Past New Mexico Public Defender of the Year, BHS Alumna Liz Honce is a Soap Crafter on the Side
By Julie Perine on February 07, 2016 via Connect-Bridgeport.com
While attending law school at the University of New Mexico, Elizabeth Honce never imagined she would someday delve into a hobby that is so chemical in nature.
Though she has an active Albuquerque-based criminal law practice, the Bridgeport High School alumna is a soap maker. It all started out of necessity and last resort, but has grown into a side business.
“I started out making my own soap three years ago because I have eczema and I wanted a pure unscented soap,” said Honce, of the BHS class of 1977. “What I found out is that my friends and others wanted scented soap, so now I have both kinds.”
Under the brand Dos Palomas – Spanish for “two doves” – Honce handcrafts body butter bars, bath bombs, cedar wood soaps and a variety of other luscious soap products - even including soap cupcakes. She sells to locals, but also ships all over the U.S.
Tami Shearer Hatcher, who grew up in the same Bridgeport neighborhood, said she recently ordered. Her products arrived at her North Carolina residence last week and she was very happy with her purchase.
“One is 100 percent olive oil castile soap - no scent - not only good for sensitive skin, but good for pets too,” Hatcher said. “Another is olive oil, sunflower oil, coconut oil, and castor oil. 
Colored with all alkanet root - very high in hyaluronic acid, which is a wrinkle fighter - and kaolin clay and a light fragrance.”
Colored with all alkanet root - very high in hyaluronic acid, which is a wrinkle fighter - and kaolin clay and a light fragrance.”
Hatcher said she particularly likes the aroma of the latter soap, which is also such a pretty purple color. She also tried a soap which blends sunflower, coconut and castor oils with oatmeal, honey and goats milk. Scented with French lavender essential oil, that one is a good every day natural soap Hatcher has found.
The crafting process can be a lengthy one, but Honce has it down to a science, so to speak. It’s been a work in progress over the past few years. For the first year, she used a melt and pour method and eventually evolved into the more time consuming lye process, which she referred to as “Granny Clampett-type stuff.”
“It took me about a year to get comfortable with using the lye because you have to take some precautions,” she said. “But once I started making my own soap from scratch, it has been a lot of fun.”
Also known as sodium hydroxide, lye is a chemical that can burn or be otherwise dangerous. So there is a process necessary to neutralize it.
“There are two ways – a hot process and a cold process – and I do both,” Honce said.
She uses a slow cooker for the hot process, cooking the mixture for two to two-and-a-half hours before pouring it into silicone molds for overnight settling.
“When you take it out of the molds the next day, it is safe to use.
Cold processed soap, however, takes a couple weeks to neutralize. That method is best for crafting patterned soap loaves.
“You can do the swirls and designs when you do the hot process, but it’s not as defined because the hot processed soap is a thicker consistency,” she said.
Once the design is created, she covers the raw soap with a blanket, warming it to seal.
“It heats naturally. You basically let it cook itself for 24 hours to two days, depending on the recipe, then you pop it out of the mold and cut it,” she said. “The cool thing about it is when you cut it, you never know how it’s going to look. Each slice is different.”
The batch then must remain in a dry place for four 
to six weeks to cure.
to six weeks to cure.
Honce uses a food-grade lye. Other basic ingredients are water and some type of oil. As many “soapers” do, Honce tried making soap with lard, but found the finished product to be better suited for laundry purposes.
As she he frequently uses vegetable oils, soy, beeswax, cocoa butter, mango butter and coconut oil, most of her products are vegan friendly.
One of her favorite oils is organic palm, which makes beautiful soaps. But because its harvesting is adverse to the rainforest, she sometimes opts for coconut, sunflower, castor and olive oils, as well as shay butter.
Also included and having moisturizing qualities is glycerin, which is many times taken out of commercially-made soaps and used to make byproducts, such as lotions.
To scent the soap, Honce uses various ingredients including essential oils which are used alone or with synthetic fragrances to get a certain smell.
“One example is devil’s food cake scent. You’re not going to find that in a bottle naturally," she said.
Used alone, the essential oils – including orange, grapefruit and the always popular lavender and raspberry – can be very aromatic, but tolerable even to those who are allergy-prone. Such is usually not the case with synthetic fragrances, Honce said.
Occasionally, she will accommodate special requests for soaps scented with lemon grass, patchouli or sandalwood.
The coloring process is really when all the fun comes in.
“I use micas and oxides, which are natural colors,” Honce said. “It’s crushed up sparkly rocks so it gives nice coloring. For the intensity of the colors, you experiment with different things.”
Clarksburg’s Deaonna Crowe, who likes natural products, is a Dos Palomas customer.
“The soap is very good. (Liz) uses very good product,” she said. “She made me a special scent and it was marvelous. I love the lather that you get. She really knows what she is doing. She has the knowledge and experience in soap making. I highly recommend her.”
She loves her soap business, but it's her other business - Honce Law - "that pays the bills," she said.
Upon graduation from BHS, Honce relocated to Tuscon, Ariz., where she started her undergraduate degree. Several years later, she finished that degree at West Virginia University. With a bachelor’s degree in Spanish, she attended law school at the University of New Mexico and graduated in 2002. She practices in the area of criminal and immigration law. She is past president of the law school Christian Legal Society and has served on the board of New Mexico Christian Legal Aid. She was voted 2005 Public Defender of the Year by the New Mexico Public Defender Department.
Honce has a son, 26-year-old Matthew, who assists her in the soap business.
