Dose of creativity ignites enthusiasm for the mundane

As my business has grown and I've moved from making small trial batches of soap here and there to larger batches on a regular basis the haunting question has been "will my creative brain be able to continue to make the same soaps over and over again?" So far I've been able to keep it interesting by bringing in seasonal soaps and by harnessing my creative efforts for becoming more efficient and cost effective.

Meanwhile one of the surprising regular customer questions I get is "what's new?" At first it felt like a lot of pressure to come up with something new all the time. But now I'm realizing the"pressure" to come up with new things is what keeps soapmaking fresh for me. Because the reality is there's always something that needs to be done. So it's hard to carve out time to let my creativity fly. It's easy to get lost in the routine and mundane, the litany of things that need to happen within my business and within my personal life. So this week when I felt like I needed to stretch ... to create something new ... it began as a moment of pressure. But it became a much needed spark in my energy field.

When I let myself indulge in the process of experimentation I felt my spirit start to ignite with enthusiasm and anticipation. I was looking for an essential oil to pair with lime and went through the whole cupboard and came up with basil. Yeah it sounds strange but I pulled the soap out of the mold today and it has this super fresh earthy scent. It's pretty different than anything I've ever made. Then I went to work on the color. Coloring soap is an art in itself, it doesn't quite look the same in the soap as it does in the small mixing container. And then I wanted to experiment with a different fixed oil so I decided to incorporate avocado oil in to the recipe. As I mixed the batch of soap and added the different ingredients at just the right time I felt my enthusiasm continue to build. Wallah it was in the mold the color looked superb, my kitchen was filled with the new aroma I had never smelled before. I was charged and ready for the next batch.

What was so fascinating to me was how creating something new and entirely different infused energy into my day. I started and finished the much needed batches of soap on my production schedule that day on a totally different note. So my soap artist tip for the day is ... keep being creative ... take a moment to do something entirely different and let the creative spark carry you through your routine.