There’s this moment right before I cut soap that I hold my breath. I can feel my body tense, and my heart begins to beat faster in anticipation of what’s hidden inside. It all comes down to that very moment…did the soap turn out like I planned, or was it another failure?

When you make cold-process soap as I do, you sorta create blindly. Everything is inside the mold and relies heavily on the pour and the trace or viscosity of the soap; it’s not like a painting where everything is laid out before you. Most of the time, you plan and hope for the best. You never really know what your “painting” is going to look like until you cut the soap. You pour and move your tools without being able to see what you’re painting. It’s a little by feel and a lot by chance. Or so it seems.

Cutting into my new batch of Beside The Blue Soap, my heart felt like it leaped out of my chest and back in again; of course, being hand poured each bar is different and unique, but I am pleased. I feel like as best as any soap could, I have once again captured the visual of what so many of you tell me your life is like as you stand Beside The Blue.