“Normal is boring,” was the first statement Abraham Shibu made when asked why soap-making instead of other forms of art. This is, of course, one of the fido-sophies that he has borrowed from 7UP’s mascot, Fido Dido (the others being: It’s cool to be you; Your best friend is your head; Dare to be different; and Life is short, live it up).

What he meant to say, of course, that soap-making, blended in with music, soothes his soul. As a printing technologist by profession, he loved colours. Moving quickly into advertising, his love for colours intensified and a general awakening to handcraft his own works of art began. For Christmas, he is working on the ‘cinnamon’ series of soaps! He is probably the first male artisan at ARTE to make soaps. Talk about MAN-made soaps.

Research into making soap took around three years. Abe (as his friends call him) was not impressed to find that soaps, in general, contain a lot of chemicals. His brand of soap called Aura soaps, is passionately handmade for the skin.

“The next time you walk down the soap aisle at your favorite store enjoying the fresh, clean scents and the bright colorful packaging, pay attention. Look at the labels. The vast majority of the products on the shelf don’t say ‘soap’ on their labels. They might be called beauty bars, cleansing bars, moisturizing bars, or body bars, but not soap. That’s because these bars aren’t actually soap and can’t legally claim to be; they’re detergents. The manufacturers have removed most of the ‘good’ stuff that occurs in the soap making process, and replaced it with synthetic lathering agents and harsh chemicals. These cheap, plentiful detergent bars are not only bad for your skin, but they’re also bad for the planet, too.”

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