Welcoming a New Addition to Modern Soapmaking: Meet Veronica

With the upcoming massively huge lifestyle change I'm making, I've come to the harsh (but absolutely honest) realization that I won't be able to bring as many soapmaking tutorials and recipes to you all as I want to.

Over the last year, I've grown to focus on the business side of soapmaking with mentoring and coursework anyways, so it was time to reach out and find a Soaptributor to bring y'all the goods!

(And before you ask, why yes I'll still be writing soapmaking-related content! Just not as often!)

I'm excited to announce a delightful addition to the Modern Soapmaking content team, Veronica Foale. Veronica is a fellow soapmaker, writer, photographer, and mother to three (are we twins?!) who lives in Australia (which means even more globally inspired soapmaking!)

I'm 150% keen on keeping Modern Soapmaking crystal clear and transparent, so when Veronica publishes here on Modern Soapmaking, you'll see her lovely face on the bottom of her posts, just as you'll see on this one (scroll down and peek!)

For now, I want y'all to meet Veronica, so here she is, to do the honors:

Wow, hello all you lovely people. I am absolutely delighted to be here, and thank you Kenna for having me on board. I expect we're all going to have a lot of fun.

Kenna asked me to give you all a quick rundown of who I am, so here we go:

I'm Veronica Foale, soap maker, small business owner, writer, freelancer, wife, and mother of three children. I live in the southern midlands of Tasmania, Australia, which is a gorgeous place. We're quite rural, so while I miss out on being able to walk to the shops, or go anywhere without driving, I also get the benefit of no immediate neighbours.

How I started soaping is a bit of a story. I used to be quite a popular blogger, but when my third child was born sick, I stopped blogging as often. Slowly I fell out of the habit, until I got so frustrated I found myself brainstorming ideas for how to make my blog interesting again.

Thus, The Year Of Making was born. The original idea was to make things each week, from scratch, that I would normally buy from the supermarket. I'd always been interested in learning to make soap and over the years had read quite a bit. Soap was week 2 of my making year, and I got stuck. Instantly addicted, I found myself making two or even three batches of soap a day, endlessly fascinated with how the soap behaved.

Six months of crazy making later, I launched my business. I know that's a bit soon for current popular advice, but I figured when I'd made 300+ batches of soap, I probably knew what I was doing.

Veronica Foale Essentials is six months old now, so I've been soaping for just over a year. Blessed with an obsessive addictive personality, I learn very quickly when things interest me, and I'm just about to hit soap batch #450.

I started my soap making with some strong ethos - I am entirely palm oil free. I've heard that in the US sustainable palm is actually sustainable, but the labelling here in Australia can be a little murkier and I'm not prepared to gamble with it. Palm-free or not is such a personal choice that I don't usually make a big deal about it, except as my unique selling point.

Aside from that, I'm pretty free and easy in my soap making! I work mostly with fragrance oils and micas because I love bright colours so much, and I love the freedom fragrance oils provide me with.

I'm really looking forward to contributing to Modern Soapmaking, I have some interesting ideas, and I get to bring an Australian perspective to things, which is always fun!

I love teaching, writing tutorials, and taking photos, so I fully expect we're all going to have a lot of fun together.

Outside of soapmaking, I am a mother to three children, two girls and a boy. They're 8, 6 and 2.5 years old, and oh boy, do they keep me on my toes. We have two dogs, three cats, a small (okay, large) flock of free ranging chickens, a duck, and three goldfish, down from four, because apparently, goldfish are the hardest pet to keep alive.

I love reading, writing, messing around in the garden, and obsessively rearranging my bottles of fragrance oil. It's soothing, what can I say.

I am absolutely delighted to be able to share my tips, tricks and tutorials with you lovely readers, and to learn from you all in return.

This is going to be fun!