13 Mar 22'
"I bought this course for my best friends birthday so we were both looking forward to it. First off, the studio is in a lovely setting. Unfortunately, the rest of the course was not a positive experience. During the soap making all the participants had to queue in a line to take turns to get all the ingredients and make the product. This was time consuming and lacking in space. We were closely supervised to ensure all measurements were accurate and the mixing process was done correctly. The finished products on both mine and my friends soaps were dreadful. All the soaps were covered in a white substance and there were holes throughout the soap bars . They all looked dreadful. If it was one batch I could have understood but it was all 4 batches from 2 different people. The soaps were much too unsightly to use. I did contact Soapology to request a partial refund but was refused. I was offered another place on a course but due to work commitments not able to attend. Despite this I feel the session would have proved uncomfortable. As the course states 'created her courses so that you can cut out the mistakes' I did not envisage a product unfit for purpose. Luckily, my friend and I have managed to make successful soaps after watching on line tuitions on You Tube."
Soapology Studio responded:
" Hi Heather,
I am so sorry you felt strongly enough to leave this review. As you can see I have over 50 5* reviews on this course and more on my 121 courses. This is in fact the only negative comment in over 10 years and 400+ students. As I mentionned in our many emails after the course, the white powder you mention sounds like soda ash and is quite common in cp soapmaking, it is fully explained in the theory part of the course and in your course workbook. The holes you mention may be trapped air bubbles from mixing too vigorously which I pointed out at the time and advised you to stir slowly between using the stick blender to release the trapped air. In one of your emails to me you stated you had made a successful batch at home therefore I consider the course to be successful as you learnt the skills from me to then make your own soap (youtube waa never mentionned until now). As I said, the course is all about making mistakes whilst with me and I can correct them and offer guidance. I did offer for you to return on another course and bring your original 'faulty' soaps with you so that I could see them and try and work out what had happened. You declined. All of the other batches made on the day turned out wonderful along with my demonstration batch. Also, I have never seen the two batches your friend made nor have I heard from her since the course saying she was unhappy.
I am devastated to have received this review but I guess the saying is true, you cant please everyone all the time. Good luck with your soapmaking journey Heather.
Emma, Soapology Studio"
