Inside Suds: Q&A With Squatch R&D Director Alex Blackstone

Ever wondered what goes into the process of crafting our legendary Squatch briccs you (and millions of other people!) love so much? Here. We. Go. We’re bringing in a Team Squatch ringer to help answer all your burning questions and to give us some insight into our product development process. From scent and formula development to mixing, testing, and production, we’re gonna deep dive with the help of our Director of R&D, Alex Blackstone. 

The shower’s on, briccs up… let’s get into it.

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about your background and what your role at Dr. Squatch involves?

Alex: Sure, I love the personal care industry and have 14+ years of experience in the sector. I’ve held positions in all aspects of the product development process including research and development, supply chain, and manufacturing. My original background is actually in chemical engineering and I really enjoy the full process of taking products from the lab into manufacturing scale.

I joined Dr. Squatch in 2020 (there were just 20 of us then!) and I was making all the test batches of soap myself in our lab. Currently I’m the Director of R&D (Research & Development) and what that means is, I lead our lab team that creates all of our new soap products, as well as other new product categories too. My team focuses on taking new product ideas from concept to reality.

Q: Sooo, I guess, we gotta start somewhere…what is soap?

Alex: It’s actually a surprisingly simple formula, especially when you’re making truly natural, cold-process soap like we do at Dr. Squatch. Essentially soap is just a combination of fats plus lye. These ingredients go through a chemical reaction called saponification that creates two products: soap and glycerin. Our natural base ingredients include oils like coconut and olive plus benefits-focused enhancements like shea butter, clay, sea salt, and other natural extracts and fragrances that make each soap unique.

Q: Saponification…how does that work exactly?

A: This is a great question because it's at the core of everything we do in soap development. Saponification is the chemical reaction where oils react with a strong base to form soap. For bar soap, we use lye (sodium hydroxide). In practice, we mix and melt the oils, add base ingredients like water, sea salt, and clay, and then mix in the lye. This triggers the saponification reaction, thickening the mixture as soap forms. We pour this mixture into molds and allow it to solidify and cure. Once cured, all the lye has reacted, leaving none in the final product.

Q: What sets our soap making process different from other brands? We use a traditional cold process, right?

A: Yup, that’s exactly it. In addition to sourcing the best natural ingredients and fragrances we use what’s called a “cold process” in our soap manufacturing. In the cold process of soap making, oils and fats are mixed with a lye solution, which creates soap through a natural chemical reaction, that process of saponification that I previously mentioned. Unlike the hot process, there's no need for external heat. Instead, we let our formulations cool naturally and turn into soap over a period of hours. The benefit of using this method is that it preserves more of the natural goodness of our ingredients and allows us to better incorporate our classic manly scents and creative designs. Our process is more time-consuming and costly but we truly believe it’s the best way to do it and the results are the best they can be for Squatch Nation.

Q: How do you decide on which new soap bars to create?

A: We’ve got an incredibly talented product team that starts with an initial concept and then we build it out from there. It could be a partnership with Marvel or a holiday theme, or it could be a type of benefit we want to go after, or even a specific style of scent or design. After initial concepting we build out the scent, look, and ingredients. A lot of development goes into each step of the process from scent testing to ingredient formulations and more. Ultimately we’re trying to create each individual product from scratch and think through how the whole concept works together from initial idea to final product and create a truly unique experience.

Q: How do you test your soap bars, and how often do you create new ones?

A: We do trial batches in our in-house lab to get the formulations, look, and scents correct before moving onto our final large-scale manufacturing process. We're constantly working on prototypes in the lab and we start with small batches to test ingredients and designs, which are then tested by Dr. Squatch employees. Our team regularly smells new fragrance ideas and uses prototype bars to give feedback. We're always innovating and refining our products to ensure the highest quality.

Q: How long does it take to make a typical bar of soap?

A: The actual manufacturing process of making a batch of soap is relatively quick compared to the time needed for preparing equipment, weighing materials, and waiting for the soap to dry and cure. From start to finish, it can take weeks before the final packaged bar is ready for shipment.

Q: Ok, Squatch Nation needs to know…favorite bricc or scent?

A: Coconut Castaway is my favorite core bar. I love the way it uses all different types of coconut materials with coconut milk, coconut water, coconut shreds & coconut oil. Plus the scent truly transports me to a vacation, how great is that? 

 Want to dive a little bit deeper into what makes Dr. Squatch different? Check this out.

Alex Blackstone is the Director of Research & Development at Dr. Squatch where she leads the R&D team. She has 14+ years of experience in the personal care industry, and has worked with brands including Burt's Bees, Neutrogena, Aveeno, and Clean & Clear. She has a master’s degree in engineering management from Dartmouth College and a bachelor of science in chemical engineering from the University of Virginia.