Scrub-a-dub-dub

A gift of goat’s milk soap, made by a family friend, prompted Jeff Kurosaki and Tara Pelletier to enter the world of soap making. It was 2008, and the present came from Pelletier’s grandmother. “After using it, there was no way that we could go back to commercial soaps,” the pair said.

Around the same time, Kurosaki and Pelleitier were venturing into “urban homesteading.” They created an indoor compost and a large herb garden in the windows of their Brooklyn apartment. (Kurosaki was already into furniture making and Pelletier was sewing her way into her own wardrobe and bag line.)

A soap-making book taught the couple basic recipes. They then ventured into recipes of their own. First up: a shea butter bar with tea tree and oats.

“We had made so much that we gave some away to friends, who also became addicted,” Kurosaki and Pelletier told Creative Cat. “At the same time, we had been going to the Brooklyn Flea and the Brooklyn Indie Market and were inspired by all of the cool things people were making and wanted to be a part of it.”

Here's a look at how it's done:


Now that Kurosaki and Pelletier have formed their own organic soap company, Meow Meow Tweet, they really like developing recipes and making drawings for product labels.

Kurosaki is also into “using these big, beautiful glass droppers to measure out the essential oils.” And Pelletier “loves to bring the soap to trace (this is when the oils and the lye combine).”

But the hardest part, Kurosaki and Pelletier say, is balancing day jobs with their art and soap-making. Also tricky: “Realizing the scent we have in our minds and communicating that to our noses.” Most of the meow meow tweet soap scents are inspired by food flavors.

Pelletier cooked in restaurants for many years and Kurosaki says he loves good food. “So our natural sensibility was to create flavors that we'd want to eat,” they said.