Story by Leila Fujimori
Star-BulletinJoanne Takushi was working full time as a legal secretary when she discovered a soap recipe in an herb magazine that changed her life.
She and Steve Cromwell, a chef at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, went into their kitchen and tried making soap from scratch. Their creative energies were unleashed. They passed out 600 bars of soap to their friends to try before deciding to go commercial, working under the name The Soap Box.
Now, Takushi devotes some of her time to secretarial work and most of her time to soap-making. Cromwell still works his 10-hour-a-day chef job, but spends every other waking moment tending to the business.
They are just two out of many people from different walks of life who have turned a hobby into a business, and many of those businesses will be represented at the "Made in Hawaii Festival" this weekend. More than 300 exhibitors will gather to show products ranging from gourmet foods to apparel to crafts.
In addition, there will be food to sample, entertainment and chef demonstrations.But it's the soapmakers who have tapped into a sudden appetite for cleanliness as the path to relaxation and well-being.
Cromwell, whose great-grandmother made soap, said there has been a revival of an old process, but nowadays, it is down to a science.
Takushi and Cromwell have ventured into making an unscented goat's milk soap with shea butter. Goat's milk contains a high butterfat content, which gives the lather a silky texture. Shea butter, from Africa's karite nut, creates a softer, more emollient soap.
They've also created a seaweed scrub using ogo. Another contains mango butter, the oil from the mango seed.
Takushi and Cromwell make most of their natural soaps from scratch, using a process involving pure vegetable oils with essential oils and some fragrance oils, herbs or flowers, for scent. Their lavender bars are flecked with lavender flowers and mint.To make the soaps requires timing, or the heating process could cause oils to separate. Cromwell said they ruined more than 16 batches before getting the hang of it.
The Soap Box also offers glycerin soaps with fruity, flowery tropical scents.
Glycerin is difficult to make from scratch, so the couple opts to buy glycerin blocks and melt them down, adding coloring and scents and pouring them into molds. The Soap Box products are sold at Local to the Max at Pearlridge and at Native Books & Beautiful Things at Ward Warehouse.
Mary Wilkowski is a Marine captain-turned litigation lawyer-turned "soap goddess." That's what she's calling herself these days, although she still practices law full time, putting in 10-hour days at the office. On her off time she churns out small batches of superfatted cakes of soap, all containing kukui nut oil, for her line, Pele's Bath.
She stirs up her soap in a pot on her kitchen stove. A believer in use of local products, Wilkowski offers a chocolate macadamia nut mint soap. Each of her bars contains kukui nut oil, as well as olive oil. She hand-stamps each bar with her trademark, a metallic goddess form appearing as lava against a volcanic relief.
For receptions or showers, she will blend scented soaps to order. Her products are available at Maiden Hawaii and Native Books & Beautiful Things at Ward Warehouse.Wilkowski said the difference between commercial and handmade soaps is the handmade soaps have a higher glycerin content, a natural by-product of the soap-making process, as well as a higher quality and percentage of oils. Glycerin has a moisturizing effect, while most commercial soaps are detergent-based, which has a harsh, drying effect on the skin, she said.
Pele's Bath also carries five essential oils that can be rubbed on light bulbs to scent a room when heated, or added to bath water, massage oils, potpourri mixtures and creams.
Ramona Reyes-Akamine once worked as a financial planner, but after she suffered an injury and 11 surgeries in her legs, she couldn't work. Instead of moping around, she got in the kitchen and started experimenting. Now she and her son are producing and selling fragrant glycerin soaps and oils under the name Luscious Beauty Fragrance Oils.
Reyes-Akamine started selling her product at a YWCA craft fair and sold out on her first try. Her fragrance oils, a line encompassing more than 200 different scents, even come in roll-on applicator bottles. The most popular scents are pikake and pua kenikeni.A 2.9-ounce bottle goes for $3 to $3.95. Her 5-ounce bars of soap come wrapped in a balsa wood package and go for $4.
Her soaps also contain essential oils, fragrance oils, vitamin E and aloe vera extract.
Other home and bath companies to be featured at the Made in Hawaii Festival are:
Maui Tropical Soaps: New products include Tropical Tub Seltzers in fragrances such as Guava Berry, Coconut Mango and Plumeria; bath powder; and a Surf Soaps line, with seven soaps named after famous Hawaii surf breaks, such as Banzai Pipeline (yellow with passion-fruit fragrance) and Waimea Bay (ocean blue with lychee fragrance).
Made in Hawaii Festival
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