Great Cakes Soapworks » Selling Soap

My Special Delivery Arrived!!

Amy Warden — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 19:33:59 +0000

It was just like Christmas when the Fed-Ex guy rang the doorbell!! I tore into the boxes as fast as I could and was NOT disappointed! My custom soap boxes finally arrived!!! I was all teary-eyed when I saw my soap inside this beautiful packaging. Seriously. I never would have imagined that it would look so good – and so professional!!

Custom Soap Boxes from McKenzie Crest

Kudos goes to Michael Hildebrand, the graphic designer. He’s a friend from church, and all he asked for in payment was a large gift basket for a silent auction to benefit his son’s football team. I gave him a vision, and with very few revisions, he came up with the design. I love the window on the front so you can see and smell the soap. This is just the beginning though. I will need several more designed for the rest of my regular line. I also asked for a blank blue one for all my limited edition soaps (I put a Winter Rose soap in there for the photo.) I’ll have to write the name of the fragrance on the front and put a sticky label on the back with the ingredients.

Kudos also goes to Anne Rohde, sales representative at McKenzie Crest Inc.. She worked very closely with me to let me know what the box company needed from me. High quality customer service for sure!

I just can’t tell you how excited I am not to have to shrink wrap and label 100′s of soaps anymore. I love how the shrink wrap showed off the soap and allowed the scent to come through, but it was SO time consuming. Definitely worth it when my production wasn’t as high. I am still planning to sell the smell-through shrink wrap on my website – in fact, I just had another big roll delivered today too (ironic, isn’t it?). I will probably find myself using it here and there, even after I have all the boxes I need.

So that’s my big news! If any other soapmakers out there want to check out McKenzie Crest, their prices are reasonable and their minimums are low! They also offer custom labels.

Unusual Easter

Amy Warden — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 19:35:52 +0000

It’s an unusual Easter weekend. We are doing all of our celebrating and churchgoing today! Easter Sunday will be a much-needed day of rest – and possibly some egg dying and hiding them around our yard.

Today was the opening day of the Olathe Farmer’s Market too – that was pretty unusual as well. We’ve never had a farmer’s market on Easter weekend before! There aren’t many vendors with produce available yet – just one with a few radishes and asparagus. However, the vendor next to me got a permit and permission from the city to sell meat this year, so in addition to farm-fresh eggs and homemade bread, they have pork and chicken too! The vendor on the other side of me is selling her hand-painted garden rocks and some plants, and there’s another vendor selling flowers and plants, and a couple other bakery vendors.

My hubby made a new lip butter display for me in time for the new season. I wanted something that would be more of a focal point and get them up at eye level. I think he accomplished that! Check it out:

Lip Butter Display

In case you were wondering, the Soap of the Week is Jellybean. (I renamed the Fruit Loops – figured Jellybean would be appropriate.) There are just three left. All the kids who came by really loved these! So colorful and fruity! You can grab up the last ones at Greatcakessoapworks.com. I’ll have a new Soap of the Week next Saturday for my local customers, and if there are any left, I’ll offer them in the same place next week.

Jellybean Soap by Great Cakes Soapworks

Well, it’s time to go to church for the carnival and egg hunt. I get to supervise a bounce house for the first shift, then I’m going to help serve beverages in the Grace Cafe right before the 5:00 service tonight. That will be a new role for me!

Pastor Tim is preaching on Psalm 22 – the wonderful way that David portrayed Christ’s crucifixion 100′s of years before he came to this earth. Can’t wait to chew on that one!

Wishing you a wonderful, blessed Easter!

Wrapping Soap and Other Necessary Procedures

Amy Warden — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 21:52:34 +0000

It’s getting down to the wire, folks! Just two more weeks until the Olathe Farmer’s Market opens on the 23rd! I am busy making and wrapping and labeling, leaving less time for blogging. My friend Kathy came over and helped me bag and seal about 200 soaps this morning:

Wrapped Soap

I still have to shrink and label them, but they are getting closer! Yes, this is the smell through shrink wrap that I sell on my website, in case you are interested.

