet the need

"The idea for the product line took off when a big camp for scouts was organized at Evo in Hämeenlinna in the summer of 2022, where they wanted to offer products that the campers could use to wash the nature of the camping area in an environmentally friendly way," says Jenni Äijälä.

"There was no other equally light and practical product for camping on the market", says Mari Tiira.

Erälehti 11/2022 tested the products and wrote: "Elsa Ekopaja's string soap set is a welcome addition to the washing tool bag of a responsible hiker and hiker. The small soaps are convenient to carry with you and are suitable not only for camping, but also for cabin dwellers, travelers and caravanners."

The detergent series developed for outdoor people was so well received that based on the experiences, the Forest Bath product family was developed with a new look, but with proven and praised soap recipes. The new bar soap series for environmentally conscious users and retailers is available immediately.

Itä-Häme newspaper published on March 4, 2023

Elsan Ekopaja from Heinola has developed an environmentally friendly detergent series suitable for a hiker's backpack, designed especially for outdoor people. The new product line was launched on Friday at the premises of the soap factory in Vuohkallio.

The idea for a series of three bar soaps was born last summer, when a big camp for scouts was organized at Evo in Hämeenlinna. The soap team wanted to provide the camp with biodegradable products that the campers could use to wash themselves or wash dishes and clothes while respecting the nature of the camping area.

His own contribution was brought to the development of the product line by a camping supplier Even the Beach. He became interested in the products and tested them, after which he decided to meet the CEO of Elsa Ekopaja Mari Tiiraa and personnel manager Jenni Äijälä .

Ranta saw that there was clearly a demand for innovation from Heino, but he also noticed that the entrepreneurial duo was plagued by Finnish modesty. Tiira and Äijälä now agree.

- We couldn't see for ourselves how good a product we have in our hands and what kind of potential it could have. Joppe has been able to give hands-on advice on what kind of things need to be brought out when the product is being marketed, says Äijälä.

The new Forest Bath product family has been produced based on the tips and ideas given by Ranna. Biodegradable soaps, shampoos and detergents are still made using the same proven recipes, but the visual look of the product family has undergone a makeover.

We couldn't see for ourselves how good a product we have in our hands.

Jenni Äijälä

Cooperation with the soap team has been rewarding for the experienced camping reporter.

- In the two bubbles project, two different views have been reconciled, but at the same time both have learned from each other. It's great that the team has developed several good products for different target groups. It increases the company's credibility, says Ranta.

Mari Tiran according to, all the products made at the soap workshop are in some way objects of the passions of the team members. The product series aimed at hikers is Jenni Äijälä's favorite child. Also in charge of soap production Aliisa Seppänen are outdoor people.

According to Äijälä, the boom in hiking and nature has grown in recent years, but it is difficult to find washing products that are biodegradable and fit conveniently in a backpack on the shelves of ordinary stores.

- You can't reduce the amount of food needed for a week-long hiking trip, but you can reduce the amount of clothes you can carry in your backpack if you do some laundry, he describes.

Mari Tiira states that there is currently no other equally light and practical washing product for hikers on the market. There are other options for biodegradable soaps, but liquid products are often packed in plastic bottles, which should not be left in nature. Plastic soap and detergent bottles can also leak or break in a backpacker's bag.

- Due to their size, our products are also suitable for campers, boaters, caravanners and other travelers, says Tiira.

Elsa Eco workshop was a one-woman company until a couple of years ago. Now, in addition to two entrepreneurs, it employs two employees and a salesperson responsible for business sales.

- We develop ideas that can be crazy in a good way. Almost all of them do not make it to implementation, Tiira reveals.

In May, the soap team will go to present their innovation at the wild fairs in Oulu and Pori. Joppe Ranta gets to put the products to good use when he participates in a four-day camping industry event organized in Denmark.

- Unlike in Finland, in Denmark we spend the night in tents during the event, says Ranta.

Reporter Anna-Kaisa Kallio

Erä-Lehti 11/2022

String soap for a trip.

Good ideas are simple and chance often plays a role.

