Inspiration Put Into Soap

I love traveling, the only drawback is that I can't soap!  But I sure get inspired and come back home eager to put my vision to work, in soap of course.

This is my 2nd time traveling to Japan.  The first time I visited it was at the end of summer season rolling into fall, weather was still hot and everything green.  This time we went in the harsh winter.  I love visiting temple, shrine, and castles, not just in Japan but all over the world.  I have a thing for ancient old architecture, it speaks great history and evolution to me.  Temple, shrine, and castles look very different in snowy winter, they are more 'quiet' and serene, as if time freezes at this specific moment.

Matsumoto castle

Zenko-ji (one of the oldest Buddhist temple in Japan)

Rokujizō (statues of the six Bodhisattvas, who gave up Buddhist enlightenment, in order to provide salvation to others. The Bodhisattvas are said to be able to commune with the six realms of hell, starvation, beasts, carnage, human beings and divine beings)

People tie their wishes to temple tree branches

Torii gate at Meiji Shrine (Imperial shrine in Tokyo)

Torii gate at Lake Ashi (see Mt. Fuji white snowy top at the back?)

Interesting fact about torii gate: it is meant to mark and divide the spiritual world from our world, it only exists in Shinto shrines.  Shinto shrines supposedly don't exist in our world, shrine ground exists on a place that overlaps the two worlds, a place where the holy spirits are most likely to hear your prayers.

Anyway, the snowy sky with cold air, the rich old aged wood in the buildings, the red door or torii gates, I want to put them all into this soap, ambitious isn't it?!

My husband walked by when I was cutting the soap and his words were: what are you making, evil soap?!  LOL

This soap is truly luxury, it has pearl and caffeine powder as that unusual additives.  Plus it's scented with 3 different kinds of fragrances: brown part is a mixture of exotic wood & spices; red part is Japanese cherry blossom; and powder blue is a fragrance called Fresh Snow.