I’ve also made Skin Glow facial moisturizer, Grapefruit & Peppermint foot scrubs, and Strawberry lip butter this week. Still need to make more Jojoba-Shea Lotion, but I’m thinking about re-naming it. I’ve found that too many people have no idea what jojoba is, let alone how to pronounce it. Most people know what shea is, but still aren’t exactly sure how to pronounce that either. I’m sure I’ll post more about the lotion after I get my thoughts together.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend! We are planning some outdoor projects for tomorrow – it’s supposed to be 88 degrees!

Peas in a Pod

Amy Warden — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 18:34:19 +0000

At the beginning of this month, I shipped off a box of pear-scented soap balls to a customer who was making favors for a baby shower. She transformed the soap balls into these adorable peas in a pod:

Peas in a Pod - Baby Shower Favors

Is that not the cutest thing ever??

How Inflation Is Affecting My Business

Amy Warden — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:00:00 +0000

The problem of inflation seems to be on most people’s minds lately – including mine. My husband just reported that gas has gone up again today, jumping up another nine cents to $3.47 a gallon. Those prices are going to affect all the commodities that have to be shipped from their manufacturer to their distributor to me. Inflation is bound to affect my business because of the supplies I have to order from various places around the country.

Just last week, I was placing an order for some needed supplies almost cried as I hit the “submit your order” button. It’s not that everything is so expensive – yet. However, one of my favorite ingredients for the Jojoba-Shea Lotions and Lip Butters is jojoba oil, and it has actually MORE THAN DOUBLED in price since the last time I bought it in May. I even checked other suppliers to see if this could possibly be correct, and their prices were even higher. Ugh.

This morning I did a general cost analysis of the soaps I make (which I hadn’t done for two years!), and just based on supplies, I’m happy to report that my costs have NOT increased. So the good news is that I won’t have to raise prices on soap so far.

Part of this has to do with the cost of olive oil finally coming down, and also because of changes in my recipe to remove rice bran oil and apricot kernel oil and add local sunflower oil. Of course, I’ve also increased my most expensive ingredient: shea butter. The overall effect has been to maintain my cost from two years ago!

Whether you are a soapmaker or have some other type of business, have you noticed that inflation has affected your business?

Soap of the Week

Amy Warden — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 22:10:30 +0000

I’ve been thinking about what I could do differently at the Olathe Farmer’s Market this year which will be starting up again on Saturday, April 23rd. One idea I’ve had is to offer a Soap of the Week. My plan is to make small batches of soap (only eight bars each), then offer one unique type of soap each week. Once they’re gone, that’s it! They won’t be available online – just locally at the farmer’s market each Saturday.

I’m still working out the details, such as whether or not to announce what all the soaps will be ahead of time, or just on a week-by-week basis, or make it a complete surprise. And if I do announce the scent and show a picture of the soap, if I should allow customers to be able to reserve any number of bars. That could get tricky. Any advice on this is welcome!

One thing is for sure. I finally have a log mold that will make just eight bars of soap! Another soapmaker and I arranged a trade – my slab mold for her three smaller log molds. The only log molds I had are about 31″ long – too long for small batches, and too long to fit in my oven, should I ever decide to try the CPOP (cold process-oven process) method. The medium sized mold I received is the perfect size to make eight bars of soap, plus a little left over on the ends. I re-sized my recipe, and tested it out with some Lily of the Valley fragrance this morning. Here’s a sneak peek of the soap in the mold:

Lily of the Valley Soap in the mold

I wasn’t trying to get too fancy because my main objective was to make sure I re-sized my recipe correctly, but I’ll tell you there is a layer of yellow soap sandwiched between two cream-colored layers. Yes, I textured the top a bit and sprinkled on some glitter too. That’s a pretty easy way to spiff up a soap!

