Hello everyone, please welcome today's featured Artisan- Veronica Nourse of Cupertinosoap.
Tell us a little bite about yourself!
I am a fiftyish single mom who loves to make soap and bath products. I am also a self taught artist that enjoys painting on wood, glass, metal and canvass. I also enjoy making jewelry, taking photographs and learning new techniques for art.
How did you start creating your artwork, and how long have you been doing it?
I am a self taught artist and I have enjoyed doing art ever since I was a child. Three years ago I taught myself how to make soap. I really enjoy making a lovely bar of soap, it is very satisfying to make something that smells good and is healthy for your skin.
Where do you get your inspiration from? I never knew what I was missing until I started making handcrafted soap. I used to think soap was just soap, it was something to wash with and that was that.
Then one day when I was working for a fair trade company I was chatting with one of my friends there and we started talking about what we would do if we could do anything we wanted. My friend Dawn said she wanted to make handmade soap. I said “you can make your own soap?!?” I had never given that any thought, I didn’t know you could make your own soap. Wow! that got my head spinning in all sorts of directions. So I asked her a million questions about making soap. I could not stop thinking about making my own soap.
I used to buy my soap from the grocery store or drug store. It’s cheap as can be and you get several bars.
Well after talking with my friend Dawn, I started reading ingredients on the soaps in the grocery store. Yuck! I could not pronounce half of the ingredients and the other half of ingredients I had no idea what they were. So that sent me into research mode. I am the queen of research, I love to look stuff up and find all I can on the subject.
I checked out all of the ingredients in the soaps from the grocery store. Boy was I grossed out after reading all of that. I started thinking I can’t believe I have been putting this junk on my skin for years.
Well, they were not that interested at first. They said soap is just soap what’s the big deal! Well, I wasn’t going to take that lying down. So I explained to them about the ingredients in the soaps they were using, for example: most large soap manufactures use beef fat in their soaps. They were not happy to hear this, but still not that interested in my soap. Geez, what was I going to do with all of that soap I made. So I decided to give all of my friends some soap as a gift. Well that really changed their minds.
They used my soap and became hooked on the good stuff. They discovered how lovely the lather was and how soft their skin was, and that they no longer needed to use lotion, and they smelled really nice after their showers. Now they can’t seem to get enough and could not imagine ever using the soaps from the grocery store ever again.
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I am a fiftyish single mom who loves to make soap and bath products. I am also a self taught artist that enjoys painting on wood, glass, metal and canvass. I also enjoy making jewelry, taking photographs and learning new techniques for art.
How did you start creating your artwork, and how long have you been doing it?
I am a self taught artist and I have enjoyed doing art ever since I was a child. Three years ago I taught myself how to make soap. I really enjoy making a lovely bar of soap, it is very satisfying to make something that smells good and is healthy for your skin.
Then one day when I was working for a fair trade company I was chatting with one of my friends there and we started talking about what we would do if we could do anything we wanted. My friend Dawn said she wanted to make handmade soap. I said “you can make your own soap?!?” I had never given that any thought, I didn’t know you could make your own soap. Wow! that got my head spinning in all sorts of directions. So I asked her a million questions about making soap. I could not stop thinking about making my own soap.
Well after talking with my friend Dawn, I started reading ingredients on the soaps in the grocery store. Yuck! I could not pronounce half of the ingredients and the other half of ingredients I had no idea what they were. So that sent me into research mode. I am the queen of research, I love to look stuff up and find all I can on the subject.
I checked out all of the ingredients in the soaps from the grocery store. Boy was I grossed out after reading all of that. I started thinking I can’t believe I have been putting this junk on my skin for years.
So of course I just had to research the best things to put into soap. I found that soap does not have to be made with cheap or harsh ingredients, or with ingredients that you couldn’t pronounce. It could be made with wonderful nourishing oils, butters and essential oils that make your skin really healthy. I had dry skin and eczema and I thought I was just going to have to live with it. My son also had skin problems. We went to the doctor’s and got lots of medications that never really helped.
Well, I started making my own soap. It was quite the experiment at first. I made a lot of really bad soap. They looked horrible and didn’t smell nice. But practice makes perfect. I finally started making very nice soaps that actually made a huge difference in my skin and my son’s skin. So I thought I would share this with my friends.
Well, they were not that interested at first. They said soap is just soap what’s the big deal! Well, I wasn’t going to take that lying down. So I explained to them about the ingredients in the soaps they were using, for example: most large soap manufactures use beef fat in their soaps. They were not happy to hear this, but still not that interested in my soap. Geez, what was I going to do with all of that soap I made. So I decided to give all of my friends some soap as a gift. Well that really changed their minds.
I must confess that I am totally hooked too. It is so fun to try a new soap fragrance or a new soap blend. Sometimes I have several soaps in the shower and a different one in every bathroom and at the kitchen sink. Sometime I wash my hands just so I can play with the soap and feel the great lather. Ok I admit that I am a soap-a-holic, I just can’t help myself, and there is something very nice about a great handmade natural soap.
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Come on, ditch the grocery store and drug store soap and buy handmade natural soaps. You will be so glad you did. Be good to yourself and the planet, use natural soaps. :)
Outside of crafting what else do you enjoy doing? I enjoy doing anything that is creative. I love to garden, cook, take photos and I spend a lot of time learning about herbs and essential oils.
Thanks so much Veronica for sharing your lovely work with us. xoxo
