Wild Women Soaps

One of the most often asked questions from customers is where I come up with the ideas for all my soaps. It’s really a good question, one I’d ask, and one that especially occurs to people visiting me at a show or festival—entering the booth and coming face to face with over 30 kinds of colorful, funky soap all lined up and practically calling out to be held, sniffed, noticed—it strikes the average person as well… a bit much.

And it is. I admit. Right on over the top.

To answer this question of inspiration though, is difficult because the muse visits in different ways. For many of my creations the idea has been in my head a long time. Brewing, as it were. A place, an experience, a myth, a plant, a landscape, a person, an ingredient, an emotion, could be anything, if it’s rich and meaningful to me it quite often carries the thought, “now, that’d make a great soap.” I probably think that at least once a day—some ideas resoundingly better than others— traffic jam soap anyone?

Once a concept is in my head however, the “how’s” have to fall into place and for me, I’ve learned, this cannot be rushed.

For example, I knew for years I wanted to make a Grand Canyon
soap. It’s a profound place full of awe and majesty, a place where I’ve met my own human frailty and discovered more inner strength reserves than I ever imagined. Amazing light on rock, on plant, on water, on gorge, on trail, on vista, on sky, on wing… I had the great idea, but struggled to find the visual, worked hard to come up with the right ingredient formula and experimented even longer to find a scent blend that was, to me, Grand Canyon. We’ll call this the great inspiration with loads of work technique.

Sometimes it’s much easier. I was at a blending class a couple years ago and smelled galbanum essential oil for the first time. Instantaneously I was somewhere else, transported into what I can only describe as infinite green. I could not put it down. I knew very quickly this would be the beginning of my Gaia soap. There it was already made, I saw it, I knew it, it was an old friend, I just needed to get back to my studio and do it. We’ll call this the KABAM technique— pure gifts with very little to do with me actually.

Another way new soaps emerge is by scent evolution. Blending scents is one of my passions, and I have many, many little vials sitting around my work areas with numbers on them. Experiments, tests, liquid ideas. I’m always playing with a little more of this, some of that, a note of mystery, a chord of silliness. Most of these will stay trials in vials, but some have more to say. Some have stories to tell that I need to hear and share. My new soap, Salida del Sol, came about this way, a blend of essential oils that gently emerged over time. A blend that became.

A wish then, on this most auspicious occasion of my first musings entry—may we all become. Gently evolving with inspiration, refined by tests and trials, strengthened through lots of work and spiced with the occasional flash of KABAM.

~The Wild Muse