Rustic Soap Challenge
This is my entry for the April Soap Challenge for the Soap Challenge Club. The challenge was to create a rustic soap with minimalist packaging. I decided to go green! The soap is made with cucumber peel puree and nettle tea instead of water. It's 44.5% Olive Oil, 26% Coconut Oil, 5.5% Castor Oil, 5.5% Avocado Oil and 18.5% Sunflower Oil. I didn't add any essential oils and went with the earthy scent of the nettle and cucumber. Surprisingly, the cucumbery nettle scent did survive the cold process. It's very earthy and subtle. I did add a bit of French Green clay, but I think that most of the colour comes from the cucumber and nettle. I am really pleased with the colour!
The packaging proved to be the biggest ordeal. I actually entered the challenge because I haven't gotten to the packaging part of soap making yet. I'm very new to this, so this proved to be motivation. My desk looked like a craft store bomb had gone off. I was buried in all things rustic. I finished a grand package with a tiny crate, paper grass, ribbons and tags. It was elaborate and looked like an earthy Easter basket. Then I re-read the challenge and discovered the "minimalistic" requirement! Back to the drawing board. I decided that I wanted it to look like a brown paper bag. So I ran with that, did a chalkboard label and used a little hemp cord for the handle. I used the soap stamp because I just got them in the mail! I am currently in love with my soap stamps and couldn't resist showing one off!
The packaging proved to be the biggest ordeal. I actually entered the challenge because I haven't gotten to the packaging part of soap making yet. I'm very new to this, so this proved to be motivation. My desk looked like a craft store bomb had gone off. I was buried in all things rustic. I finished a grand package with a tiny crate, paper grass, ribbons and tags. It was elaborate and looked like an earthy Easter basket. Then I re-read the challenge and discovered the "minimalistic" requirement! Back to the drawing board. I decided that I wanted it to look like a brown paper bag. So I ran with that, did a chalkboard label and used a little hemp cord for the handle. I used the soap stamp because I just got them in the mail! I am currently in love with my soap stamps and couldn't resist showing one off!
