“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.” – General George S. Patton

Not only did it make me thankful for those who died fighting for my freedoms, but it really made me think about my own purpose in life, and whether or not I’m living up to my full potential. What does God intend for me? I do know that I want to spend more time seeking God and with my family. I’ve decided that I’m intentionally going to let some things slide in my soap business this summer – or at least organize my time better – so that I can do those things more effectively.

Over the weekend, I had some down time at the pool with my girls, but also spent quite a bit of time cleaning out my soap storage room to make room for the baker’s rack I purchased several weeks ago. Because when I got back from selling at the farmer’s market on Saturday, my husband was cleaning out the garage!! It was a pretty major undertaking for him considering how FULL it was, but I took that as my cue to get things ready in the basement in order to move the baker’s rack out of the garage.

The biggest task for me was moving my big metal storage cabinet. I had to unload everything out of it and move it out of the storage room into the main room. Not ideal, but it was better than having the baker’s rack out in the open, all loaded up with naked, curing soap. At least the storage cabinet has doors that close.

Here’s where the storage cabinet sits now. Right outside the door to the storage room:

Metal cabinet holds fragrance oils, herbs, colorants, lotion making supplies, and anything else that will fit!

This next photo shows what you see when you open the door to the storage room. Brace yourselves. It ain’t pretty (yet):

Great work space if it ever gets cleared off!

The piece d’resistance now sits where the metal storage cabinet once was:

Seven different kinds of soap currently curing!

Hubby says I need to lay the soaps down on the long edge so I can fit the trays closer together and get more soap on the rack. Right now, if you look at the previous photo, you can see I’ve put the finished soaps in the boxes on the two top shelves. He thinks we could use those shelves for more pantry space – yet another rare commodity around here since I started coupon shopping! I’m thinking if the trays are closer together there won’t be enough air flow to cure them in the same amount of time that I’m accustomed to. So we’ll see.

Across from the baker’s rack, I’ve re-organized the plastic shelves so that there isn’t anything hanging over the edge of the shelves anymore. Otherwise, the trays won’t go in and out of the rack!!

More fragrance and essential oils that won't fit in the metal cabinet, and other random supplies

It’s still a work in progress, but I’m happy with it so far! What did you do over the weekend?

I received this lovely baker’s rack, which she graciously DELIVERED TO MY HOUSE for just $100. (It’s still in my garage, obviously.):

Baker's Rack for Curing Soap

I am very excited because my current storage area in the basement looks like this:

Curing Soap

I also have a few things on this shelving unit, which I’ve never liked because LOOK at all the wasted space between shelves:

More Soap

I’m hoping to get some things re-arranged soon so I can put my new curing rack to good use! Oh, and I also bought a few frosted jars with black lids, and some lovely micas and oxides that I will have so much fun playing with!

Micas and Oxides

To top it off, she gave me the rest of her roll of freezer paper to line my soap molds with. It turned out to be exactly like the kind I order from Uline.

Looks like it may be raining on Saturday morning, which usually means no farmer’s market for me. I may get some re-arranging done though!

Peppermint soap by Great Cakes Soapworks

Yesterday, I received my prize. Having been inspired by the Amber Body Butter I received in the swap, I chose a 16 oz. bottle of Cioccolato Ambrato (their dupe of B&BW Chocolate Amber) as well as 16 oz. of Melon Balls fragrance. Both of these fragrances are in her clearance section, and there are lots more to choose from if you are needing some great scents for less! I know I am itching to make more soap now!

The fragrance I chose is called Pink Grapefruit & Sugar Cane, and it smells amazing! The colors didn’t quite turn out the way I had envisioned, but oh well. The notes from the fragrance supplier said that it would turn the soap a yellowish-orange, so I used some titanium dioxide to whiten up one half, and just added a bit of FD&C red to the other half. The half that I added the red to will all turn that salmon color that you see on the bottom soap, which represents a slice from the top of the log. The top soap represents a slice from the middle. I added more FD&C red to the swirl color, and since it doesn’t have any fragrance in it, it didn’t turn orangish at all – just a nice, dark pink.

I’m just glad I have one extra soap for myself, and more of the Pink Grapefruit & Sugar Cane fragrance to make more soap!

How many of you are wondering which new scents to make, how many different scents to offer at one time, or how many of each soap to make?

Or how about which new products to pursue, and how to better market the ones you already make? What is your best selling product other than soap?

What are your best marketing ideas?

What are you doing to promote your business on the internet?

Here are my thoughts:

1. I have about 10-11 soaps that I like to keep in stock at all times, with about 3-4 that are seasonal and return every year.

2. As my business has grown, I have doubled the amount of soap in each batch of these stocked soaps.

3. I usually have about 20 different soaps available at a time. (Is this too many?)

4. I find that soap is by far the best selling product that I make, but I can’t imagine my business without lotions, shea butter, lip butters, and bug off products. Even though the bug off products are seasonal, they are no doubt the second best selling products. (How can I better market the Dead Sea mud masks, sugar scrubs, tub truffles, and lava lip gloss - or should I drop these “extras”?)

5. I have been promising a facial moisturizer to my customers for many months. This would be my new product for this year.

6. I am thinking about how to get more links to my web store. Several of my friends have linked to it from their blogs or websites – THANK YOU!! If anyone else wants to link to my store, please let me know!

7. Getting testimonies and referrals from existing customers are wonderful!

Now take a look at Anhoki’s soap. Look at all the lather!! And guess how many oils she used. Not three, not four, not even five, but SEVEN oils, PLUS coconut milk, witch hazel, and soy wax. Of course the fragrance is also out of this world. It’s called High Voltage, and it really reminds me of my Currantly Citrus soap. The one I custom blended to remind me of a candle fragrance. So good.

I’ve saved the best information for last. It’s how I acquired this fabulous soap from Anhoki. She had a little giveaway on her blog, and I unashamedly left a comment letting her know that the date of the drawing was my birthday! Now, this information might have swayed her to choose me, but regardless, I felt so blessed when she did and so thankful for the prize!

You can wrap any type of soap in the smell through shrink wrap. My only experience is with cold process soaps, but I’ve heard it’s especially great for melt and pour soaps to reduce sweating. Plus, you can wrap all those intricate designs or crazy shapes, and the soap is protected from all the people who handle them, smell them, etc. at shows and markets. I don’t generally make crazy shapes, so I just add a cigar band around the outside of the shrink wrap. You could also put a sticker with all the vital information on the back of the soap.

You will have to invest in an impulse sealer if you don’t have one already. This will cut and seal the shrink wrap to the size you need it. A heat gun is also a must. I use it for shrink wrapping soaps as well as the shrink bands on my small lotions, lip butters, and whipped shea butters. Easily worth the investment.

This might seem redundant, but I still leave an end piece of each of the soaps out for people to sniff. They usually don’t realize that you can smell the soap through the shrink wrap, so this just encourages them to pick it up.

So where can you get your own smell through shrink wrap? I’m glad you asked! Interested soapmakers can purchase 50-foot lengths of smell through shrink wrap on my website for just $8.00. Fifty feet will generally wrap about 300 soaps, depending on their size. First class shipping is available for about $2.83, so that ends up costing about 3.6 cents per soap! Very cost effective. You should try it!