Location Is Everything - A Soap Challenge About Your Locale

You people never cease to amaze me with the beauty you create.  Some of the entries were downright amazing but I can only name one winner and one runner up.  Over the years, I have found more joy than you know, seeing your soap creations and what you take from the soap or photo challenges I have offered you.  It brings me such happiness when you stop for a few moments in the madness of your lives and really think of the challenge.  I know down deep, you know you can take on each challenge, because you will try new things and learn new things (scary things) through self discovery, whether or not your final piece comes out the way you want it or not.  Many of my major flops were my biggest learning experiences, which is unfortunate sometimes, but true nonetheless.

Many of you just lurk, but one day, perhaps you will share with us.  If you do play along but don't post your pictures, then I can only hope that this blog has inspired a piece of you to think outside the box and expand your artistic expression.

This challenge was to evaluate your physical surroundings, whether it was your street, neighborhood, city, rural landscape, anything and recreate it in a design through soap and explain it.

Mad Oils has sponsored this challenge.  Mad Oils is giving a $50 surprise gift set to the winner and a $25 surprise gift set to the runner up.  FUN!!

This is the hardest challenge I've had to choose a winner.  There are so many really thoughtful, planned out, gorgeous soaps that you all made.  There wasn't one bad one!  I am so proud of every one of you who tried this challenge.  I feel like you really did DIG DEEP.

UGH...This is seriously hard.

The Winner for this challenge is Kimberly MC with her NYC skyline at night!

"This is my first time doing a challenge and I'm happy it's this one. I grew up in New York City. Once in a while, if you're lucky and on the right side of the East River, you'll catch a beautiful cloudy, red sunset that reflects into the water. Those are the days that you find yourself seeing more than dirt stained concrete and man made towers. You realize that even in the concrete jungle, nature somehow finds a way to share her beauty. Scented with leather and colored with activated charcoal and blends of micas, this soap is my way of saying I Love New York."  - Kimberly

Kimberly:  As you know, I am also a NY girl, and this "scene" you created I've seen a million times.  It's very well executed, the colors are perfect and it is structured without being too unnatural and flows without being messy.  Great job.


The Runner Up for this challenge is Cin Dee Rella with her piece of South Dakota!

"GRASSLANDS OF SOUTH DAKOTA U.S.A. My entry is based on my overall description of S.D. I was born and raised in a big city in CT. so when my husband proposed moving to Lemmon S.D. I looked at the map and gasped they won't even have chocolate up there , I can't live like that. We moved, and I fell in love with the emptiness. At first nothing from my previous life was as scary as being out in the middle of NOWHERE with nothing, no house, tree, bird, dog, NOTHING for a 100 mile radius.  GRASSLAND dominates the state hence my entry which nearly ended up in the trash as my batch was too brittle to play with. It is colored with spinach powder & parsley, the dirt portion is coffee grounds."   - Cin Dee Rela

Cin Dee Rela:  This was a very unique interpretation of your locale.  Kudos to you for thinking outside of the box on this one.  It is not only very good, but a rare piece that shall remain on this blog for years to come.  :)



Kimberly will receive a $50 surprise gift and Cin Dee Rella will receive a $25 surprise gift from Mad Oils.  Please send me an email jo(at)madoils(dot)com to give me all of your information so we can send it your way!

Thank you to everyone who worked so hard for this challenge and every challenge we have done together.  I am proud of you! 

Here are a few other entries that didn't make the top two, but made it hard for me...

Carla Hughes of Smyrna Beach, FL

Curtis Hayden of Charleston, SC

Gorill Olsen who dreams of coming to the USA one day

Carma La of Minnesota

If you haven't been chosen, keep your chin up.  Don't let this get you down.  One of these challenges will be the one where you will shine.  Lots of love xoxo Joanna

Until the next Challenge!  If you have not joined our challenge gallery group on facebook and would like to, please join us:  SOAP CHALLENGE GALLERY


Love, JO

Life Moves Fast....And Here I Go!

So if you've been following this blog, you have been with me through quite a bit.  A whirlwind of life changes and a couple of career changes.

I started this blog in August, 2007.  Woah.  Seven years ago.  So much has happened in the last seven years.  I knew nothing about making soap when I started this blog.  I only knew that I just loved handcrafted soap and I knew that it needed to be in the spotlight.  If you didn't read this blog then, you may be interested how it all began.  You can go back to the beginning.  My first post asked people if they made handcrafted soap and wanted me to review it, to send it to me.  That my interest was to spread the beauty across the internet through the photos I'd take and the reviews I'd write.

I had no horse in this race.  Starting this blog was a hobby I created for myself.  I couldn't find anything about handcrafted soap on the internet except on how to make it, not the plain beauty of it. Starting this blog opened a world for me.  Within a couple of months readers encouraged me to make soap myself and when I did and failed, people asked me what soap calculator I used.  "What calculator??"  I was completely clueless.  And so readers were so sweet and encouraged me further.  For me, I had never met a group of people so community-based, so encouraging.  I felt at home in my new soapy world.

Eventually I harnessed the soap beast and rode that sucker until I got it!  Then I added soap to my line of bath and body goodies.  This blog has been not only a hobby for me, but one of my inspirational pools, my community support system and my creative outlet.

So with some serious family situations and personal deflation over the last year, I pushed through major obstacles and started a new business with two partners, my family.  We started Mad Oils. I feel like this is where I belong.  I enjoy sourcing raw materials and finding things for people.  I enjoy behind the scenes work.   I think it suits me.  I still want to connect with the community, to help customers succeed.  I want my customers to succeed!  That is why we are getting the best possible products.  But I needed you all to know where my path is going and where this blog has taken me.

Thank you for the 7 years of listening to me ramble on about soap, life, me, this and that.  And as I've said a million times, I have never claimed to be a writer, so I know my posts aren't grammatically correct.  I write the way I think and it's who I am.

I'm not done.  I'm still here and I'm still going to write and post soap porn and all that.  And I WILL try to post more often.  But I have certainly gotten caught up in life.  But life just started getting better!  So perhaps you'll see more of me, even though I'm busier!!

Love you!  xox Joanna

Impulse Heat Sealer Blues

My heat sealer died yesterday and I am looking to buy a gently used one from a fellow soapmaker/B+B company.  I know I could throw down money on a new one, but honestly, I don't want to.  My money is allocated to other supplies and I am forced to be frugal at this time. 

I don't want to buy one from Ebay because I don't necessarily trust everyone. I trust soapmakers more.  :)

So..... if you have one you'd like to sell, please let me know.  I need an 8 inch one so I can seal my soap cello bags.  They look like this:

I don't care what name brand it is, so this picture is just an example.

Thanks for hearing me out.  I try to make this blog for YOU, but I thought to myself, "why not utilize a large group of people who do what I do?"

xo
Jo