These are some of the questions I hear from my closest friends.
My answer is: When life gives you lemons, then we have no choice but to make lemonade!!
I am originally from Venezuela, but I’ve been living in Delaware for the last 18 years, my daughters were born here as well. Though I have adopted Delaware as my hometown, Venezuela will always be very close to my heart.
You may have heard in the news about the hardships the Venezuelan people is going through. The hyperinflation rate at 4,679%, the shortages of food and basic staple items such flour, sugar, toilet paper and toothpaste; the people dying in the hospitals for the lack of medicines and medical equipment. Electrical power outages and drinking water shortages are a now the daily norm. Hunger, poverty and misery plague the deserted streets in what is left of a once vibrant nation. The crisis has impacted every family and mine is not an exemption. Members of my family residing in the U.S. and I are helping to mitigate the hardships of our relatives in Venezuela in every way we can, whether financially or by sending products directly to them.
When my cousin Alex whom I grew up with, who is like a brother to me, told me “I’m making soap because I can’t find it in the market or cannot longer afford, it is too expensive!” I replied told him, “I want to know how you make it, maybe I can learn and help you!”. I could had gone to a warehouse, buy a bulk of soap and send it to him. But curiosity took a good bite of me, and I, immediately, wanted to experiment with soap making and identify myself with his experience; besides he was so excited to show me his latest adventure with soap making.
After the first soaping lesson, I, not knowing that rendering tallow is a lot of work, went to the butcher shop asking to buy some fat! This was raw cow fat, which my Dad helped me to cut into very small pieces, next we had to melt this fat which smell was awful, then we had to boil this melted fat in order to get the clean and beautiful white tallow for soap making.
Of course, I have never made soap. Therefore, I had plenty of Skype calls with my cousin looking for detailed instructions on how to follow his recipe. If you are a soap maker, you would know how easy it is to make a soap with 100% tallow, but not for me… remember, this was my first soap!
I feel the need to point out that my cousin Alex had been making his soap basically with his nails; tallow only- because this is the only type of oil that he can afford – water and caustic soda, – no fancy equipment, no stick blender, no essential oils, he used empty soda bottles as molds, etc. This is how people in poor countries make soap for their personal use, including my family.
When I completed my soap making experiment following my cousin’s recipe, I thought “this is crazy, this is so much work! There must be a better way to make soap! Come on! We are in America!! Haha!”. Next thing, I checked out a few soap making books from my local library, watch a bunch of videos in YouTube and joined some soaping groups in social media.
And after a few tries, now I can’t stop making soap! I just love it and my daughters love to help as well! I love working with different oil blends, butters and essential oils, which we can easily purchase online or at the major wholesale stores. I realized how lucky we are to have access to so many wonderful ingredients and tools which allows us to make luxurious soaps with ingredients that are cost prohibited for my family back home. As a thank you to my cousin, the first thing I did was to send him a nice stick blender, a few molds, cutters, micas and essential oils which he is enjoying very much as you can see him on this picture!
Thank you, Alex!, for sharing your experience; you are an inspiration to me. Now I can share this new-found hobby with my daughters and my family here in the US. I can handcraft wonderful soaps and make available to our friends and neighbors to enjoy as well.
Brandywine Soapery is a miracle. Yes! a miracle because miracles and new opportunities emerge from difficult and stressing times. Our goal is to work hard and nurture the growth of our small business so that we can continue helping our relatives back home as much as possible and allocate a portion of the profits towards their much-needed assistance.
Thank you for stopping by our store and we hope that you continue enjoying our products!
Warm regards!!
The Brandywine Soapery Team.
