HI Laura, welcome to the forum (sorry its a bit of a delayed welcome!).
I live in London, England too and its nice to meet a fellow soaper. I too got into soaping through making lotions and surfactants. I seem to be addicted to making lotions (love trying new ingredients - everytime I make a lotion I tweak it and add more - now I have over 30 ingredients in my lotions - I need to cut back!) and also soap (don't worry I only put 5 ingredients in my soap! - love experimenting with swirl techniques and colours).
If you have any questions or fancy a general chit chat, feel free to message me.