Skip to main content

The Soap Opera

The Soap Opera is a downtown landmark on State Street in Madison, WI, just a couple of blocks from the capitol.  What a place!  Soap, soap, and more soap.   I've visited there several times over the years (if you even had to ask).



When the Soap Opera's owner approached me a couple months ago, asking to include my soaps in the shop's made in Wisconsin line, I was on board!

Actually, my first exposure to The Soap Opera came from one of my herbal books, published in 1976. Jeanne Rose's Herbal Body Book listed the shop.  It was one of four locations listed in Wisconsin and the closest to me.  Forty plus years later, the shop is still around and thriving!



Have you ever seen so much soap in your life?!




So when you think of Wisconsin, what do you think of?  If you think of beer, cheese and cows, there's a soap for that.  And all three are available at The Soap Opera.

Dairyland, with a Holstein cow design and a fresh sweet grass fragrance...



The eye-catching Cheese soap, also with a sweet grass fragrance...


And then the oh, so very popular beer soap, on the left side of the Cheese soap.  This bar has an Oatmeal Stout scent, which, most unfortunately, is not edible.



Besides these, The Soap Opera also carries several other soaps of mine, including Lilac Blossom, Lime Cilantro, and all the rest that you'll just have to smell for yourself!

Comments

  1. I love it! They look fabulous and so does the shop...I feel some soap purchases coming up!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Aaryne! I feel honored to have my soaps in such a fun shop!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Soaping with Madder

I know that any color added to soap can morph into a surprise, but there is an added element of unknown when using botanicals to color my soap.  Some people jump out of planes or ski off mountains, but this is how I live on the edge these days.  Hmm.  If I weren't having so much fun, I'd be embarrassed. I recently had my first go with madder.  So....whatsa madder?  It's a root--the root of the madder. Ahem. (I love puns...) I infused 8 oz. of olive oil with 2 t. madder root powder for almost a week.  This amount worked out to be 20% of the oils in my batch. I wanted something in the way of embeds to add visual interest.   I dearly love my soap balls but I don't want to over do a good thing.  I've recently done square-shaped embeds, so this time I cut a bar of white soap into slices. I panicked a little that it wouldn't get dark enough--it was kind of a dusty peach--so I added 1/4 t. dried powder right before pouring. Madder powd...

Loofah--from vine to soap

If you've followed my blog for a long time, you've already seen a post on one of my favorite things to grow--loofah, but I think it's time for another one.  People are often surprised when they learn that loofahs are grown.  No, a loofah isn't a sea sponge, but the mature "skeleton" of a zucchini-like plant.  Everyone knows they are good for the bath but they also make great natural pan scrubbers in the kitchen.  They are so popular that I have to remember to tuck away any that I want to keep myself. I raise three or four plants every year.  Like a zucchini or a cucumber, it likes to spread out with little regard to another plant's personal space.  Here is last year's crop. Early in the summer, the loofahs remained neatly on the trellis: But then they wandered over to the basil: Cozied among the tomatillos: And hung out with the butternut squash: Harvest time was a regular treasure hunt.  But I ended up with about 20 loofahs fr...

Soap Challenge--Dandelion Swirl

This Great Cakes challenge started off, well, challenging for me.  I had internet problems (a lack of it) and something went rather tragic in my attempt to cobble together a recipe without access to my online lye calculator crutch or a good saponification chart.  Obviously, I need to work on this skill, since my first batch of soap is still not firm enough to cut.  I've seen firmer marshmallow cream.  I'm estimating that I'll be able to cut it in a week or two or maybe three. The top came out pretty, though, didn't it? Sigh.  I wonder what the inside looks like. On to batch number 2.  I went for a winter/snowy theme this time, scented with BB's Fresh Snow fragrance. I made a small 6-bar batch.  I kept noticing that my divider (a dollar store cutting mat) didn't stay in the center but kept migrating toward the edge with every pour.  I was concerned that it would ruin the design, but it held well enough. I know this challenge was all abo...