A Soaper's Journey

This Soaper's Journey

 

In a span of say 4 months what have you been doing? What have you accomplished? What have you procrastinated? And what were your original dreams?

I began beginner's craft soaping a couple years ago starting with melt and pour. I was deathly afraid of sodium hydroxide aka "lye" and wanted to make soap this method for a few years before putting on my brave girl pants and making soap the old fashioned way, free of detergents, free of surfactants, and free of a lot of other chemical nastys. 

Originally, my plan was to dive into cold process soap making next year. But, a session of Tony Robbins UPW live event over a 4-5 days intense program in West Palm Beach, FL sparked a fire in me -which  gave me the motivation and courage to start about a year earlier.  So, I started this year and in the last few months I have made enough soap to probably share with everyone in my church...okay maybe half the congregation, lol.  

To date I have tested and experimented with different colors and design techniques, soap frosting, soap dough (Yes, its a real thing), fragrances, and have recently started making my very own recipes! So exciting!  I had to learn frosting and cake decorating skills just for piping soap frosting...and enjoy this much more than actually baking. 

I can't say too much about what I am developing because I really want to be the first when I launch my collection, but along the way I have created a bunch of other soaps that I may put up on Etsy to share. Don't forget, I plan to donate a portion of the profits to the local no kill shelter in my town.  Wish I could give more but in the beginning it is probably going to be tight and I still have to cover the cost of the ingredients  and supplies.  

My original dream was to donate 100 percent! Umm...but that was when I had a full time job that WAS a steady income. Reality kicked in the front door and I now realize that if I have a worthy goal of even being able to some day afford to donate 50 percent of the profit from proceeds, that would be really sweet (or do they say "sic", I still don't get the expressions).  

Until then I take it one day at a time and am spending my time testing and developing new recipes and ideas as I work towards my soapy product collection. I've got a couple of the prototypes ready but still working on improving them.  I've taken on a very part time position of 1-2 days a week not related to soaping in order to pay some bills and buy soaping supplies.  

Its a Journey and one that I hope to continue into old age. In the process I hope to bring colorful unique soaps to your bathroom or guest bath, an option for non scented soaps for my Mom (has sensitive skin), and help to feed, shelter, and find a loving home for an abandoned pet who ended up in the unfortunate situation of living out their life in an animal shelter. 

Here's to trying to make the world a better place for someone or lost furball, no matter how small the drop of water in an ocean of good intent.