My New Curing Rack and Other Goodies

A couple years ago I had someone contact me about teaching her to make cold-processed soap. She lives in a smaller town south of here, and so she was able to come on over to my house and see how it’s done. We had a grand old time! Well, after making her own soap for the past couple of years, she decided that it wasn’t good for her back (she had trouble with it before she started making soap), and thought of me as she was getting rid of some of her supplies.

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

bakers rack My New Curing Rack and Other Goodies

Baker's Rack for Curing Soap

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

curing soap My New Curing Rack and Other Goodies

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:

curing soap2 My New Curing Rack and Other Goodies

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 oxides My New Curing Rack and Other Goodies

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!

Great Prize!

Last December I posted about the Holiday Swap I participated in with the Creative Soapmakers group in Facebook. What I didn’t mention was that there was a prize involved for the best packaging. Stacy Herrod of Day Star Candle & Soap Supply donated a $20 gift certificate to her store where she sells fragrances of every imaginable variety! I’ve purchased fragrances from Stacy before, so I know how wonderful they are. I’m not even sure how they picked the winner, but it was me! This was the soap I contributed that won the prize:

swap soap 300x225 Great Prize!

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!

I Did It!

swap soap 300x300 I Did It!Yesterday, I decided to try the new swirling method by Nicole Benitex that won the Saponifier’s Swirl Contest. I needed to make some soap for a swap that I’m participating in, and I wanted to use one of the new fragrance oils that I just purchased. So, unfortunately, these will not be for sale – sorry! But if you’re patient, I will make more!

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!

My Brain is Spinning

Just to let you know what’s going on in my world! My brain is usually spinning about this time of year as I think about gearing up for the farmer’s market and another busy season selling soap. I’m going to address my soapmaker friends in this post to see who is thinking like I am.

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.

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!

Salt Bar Revisited

anhokis salt bar 150x150 Salt Bar RevisitedSee this beautiful salt bar? I didn’t make it – Anhoki did. And after using it just once, I am determined to experiment some more with this type of soap. It is absolutely wonderful!!! You know how there are different qualities of handmade soap? Some are just three oils – the simple olive, coconut and palm oil soaps with maybe a little bit of shea butter. They work, but there are better soaps out there. My regular soap recipe has seven different vegetable oils and butters because I want it to be better than average. Apparently (knock me over the head with a brick), this same logic applies to salt bars. This is not a difficult concept, yet somehow I missed it! Most salt bar recipes out there have three oils or less – the one I experimented with had coconut oil, shea butter and castor oil. It was a decent soap, but the lather melted away rather quickly.

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!

Smell Through Shrink Wrap

two soap crate 150x150 Smell Through Shrink WrapI was reminded again today why I love my smell through shrink wrap. It is so easy to use and makes my soaps look so professional! I have another use for it now too: wrapping soaps in gift crates, like the ones in the picture. I made several like this today for the Holiday Craft Show I’m doing tomorrow.

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!

Best of the Best Supplier Awards

2008supplierawards 150x150 Best of the Best Supplier AwardsThis is for my soapmaking friends. Saponifier Magazine is doing their survey for the Best of the Best Supplier Awards. First of all, if you haven’t subscribed to this fabulous online magazine, you need to! They have loads of great information about having a soap business, product and packaging information, the latest trends in bath and body products, as well as recipes, ads and coupons for online suppliers. You don’t have to subscribe to participate in the poll. If you have your favorite suppliers for fragrances, essential oils, containers, and general soap and/or candlemaking ingredients, you can vote right now.