OmanPride: An Omani soaper is working up a lather

More sports Tuesday 07/March/2017 19:20 PM
By: Times News Service
OmanPride: An Omani soaper is working up a lather

Soap making is an exciting job and involves working with scented materials that are quite interesting too.
Omani soaper Amira Al Rawahi seems to get the best of it in her own house as she gets busy doing what she does best, create art.

Al Rawahi is a talented young soap maker, who enjoys experimenting, blending, and mixing ingredients together to create beautiful scents with iconic looks, her soaps shy away from commercial bars, and embrace colours and a whole lot of homemade ingredients.

Her soapy creations are made with natural ingredients; they look delicious too, as some of the ingredients used are cardamom, vanilla, and mint among other things.

The young artist has always been intrigued with scented soaps, she began her journey of soap making when she was in college; it started off as a hobby where she’d collect some of the finest soaps and scented items, just to learn and admire their beauty and fragrance.

She later decided to take it up a nudge to learn how to make her own soaps. She started watching YouTube videos and learning how to make them from scratch, as well as what materials to use, then she began practising on designing and producing soaps using the knowledge she gained from the internet.

After familiarising herself with the entire process she enrolled in an online course for formal training. After she learnt how to design a bar, she thought to herself, why not turn this hobby into a flourishing business, and that’s exactly what she did. Al Rawahi put together a proper workshop at home and started experimenting with flavours and scents.

Shortly after, she started her own brand called Amira Soaps and started selling them online and through social media. Creating these soaps is not an easy job, and for Al Rawahi, things have to be perfect.
“I enjoy anything artistic and anything crafty, so when I find an artistic field, I try to master it,” she said, explaining her drive and inspiration. “Sometimes it’s just an idea, other times it’s a mistake, then I work around it. Making soaps has become my creative outlet, so I put my signature on it.”

What makes Al Rawahi’s soaps trendy and in-demand is that they look pretty, and she uses ingredients that are not usually used in commercials bars, such as flowers, spices, oils, fruits, and fragrance oils. These can all be found in her line, with the best ones being karak soap, a sweet and spicy mix of tea, vanilla, cinnamon, and cardamom.

The masculine-scented masala chai bar is made of Indian-inspired spices, such as mandarin leaf, agave nectar, cardamom, nutmeg, and peppercorn. Her most Omani product is the luban and bakhoor soap, an aromatic bar that combines frankincense with traditional Omani incense. The pieces of frankincense embedded in the bottom of the bar serve as body scrubbers. Other notable items in her extensive list are cheesecake, no-stain henna, sweet coconut, honey, mint, lavender, and fruit soaps.

Al Rawahi designs soaps in a variety of shapes and sizes; from mini cupcakes, to lollipops, to Lego designs, and neon soaps. She also creates customised packages where the client picks his favourite ingredients and she’d make them, package them, and wrapped them as a gift if wanted.
You can check out Al Rawahi and her soaps through her Instagram account (@amira_soaps).
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