I guess the same can be said about Elsa Ekopaja's Etkeilijä string soap series, which was launched at the beginning of this summer.

Scouts going to the big camp were expected to pack biodegradable soap with them. Eco-friendly is rare in market soaps, so good soap tips were announced on the campers' discussion board.

Elsan Ekopaja, operating in Heinola, had already been handcrafting ecological and biodegradable bar soaps for a couple of years, so they found know-how and an idea to solve the puzzle.

When a large cake of soap is normally cut into the basic sizes of a bar of soap with a guitar string cutter, the soaps intended for the use of hikers were shrunk into even smaller, 20-gram pieces.

A string was threaded into the holes carved at one end of the piles and the laundry pieces were packed in resealable paper-lined bags. When soap is made, the raw materials are mixed together and poured into a mold to coagulate.

The mixture is allowed to soap up for about a day before it is cut into pieces. After this, the pieces are allowed to be made for about four weeks before packaging.

The hiker's bars of soap were finished just in time and ready to be sold to Evo at the camp store. A new product group was born.

Laundry in the natural environment.

The hiker's detergent series includes Calendula string soap, Nokkonen string shampoo and String cleaning soap. They were also in active use at my summer cottage, where the old sauna was demolished and a temporary washing place was built in the yard. The washing water was heated on the gas stove and I sprayed it on myself with the rechargeable cabin shower. After washing with liquid soap for years, bar soap felt strange at first. The first big surprise was the abundant foaminess of the soap. Even with a small amount of water, the washing power of the soap was released. Quickly even the corners of the new piece became rounded as the soap danced on the skin.

The soap's ingredients include skin-moisturizing domestic camelina oil, coconut, olive, castor and rapeseed oils, cocoa butter, sea salt and marigold petals.

The bar soap leaves a slightly sticky, but pleasant feeling on the skin. Calendula soap is a completely additive-free and fragrance-free product that breaks down naturally and does not pollute.

The hiker's bar shampoo, on the other hand, foams well even when washed with cold water, so the hair will be clean, even if it is not possible to heat the water.

Piece shampoo contains organic nettle powder, deep-cleansing bentonite clay, camelina oil and organic beer. According to the manufacturer, nettle shampoo is especially suitable for oily hair.

Even though the soap and shampoo are biodegradable, their lids were still not washed in the lake, but the washing water was absorbed through the sand layer into the ground.

The adequacy of the soap and palasic acid is largely up to the user. The manufacturer tells the story of a hiking group of five women, for whom one bar of soap was enough for a week's journey.

Based on my own user experience, the story is believable. A bar of soap is easily enough for ten washes, and with shampoo you wash your hair a little more often.

String soap for camping counters

Mari Tiira from Heinola got the impetus to make soap when her sensitive-skinned daughter Anna could no longer find the only detergent she could use in the shops.

Tiira frantically searched for information about soaps and how to make them, until she found the right composition after a couple of experiments.

Since Tiira was recovering from the death of her daughter Elsa, who died of a congenital heart defect at the age of just four months, the soap factory was built in her memory.

In many Elsa Ekopaja soaps, charity goes hand in hand with the product. For example, a share of Winnie the Pooh's honey soap goes to the sponsors of Children's Clinics.

Fundraising products tailored for school classes, sports clubs and the like have become a large part of the soap factory's operations.

Cleaning soaps are an important part of Elsa's Ekopaja repertoire, and that's why one is also made for hikers.

In test use, it was used to wash the travel tableware and the kettle several times. Washing dishes with bar soap also takes some getting used to, because liquid detergent is such a familiar everyday product.

In cleaning soap, you can wrap the string around a bar of soap and use it to scrape the dirt off the dishes. In addition to washing dishes, you can also conveniently wash socks, underwear or other sweaty clothes during the trip with the cleaning soap.

Batch recommendation:

Elsa Ekopaja's ecological string soap set is a welcome addition to the washing tool bag of the responsible hiker and hiker. Small soaps are convenient to carry with you and are suitable not only for camping use but also for cabin dwellers, travelers and caravanners.

Editor Joppe Ranta.

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