Aloe juice as a water replacement?
Or dulce de leche... ooh. Additives could be Brazilian clays, cocoa butter.
Lavender, rose? Lemon? Olive? Additives... beer? French green clay?
NZ always gets forgottenBig task ahead of ya. It's hard to distill an entire continent of diverse countries, landscapes, and cultures into one scent.
For North America, while there are great mountains and forests and tropical islands, what is jumping out at me as something that is unique to North America would be a cactus fragrance. Cactus blossom, agave, aloe, etc. Cacti are in South America, too, but when you think of a cactus you tend to have a very specific concept in mind of SW US/Mexico
For South America, one thing that always reminds me of my time there is the smell of passionfruit. Ah, just thinking of the smell brings me warm flashbacks of sitting with a cool glass of fresh juice in my hand. Guava is a good one as well. A completely off the beaten track idea would be chocolate. Ecuadorian chocolate is divine.
For Asia, a tall order. I think Coconut Lemongrass is okay as it invokes some SEAsian dishes. My experience is with living in an EAsian country, so I'll still give my thoughts. Green Tea is always a classic. Sakura FOs tend to behave badly, sadly. Yuzu, ginger, nashi pear, plum blossom, goji berry, chrysanthemum, jasmine. Additives can be rice water or if you're feeling fancy, fermented rice water (super easy to make~)
For Europe, hnnn. Honestly, I just think of bread. I'm so sorry Europe. Every time I visit you, I just eat too much bread, meat, and cheese.
No Africa journeys from me (yet!), but Moroccan Mint is a solid choice. Spearmint and black tea is a divine scent combination, too. Orange/clementine? Myrrh, sandalwood, amber? This is where you definitely should lean into the shea butter usage. Baobab powder? African Black Soap crumbles?
Haven't been to Oceania, either, so I'll let KiwiMoose keep the podium on this matter. But you could throw our dear Kiwi a bone and add a little honey for New Zealand
Wow, while I was searching out of pure yearning curiosity to see if someone out there made a milk tea fragrance, I found this website that has FO categories for different regions/cultures. Might be a good place to snag some ideas or even a FO. omg I have FO envy right now just looking at their inventory. I hope these are actually good quality for soap
NZ always gets forgotten
We are very different to Aussie in terms of climate, landscape and 'signature scent'.
Yes, I agree that calling it an Australian soap would be bad if it includes something from NZ. It would have to be Oceania, but I think a lot of folks don't use that term or know what it means or know that there are countries beyond just Australia and New Zealand in it.
Beer-fest for Germany. That's an easy one!Don't let us scare you! It's a fun idea
Maybe you could do it as 1 country from every continent! (Which gives you an excuse to come back and make more fun country-inspired things later
Side squirrel from the topic…. I loved reviewing the people on the list in your link, @KiwiMoose! I love Bret and Jermaine of Flight of the Conchords and appreciated the fun reviewNZ always gets forgotten
We are very different to Aussie in terms of climate, landscape and 'signature scent'. But yeah - Manuka honey is pretty much a NZ thing. Technically we are not part of a continent - rather a geographic area known as either Australasia or Oceania (the latter of which includes the polynesian islands).
When thinking of the geographical area though - Australia being the only continent should take priority I guess, which is why I suggested the sandalwood/red earth thing. Putting manuka honey in an Australian soap would not be a good idea - it adds to the sense of identity loss we already feel when considered by the rest of the world as being 'part of Australia' or 'an island off the coast of Australia'. Many of our internationally famous people are said to be 'from Australia' - however I will note that some of them, according to this source are not from NZ at all - notably Sam Neill and Anna Paquin.
Yes - I second that. It's a great idea @RevolutionSoap please don't do away wiht it.Don't let us scare you! It's a fun idea
Maybe you could do it as 1 country from every continent! (Which gives you an excuse to come back and make more fun country-inspired things later
and maybe Passionfruit Nectarine from WSP for a South American country.
Still been working on this and decided thanks to all your wonderful feedback to not do continents but just do countries.
@basti does SEasian point to any certain country? I was really looking for an excuse to just use that Coconut Lemongrass FO. I'm a FO horder/collector.
Our Costco has Manuka honey. I don't recall that it was that much more than the raw local honey that they carry, but I'm sorry I don't remember the exact price.
