Welcome to the March 2023 SMF Soap Challenge. This month’s challenge is to make a soap inspired by one of your trips or travels. It doesn’t have to be far from home, a visit to family or a place you like to go on the weekends is fine (but also feel free to go as exotic as you’d like)
At least one of these 3 elements of your soap should represent your trip (bonus points if you do more than one):
- Color and/OR Scent (you can, but don’t have to do both)
- Design choice (this can be an abstract interpretation)
- An ingredient in your soap
To participate, please read the general and specific rules below.
SMF Challenge General Rules
1. To enter you must have been a SMF member for at least one month and have a minimum of 50 posts at the time the Challenge is posted (sorry but no exceptions on this). Supporting Members can enter immediately, the time and post requirements are removed.
2. The only members eligible to vote are those with their names on the sign-up list - regardless of whether or not you have submitted an entry. The sign-up list will be posted in this thread.
3. This month’s voting will be password locked. Passwords will be sent by private message (via SMF conversations) to registered participants ONLY, so please check your messages when the voting begins.
4. A separate entry thread will be created and this is where you will post photos of your entry soap. Please do not post photos of your entry until the entry thread is opened. Post pictures of your entry soap only in the challenge entry thread.
Non-entry photos are always welcome and may be posted in the general challenge thread. The challenge thread should be used to upload pictures of any of your challenge attempts (other than your entry) where you can ask for advice and discuss the technique with other members, and provide helpful hints you learned along the way.
5. Your soap must be made after the monthly challenge has been announced.
6. In the spirit of advancing our soap making skills, all members who sign-up for a SMF Challenge do so with the expectation that they will make every attempt to make a soap for the challenge. Writing about your experience in the challenge is encouraged. By doing so, each participant has a better knowledge of your process when voting. We do understand that sometimes things come up in our lives and throw our plans out of whack, however signing up with no intent to participate and only to vote is not in the spirit of the challenges and is not allowed.
7. Please add your name to the sign-up list if you wish to participate (you don’t have to enter a soap at the end if you don’t feel happy with what you have made), but please do post your experiences in the main Challenge thread and be prepared to be encouraged to continue trying.
8. Constructive criticism is welcomed, but please keep your comments polite.
* * * *
Competition entries must be uploaded to the separate entry thread before the closing date.
Specific Rules for this Challenge:
1. This month’s challenge is to create a soap inspired by a trip or travel.
2. To qualify, your inspiration needs to be represented in at least one of the following ways: color/scent choice, soap design or an ingredient. Please note that I’ll be asking voters to take the amount and quality of travel inspired choices in your soap into consideration when voting.
3. In the entry thread you will be asked to tell us a little bit about your trip, why was it important to you/what made you choose this trip and in which ways it inspired your soap.
4. The first photo in your entry post will be used for voting. This photo should contain at least 1 of the soaps you made for this challenge.
5. Any other soapy decisions are up to you. All soaping modalities (CP/HP/MP/Rebatch/Soap dough/…) are welcome.
6. Please be creative! I think we’ve all seen a lot of very pretty beach soaps, but I’m sure you can come up with something more unique
Tips:
Inspiration:
I don’t want to set too many examples as to not color ideas too much, I want this to come from you. Here are just 2 soaps with unusual ingredients you might not have thought of that I could see working well for this challenge:
Dandelion soap:
Chestnut soap:
At least one of these 3 elements of your soap should represent your trip (bonus points if you do more than one):
- Color and/OR Scent (you can, but don’t have to do both)
- Design choice (this can be an abstract interpretation)
- An ingredient in your soap
To participate, please read the general and specific rules below.
SMF Challenge General Rules
1. To enter you must have been a SMF member for at least one month and have a minimum of 50 posts at the time the Challenge is posted (sorry but no exceptions on this). Supporting Members can enter immediately, the time and post requirements are removed.
2. The only members eligible to vote are those with their names on the sign-up list - regardless of whether or not you have submitted an entry. The sign-up list will be posted in this thread.
