My favorite soap in the world is from an independent shop in my home-town, Pasadena, called The Soap Kitchen. Made in small batches in an on-site kitchen, the shop is full of beautifully scented and textured soaps that are made from only the best natural ingredients (I absolutely LOVE the lavender oatmeal with shea butter bar!). These soaps literally became all I would use and the thought of being in London without them made me really sad. Like, really.
Luckily, soon after moving here I learned about The Make Lounge, a maker's paradise that offers creative workshops - including soap making! If I couldn't buy my natural soaps from The Soap Kitchen, then I could at least try to make my own, right?
This DIY turned out to be more of a group effort due to processing time and allotted space but no one seemed to mind. We had to agree on what types of essential oils we wanted to use since we all had different scent preferences but after that it was smooth sailing with turns on the heat pad, stirring, mixing, and pouring. I'm purposefully leaving major details out because I honestly don't remember the ingredients and chemical processes (sorry, I should have saved the handout!).
Long story short, it was a totally new type of "making" for me and though it was really fun and interesting to learn, I realized that I may be more of a simple crafter than a mad scientist. That being said, I can't wait to go back to The Make Lounge to try some other workshops like paper cutting art, book binding, and screen printing - I have a feeling those will be more my style.
Besides, I found some great natural soaps from a vendor in Camden Market that can give me my homemade soap fix :)