Work hard on the final attempt to make soap (8)
I believe the answer is:
toiletry
'make soap' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'work hard on the final attempt' is the wordplay.
'work hard' becomes 'toil' (to toil is to do strenuous work).
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another (in a down clue, letters appear on others).
'final' indicates one should take the final letters.
'attempt' becomes 'try' (synonyms).
The final letter of 'the' is 'e'.
'toil'+'e'+'try'='TOILETRY'
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for toiletry that I've seen before include "Item used in ablutions" , "Something for the bathroom" , "Such as soap" , "cosmetic" .)