3. This month’s voting will be password locked. Passwords will be sent by private message (via SMF conversations) to registered participants ONLY, so please check your messages when the voting begins.
4. A separate entry thread will be created and this is where you will post photos of your entry soap. Please do not post photos of your entry until the entry thread is opened. Post pictures of your entry soap only in the challenge entry thread.
Non-entry photos are always welcome and may be posted in the general challenge thread. The challenge thread should be used to upload pictures of any of your challenge attempts (other than your entry) where you can ask for advice and discuss the technique with other members, and provide helpful hints you learned along the way.
5. Your soap must be made after the monthly challenge has been announced.
6. In the spirit of advancing our soap making skills, all members who sign-up for a SMF Challenge do so with the expectation that they will make every attempt to make a soap for the challenge. Writing about your experience in the challenge is encouraged. By doing so, each participant has a better knowledge of your process when voting. We do understand that sometimes things come up in our lives and throw our plans out of whack, however signing up with no intent to participate and only to vote is not in the spirit of the challenges and is not allowed.
7. Please add your name to the sign-up list if you wish to participate (you don’t have to enter a soap at the end if you don’t feel happy with what you have made), but please do post your experiences in the main Challenge thread and be prepared to be encouraged to continue trying.
8. Constructive criticism is welcomed, but please keep your comments polite.
* * * *
Competition entries must be uploaded to the separate entry thread before the closing date.
- Note: all times listed are Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and it is your responsibility to convert times to your own time zone.
- The entry thread will open on March 22 by 11:59 GMT (Please follow the challenge specific rules as to what you need to enter).
- After the closing date on March 27 at 11:59 GMT the winning entry will be chosen by a voting survey. Voting will be open until March 29 at 11:59 GMT and the winner will be announced on March 30. There is no prize attached to this challenge.
- If you fail to make the challenge deadline, you are still welcome to upload pictures of your soap to the general challenge thread, but your entry will not be eligible for voting. We always love to see anything you have created.
- Even though there is no prize, this is still a competition. If your entry is deemed not to fulfill the general rules or the rules specific to the challenge in any way, then you will be given the opportunity to amend your entry. If this is not possible, your entry will not be included in the voting.
- All the challenge mods reserve the right to have the final say on whether a soap is eligible for voting.
Specific Rules for this Challenge:
1. This month’s challenge is to create a soap inspired by a trip or travel.
2. To qualify, your inspiration needs to be represented in at least one of the following ways: color/scent choice, soap design or an ingredient. Please note that I’ll be asking voters to take the amount and quality of travel inspired choices in your soap into consideration when voting.
3. In the entry thread you will be asked to tell us a little bit about your trip, why was it important to you/what made you choose this trip and in which ways it inspired your soap.
4. The first photo in your entry post will be used for voting. This photo should contain at least 1 of the soaps you made for this challenge.
5. Any other soapy decisions are up to you. All soaping modalities (CP/HP/MP/Rebatch/Soap dough/…) are welcome.
6. Please be creative! I think we’ve all seen a lot of very pretty beach soaps, but I’m sure you can come up with something more unique
Tips:
- I’m not sure if it helps, but here’s a kind of ‘creativity technique’ where you run with every SECOND idea that you have. You keep the flow/no judgement feeling of just running with your ideas, yet you challenge yourself to go a bit further than ‘the first thing that pops into your head’. It can be great, but it can also not work at all.
- You can be inspired by anything from your trip. From nature, the weather, a certain way the light hit,.. to the people you met, the interactions you’ve had, the food you ate, the (new) things you did, the feelings you experienced,… you’re free to go as far and as abstract, mundane or realistic as you feel like, as long as it’s meaningful to you.
Inspiration:
I don’t want to set too many examples as to not color ideas too much, I want this to come from you. Here are just 2 soaps with unusual ingredients you might not have thought of that I could see working well for this challenge:
Dandelion soap:
Chestnut soap:
I'm sure the person who requested it is going to be thrilled when they see it. Absolutely stunning!
, too. I bet if I show Doddle Bug (the dog in my pic, lol) even she’d be impressed - just sayin - AMAZING!!!