P.S. Happy Valentine’s Day!!

Custom Welcome Page for Facebook

Amy Warden — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 01:20:26 +0000

Are you a fan of Great Cakes Soapworks on Facebook? If you are, then you probably wouldn’t notice that I have a new welcome page for first time visitors. However, if you aren’t a fan, then I highly suggest that you check it out!

Mike Holmes of Redpinservices.com contacted me before Christmas saying that he had found me via a local twitter search. He’s located here in Olathe too, and wondered if I was interested in having him create a welcome page on the Great Cakes Soapworks Facebook site. Turns out, I had been thinking about doing it, but hadn’t gotten around to it. I had even attempted to figure it out myself, but you have to understand a different type of coding, and I didn’t have time to mess with it. So, I told him I would get back with him after Christmas.

When my hubby helped me with the shrink wrap video tutorial, I asked him to take a few still shots as well to use for my Facebook page – and the line of soaps you see across the top of this blog. I sent the photos to Mike, and told him how I wanted things to look, and he got it all set up! He even embedded the Preferred Customer sign-up form. If you need a custom welcome page for your business on Facebook, I’d highly recommend Mike.

If you are already a Great Cakes Soapworks fan and want to see the new Welcome page, you can click on the >> sign across the top, the Welcome page tab will show up and you can click on it.

Last night I mentioned on the Great Cakes Soapworks Facebook page that my new stick blender would be arriving on Wednesday (that’s tomorrow – yippee!!). I asked my fans which soap I should make first – Black Raspberry Creme or Country Clothesline, with the unanimous response of…well, you’ll just have to go see for yourself!

Going Green – Just a Trend?

Amy Warden — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 16:00:00 +0000

I’ve been re-stocking my stash of essential oils this past week, and as the boxes arrive, I’m almost as excited about the abundance of packing peanuts as I am about the essential oils! So far, I’ve never had to purchase these lovely packing materials to send out soap orders. I simply save up the ones I receive in my supply orders and recycle them. I’ve also been known to use newspapers and recycled bubble wrap and air pockets to pack orders. Now I did have to break down and purchase a large roll of bubble wrap last year, but I’m trying to make it last as long as possible by using recycled packing materials first.

There certainly is a lot of “pressure” to be more conscientious about the earth and keeping as much out of the landfills as possible. The city of Olathe, Kansas, where I live, adopted a city-wide recycling program about a year ago. We now have a blue cart for our recyclable trash and a green cart for our non-recyclable trash. I have two waste containers in my kitchen – one for recycling and one for trash. There are additional recycling bins in the Walmart parking lot and a large box in the entry for recycling plastic shopping bags, which are already banned in parts of California. Some stores will pay 5 cents per reusable shopping bag that you use for bagging your items. Which is why I have several of these:

One of my reusable shopping bags

I’m trying to do my part. What do you think? Is “going green” a trend that will continue? How would you describe your inclination to recycle?

Top 10 Selling Soaps of 2010

Amy Warden — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 19:41:06 +0000

Here we are on the third day of January 2011, and I find myself getting pretty excited about what this year will hold! I’ve gone back through my soap journal to see how I can better plan for the demand for various soaps that I make. Other soapmakers will probably have different results, but here are my top 10 best selling soaps from this past year:

#10: Dead Sea Spa Facial Bars

Dead Sea Spa Facial Bars

I’ve been making the Dead Sea Spa Bars since 2006 with a citrus/earthy blend of lemon, grapefruit, patchouli, and tea tree essential oils. This last year, I added a new blend of rosewood, geranium and ylang ylang which are all great essential oils for the face. It seems to be more popular than the original blend!

#9: Sandalwood Goat’s Milk Soap

Sandalwood Goat's Milk Soap

This soap has also been around awhile – since 2004! The recipe has changed a bit over the years – I started making it with fresh goat’s milk in 2006 which makes the lather oh-so-creamy, and the soap itself very moisturizing. The scent is familiar to many, and loved by both men and women.

