Gaming soaps attract international attention
Chrystal Doucette holds one of her homemade soaps up to a real PlayStation 2 video controller in her Moses Lake home. Photo by Lynne Lynch/Columbia Basin Herald
MOSES LAKE — When crafting her gaming soaps, Moses Lake’s Chrystal Doucette says she’s amazed with the complete creative freedom she experiences.
“You just try it and see,” explains Doucette, the Columbia Basin Herald’s education and health reporter. “You’re the only one you have to get feedback from.”
What began as a hobby for the 25-year-old, attracted international attention from a German gaming and lifestyle magazine called “GEE” and an inquiry from Forbes.com.
Her reaction to the media inquiries involved “disbelief. It took a moment. I was like, ‘no way’.” She called the experience “surreal.”
“I didn’t know this was going to grow so big,” she said.
The publications’ reporters spotted her soaps online, which are made in the shape of PlayStation 2 controllers.
Forbes.com and GEE contacted Doucette to answer questions for their articles.
Forbes.com is working on a piece about video game crafts and asked to reprint Doucette’s product photos.
GEE wants to feature the soaps in an upcoming issue.
Recently, her online soap orders increased without the publicity. And she expects added exposure if the articles publish.
She’s “feeling impending doom, but in a good way,” Doucette said.
The Internet is abuzz with talk of her creations.
People are blogging about her soaps, which are made of plain glycerin, olive oil, cocoa butter and shea butter.
She’s experimented with a variety of scents, including bay rum, sandalwood, dragon’s blood (a semi-sweet scent), blackberry, cola, dirt, sweetwood, apple jack and peel, calm waters, coconut lime verbena, crumb cake, grapefruit jasmine, Hawaiian white ginger and more.
She tries to make each order special by wrapping the product in tissue and writing personal notes like, “I hope your boyfriend enjoys the soap.”
Recently, a co-worker told Doucette he discovered her soaps at a gaming Web site he visits.
Doucette then logged into her soap sales account and learned her wares sold out.
She’s shipped her product internationally to Turkey, Australia, Switzerland, Germany and Canada. At first, half of her customers were from Canada with the remaining from the U.S.
With the added interest, she is preparing to mass produce her product and plans on expanding her product line by adding other types of controllers.
She first started making the soaps in the shapes of TV remote controls, cellphones, calculators and miniature laptops.
The most popular shape turned out to be the PlayStation 2 controllers, which is now her main focus.
She jokes the PlayStation 2 is the most advanced gaming console she owns. She also enjoys playing computer games.
Doucette considers herself a gamer, but can’t devote too much time to the pursuit.
Her day job at the newspaper and soap making keep her too busy.
To view her soaps online, go to www.digitalsoaps.etsy.com.