Craft Brewed Suds Hits GCE Midwest With Their Best (Bath) Shot
We're counting down the weeks until GeekCraft Expo Midwest's Spring Thing March 3-4 at the Madison Masonic Center, featuring an amazing array of handmade geeky crafts! To pre-funk, we're sharing an insider's view of some of our amazing exhibitors.
Craft Brewed Suds is new to GeekCraft Expo this year, and we love their unusual geeky soaps and bath goodies! We had the chance to chat with Lindsay Snow about how she got started and what she's bring to our Spring Thing this year!
GeekCraft Expo: How did you get started making soap? Lindsay Snow: We have bees in the backyard. I was looking for something new to do with the wax besides lip balm, lotion bars, and candles. I asked the Google machine for ideas, and it returned the answer: soap. So I gave it a try. The first batch was pretty awful, but I decided to use it up anyway. I wasn't sure if I would make soap again because it really was a lot of work. Then I ran out of the handmade soap and went back to the high-end super moisturizing stuff I had been using and my skin felt so dry and scratchy, I couldn't stand it!
So I made some more soap. I got better at it. I realized that it was a lot like art (I'm also a photographer) when you incorporate colors, designs, and smells. But it's art that you use! And the soap I made was so much better in quality than anything else I could buy in the store. In the end, I loved making soap—it's a Venn diagram intersection of art, science, fun, and practicality for me. I made a lot of soap. I made more soap than I could ever use. I made more soap than all my friends and family could use. Clearly, it was time to share with the rest of the world. I spent about six months thinking and planning. I love word humor, I am a pun-master according to my friends. At some point, I started punning with soap bars as if they were an actual type of bar (establishment where adults congregate and consume relaxing beverages). And then I wasn't looking at being just another little soap company, I became the soap company that makes you laugh. GCE: How did you decide which types of products to offer? LS: Once I started with the bar idea for the soap (Gay Bar Soap, Sports Bar, Tiki Bar), I started thinking about other things that go with a bar—like shots and cocktails. So when I got requests to add products to my line up, I started naming them after cocktails and other drinks. I call my bath bombs Bath Shots and package them to look a bit like beverage shots. It's a ton of fun and everyone gets a kick out of it. I generally try to think of additional products my customers might like to go with the soap. And I figure out how to tie it in with the overall theme. Then I do some research, develop a recipe, make a lot of bad stuff, edit the recipe, make some better stuff, and repeat until I've made something that is awesome.
GCE: What’s a Bubble Bath Shot? LS: A Bubble Bath Shot is a lovely bubbly little bath treat that will make you giggly without the tipsy. It's solid bubble bath—you crumble it under the running water and OMG bubbles! Plus lots of color and fantastic aromas. They're different from my regular Bath Shots (aka bath bombs) because they fill the tub with bubbles. Bath Shots fizz rather than bubble. Bath Shots also have a nice skin softening effect that Bubble Bath Shots don't have. GCE: How do you formulate your scent combinations? LS: That's a fun part of the process! I personally like scents that fall into the earthy, woodsy, spicy palettes, so I always have a lot of those kinds of scents and they're really popular with my customers, too. My customers are the kind of people who pass a store like Bath and Body Works and think, “That smells so awful! It's too perfume-y, girly, and overpowering! Why can't anyone make soap that actually smells good?" I make soap that actually smells good! Sometimes I start with the smells and blend a few drops of various things until I have something that smells good (and promptly make everybody I know smell it and tell me what they think). Then I come up with a name for it and design the product based on the smell. Sometimes it's the other way around where I have a name or product idea that I start with and try to come with a smell to fit it. For example, I knew I wanted to make a Space Bar Soap. But what in the world does space smell like? I decided it should be something subtle and very non-specific. So I worked with smells in the “fresh” and “clean” palettes. I also had a Grinch Bath Shot for the holidays. He's got a good degree of sour in his personality, but there's also a little sweetness there too. So I used a combination of lemon and melon—it was quite nice.
GCE: What’s your favorite geeky character? LS: You realize this is the hardest question in this interview, right? I tend to like complex, imperfect, moody, women characters. Xena is still a favorite. Aeryn Sun from Farscape is right up there. Rey from the new Star Wars films is a contender for a top spot on the list, but I can't make a final call on that until we get to the end of her story. GCE: What are you bringing to GeekCraft Expo Midwest this spring? LS: Is this like that long car ride game "I'm going on a trip and I'm bringing an apple, a baboon, a comic book and . . . ”? I'm super excited because I will get to debut some new Bath Shots and Bubble Bath Shots with you. I'm working on them now—they're all going to be designed around some of my favorite geeky women characters! Shower Shots should also make their debut at the GeekCraft Expo—they're kinda like Bath Shots, but for those of us who prefer showers. And my Bath on the Rocks (bath salts) line will debut as well. I'll be bringing lots of soap, lip balm, and lotion bars too. Now, I've just got to figure out how to fit all those awesome products on one table . . .
We can't wait to see Craft Brewed Suds--and dozens of other exhibitors--at GeekCraft Expo Midwest's Spring Thing this March! Make sure to RSVP, and we'll see you there!