#8: Patchouli Beer Bars

Patchouli Beer Bar

The difference between #9 and #8 was just two bars of soap. I made my first batch of Patchouli Beer Bars in January 2005. They aren’t a top seller, but definitely consistent. They always get a double look when I bring them to the farmer’s market and craft shows. Usually because of the beer. There’s a pretty definitive line between those who love patchouli and those who can’t stand it!

#7: Bye Bye Bugs Soap

Bye Bye Bugs Soap

Even as a seasonal seller, this one makes the #7 spot. It’s a very simple soap, made with an essential oil blend that repels all kinds of bugs. The testimonials for this soap have been amazing! Plus, you can pick some up at a discounted price right now during the off-season.

#6: Clarifying Facial Soap

Clarifying Facial Soap

Here’s one that I didn’t plan for very well this year – it’s currently out of stock, but I do have a double batch curing that should be ready by the end of the month. This soap is different from all the other soaps that I carry for several reasons. 1. I use witch hazel distillate as half of the liquid. 2. The olive oil has been infused with 5 different herbs known to help clarify the skin. 3. Added stearic acid and beeswax make this a really hard bar of soap that can last for up to a year if used solely on the face.

#5: Lavender Meadows Goat’s Milk Soap

Lavender Meadows Goat's Milk Soap

Here’s another goat’s milk soap that’s been around for quite some time, although my first batch was made with soymilk in February 2005. The scent blend of lavender, palmarosa, patchouli, and ylang ylang essential oils has remained the same, but I’ve also added pulverized oatmeal for exfoliation and extra moisture for the skin.

#4: Peppermint Soap

Peppermint Soap

Here’s a seasonal soap that always sells out! This is just the third year for this soap, and it’s still a winner! There’s something special about a cool, peppermint soap that’s just super refreshing and wonderful.

#3: Creamy Castile Goat’s Milk Soap

Creamy Castile Goat's Milk Soap

I never would have thought that the most simple soap would be in the top 3 selling soaps. It just goes to show how many people have ultra-sensitive skin these days. (Castile is the term used to describe a soap made with olive oil.) Creamy Castile is made with olive oil, fresh goat’s milk, and of course, lye. That’s it!

#2: Oatmeal, Milk & Honey Soap

Oatmeal, Milk & Honey Soap

Another goat’s milk soap has made the top 3! This recipe has evolved a bit since the first batch I made in 2004, but it’s only gotten better! Now made with fresh goat’s milk, a heap of pulverized oats, a touch of local honey, and an oh-so-yummy fragrance.

And finally, the top selling soap for 2010:
Stress Relief!

Stress Relief Soap

Really, this has been my top selling soap for quite some time. The name of the soap pulls you in, and the aromatic essential oils seal the deal. It’s scented with my proprietary blend of mint and eucalyptus, and flecked with dried peppermint leaves. The neatest thing about this soap is what it has done for several of my customers with rosacea. I had received some excellent testimonials, but I was blown away when I saw the before and after photos from one of my customers.

So that’s it! Let me tell you, I am VERY excited about what I’m planning to offer in 2011! If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Featured in a Local Health Magazine!

Amy Warden — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 20:36:28 +0000

After receiving an email from someone locally inquiring about my soaps, I discovered that he found me because of a blurb in a local health magazine. As he said, “You read just about anything while you’re in the waiting room at the doctor’s office.” So I contacted the publisher of Enhance Magazine to find out what they had printed about Great Cakes Soapworks.

Turns out I’m in the beauty and body gift guide of the current issue, on page 56. (Click on the photo of the front cover, following the link, not the photo in the blog post, and it will be easy to flip to the correct page.)

They incorrectly infer that all my soaps are made with goat’s milk, but otherwise it’s a nice little write-up! And now, since I contacted him, the publisher wants some soap for his wife’s stocking. Of course, I’m happy to oblige.