This Artist Creates Food-Shaped Soaps That Look So Real, You Might Just Start Salivating
For most people, soap mostly serves a singular purpose: to keep hands and body clean. If it looks pretty in your bathroom and feels and smells nice on your skin, that’s simply an added bonus, of course. But this artist creates handmade soaps that look so good you’ll want to eat them…though you definitely shouldn’t.
Yulia Popova, an artist from Russia, specializes in soap molds designed like gourmet foods, and they look so realistic, you’d have no idea that they’re actually totally usable soaps. Popova told Insider that each one takes a couple of hours to create from scratch, involving encasing an actual food into a silicone mold, which she then recreates by pouring in soap layer by layer to create a seriously realistic soap version of some of your favorite foods.
Popova creates foods to suit any fancy, from soap pancakes and waffles “topped” with berries, cream, and powdered sugar, to soap cakes and pastries that look truly delectable. If you’re looking for something a bit more savory, she also specializes in pizzas loaded with toppings and even soap snack platters featuring a plethora of nuts to “nosh” on.
While all of her soaps are works of art, she’s created actual works of art, too, including soap paintings of some of the most iconic masterpieces of the art world, from Van Gogh’s Starry Night to Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and more.
Popova explained on her Instagram Stories that she began making the soaps nine years ago, and hopes to reach a wider market by shipping all over the world on her Etsy page, Fake Cake Soap. Reviewers can’t stop raving about their purchases, with many noting that they don’t want to use the soaps because they look so beautiful on display.