Well, now my Back to School mini series is out of the way, I need to spend some time on my soaps, so I did a little bit of research with some of the women I know over here to see if I should slimline the types of soaps I make and also to see if there are any types that people want to see and a few people came back wondering if I could make a soap with an Arabic twist.
At first I thought of Camel soap, it’s not like we’re in short supply of the stuff….
but I thought it wouldn’t be obvious enough. It would just seem like I was making a milk soap like I normally do. The only other idea I came up with was to use Oud 
which is extremely popular not only in Saudi, but in the MIddle East in general, and it is everywhere here, but it’s an extremely strong scent, and not something Westerners tend to like, which at the moment, is my market.
I asked on a soap forum I’m a member of if people had any suggestions and a lady mentioned Aleppo Soap – otherwise known as Syrian soap.
I had never heard of this so had to look it up, and apparently it’s an extremely old type of soap made using mainly Olive Oil with some Laurel oil (anywhere between 2% – 40%) so i’ve decided that is what i’m going to make!
I have absolutely no idea where to get Laurel Oil from over here, it’s not like I can just pop over to Syria to get it! It took months just to find Coconut Oil, but we’ll see. I also want to get an Arabic stamp made. Again, I have no idea where on earth I would get this done, but I think the stamp would be perfect and make it obvious what it is.
So, my plan is to make Aleppo Soap, stamp it with Arabic writing (no idea what yet, maybe just something simple like ‘Handmade Soap, or Aleppo Soap) and paint over the words with gold – maybe melt and pour with Gold Mica – not tried this, but I think it should work to give it an expensive, luxurious look to it.
Well, I guess I know what I’m doing tomorrow, and I’ll let you know how it goes :-)
Karen x
