Category: History & Trivia
The history of soap and cosmetic making is fascinating. Along with the history, there is so much interesting trivia about all things connected to soap and cosmetic making.
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Wool and Soap
I found a reference in The Art of Soap-Making by Alexander Watt (1918) which describes “fulling soaps”. Being unsure of what, exactly, “fulling” really was, I wasn’t sure if the soap described would be suitable for washing woolens as well. Turns out not, but I did make some interesting discoveries along the way. And I…
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Manhattan Garbage & Soap
Imagine New York City and the island of Manhattan in the 1840’s. The city was rapidly expanding with an influx of immigrants from all over the world. Industry was expanding with the rise of the Industrial Revolution. The northern part of the island, was still providing the city with dairy products and meat. Sewage disposal…
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Kitchen Grease Into Hand Soap
It seems that what goes around, comes around – even with soap. What was once a distasteful chore of country housewives or the task of garbage entrepreneurs has now become the new eco-friendly activity of chefs. According to a recent article at Food and Wine there’s a new line of soaps made from the byproducts…
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The Many Careers of Soapmakers
Of all the soapmakers I know, not one started out young in life saying,”When I grow up, I’m going to be a soapmaker.” While some have said they “always had an interest”, most were in other careers when they discovered (and got hooked on) soapmaking. Pre-soapmaking careers include accountant, journalist, engineer, chemist, housewife, teacher, internet…
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What We Watch – Television and Soap
It’s interesting how the American public is so fascinated with and influenced by the trials and tribulations of fictitious families. The success of all soap operas (daytime and prime time), as well as shows like LOST, is all about getting people vested in a form of imaginary voyeurism. And it started with … soap. Earlier…
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Soap Bubble Close-Up
Ever wondered what a soap bubble looks like close up … VERY close up … like 50x magnification? Absolutely, amazingly beautiful! Mr. Sykora won Image of Distinction in the 2008 annual Nikon Small World photomicrography competition. And rightly so!
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Census Records of Soapmakers
You can find information about soapmaking in the oddest places and by the strangest methods. Recently, I found out about the numbers of soapmakers around the turn of the (last) century while celebrating my birthday! Birthdays in our family are a day when you can do (or not do) whatever you want. In the past…
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Sunlight Soap – Botswana
Last night I watched the HBO series “The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency”. If you missed the pilot, it is soon to be released on DVD. It’s very cute, keeps the feeling of the original books and actually looks like it was filmed in Botswana. And how does this relate to soap?
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Soapmaking Makes A Difference
I recently received an email from Melinda Coss, a soapmaker and author from France. She’s involved with a program called Township Trades in South Africa, teaching teens business skills through soapmaking. Take a look at the video – it’s awesome! Marie Gale
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Soapmaking Article Published!
I just had a great article published in Aromascents E-Magazine! If was fun to write – to review all of the things I know about the wonders of soapmaking and condense it down into just two pages. Once again I was struck by the wonder of what happens in the soap pot and how the…
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Raise The Bar, Use Handcrafted Soap
That’s what the license plate holder on my truck says now. I just put the new Handcrafted Soap Guild license plate holder on my truck. Required a little cleaning up of things to get the mud off, but I think it looks pretty nice! It’ll be cool to drive around and have it be known…
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Making Soap (with pictures!)
When I make soap, I break it out into in several stages: Preparation, Melting, Mixing & Molding, Unmolding & Cutting, Trimming and Packaging. Generally there is a time gap between the different stages – sometimes hours, sometimes days and even sometimes months. This is how I do it.
