Soap: Apple Soap & Sugar Soap
It’s week three of my #52WeeksOfSoapmaking challenge.
I technically made 3 soaps this week. However I didn’t actually make any of them on my own. I flew all the way to Hartford, Connecticut (shout out to my amazing family who diligently cared for our two babies and allowed me the time + space to go to this conference).
This was the Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetic Guild Conference.
The ultimate opportunity for nerdy soapmakers like myself to get out of the house, get out of our workshop, get out of our heads, and get into community with other women (and a handful of men) and learn everything about our craft.
I particularly loved seeing other people make soap.
In my classes I teach that there’s not one right way to make soap. There are so many ways to make soap. I’ll say it again. There are so many way to make soap.
And the beauty of this is that if you are open-minded enough, you can learn how one person, one group, one culture, or one society makes this product and then translate aspects of that into your own soapmaking practice. Period. And that’s exactly what I did. I got to see a soapmaker named Ariane who I had not heard of before the conference. She showed us her fool-proof method of making soap with straight layers.
In the class, I sat up front and got to see her make this really beautiful green blue-white soap very reminiscent of a beach. It smelled like apples.
The secret she shared with us was to make each layer on it’s own so that your batter doesn’t harden. Genius! The next day, I got a chance to cut the soap she made in the vendor’s area. So fun!
I don’t make a lot of cold process soap.
I’ve attempted layers in the past. And I did find that to be a very tough process. Because exactly as she said, my soap did set up and so my layers were not anything close to being straight.
I had such a good time watching her show her technique and in that instant, I knew that at one of these conferences it would hopefully be me up on stage. Solo or with a group of other bold teachers, showing an eager crowd how to make something new and fresh and exciting!
The next soap that I watched come together was a 3 sugar soap. So this soap was made by a hilarious soapmaker name Catherine who honestly should be a part-time stand-up comedian. The soap contained maple sugar, granulated sugar, and honey. And so, each of these were different layers of soap that she put together and then ended up doing this nice beautiful swirl. And this was another opportunity where I got to see another person makes soap. Honestly, I was a little bit late to her session, so I missed out on the first part of what went down but I did come up toward the end and asked a couple of questions on what to do for it to be hot processed. The key? Add the sugars after the soap cooks. I took home a fresh slice of soap she made the day before with me. It’s a delicious smelling soap that I’m excited to use and see how well it bubbles up and lathers.
An honorable mention (since we didn’t make soap in this session) was learning all about frankincense resins from Venessa. She’s a total genius, super funny, and delivered her presentation like she was talking directly to me despite the fact there were 100 people in the room. I was joking with the lady next to me and I told her, “Wow. This session smells like 11 AM on Sunday. It smells like Catholic mass up in here!” But it’s true it really does! It smells like Catholic mass during Christmas season and I was not mad at that at all. How can one talk about frankincense and not talk about the most famous person who ever received this as a gift? Shout out to the 3 wise men and the baby Jesus.
Another honorable mention that I have to talk about is the the business pitch session that I attended with award-winning LaShonda Tyree of Naya Beauty. I totally raised my hand up high when she asked if anyone wanted to come up and share the pitch we worked on during her session. After being sick with hyperemesis and wanting so desperately to get-up-and-get moving and grooving, I was motivated to not be scared.
If you are on the fence about attending the HSCG Conference, DO IT!
