Happy Monday! I hope that those of you who got an extra hour’s sleep this weekend were able to enjoy it. Now that you’re all super refreshed, bright eyed and bushy tailed, it’s time for another Make it Monday challenge! We’ve had a blast seeing all the creative bath and body products that you guys have been making for these challenges (to see some of the awesome work from past challenges all in one handy location, check out our Facebook albums here). Are you ready for this week’s challenge? Let me give you a hint: it’s fizzy, it’s bubbly and it’s so much fun to use in the tub. Can you guess what it is?
Pin it To Win It : Bramble Berry Style!
To kick off Givember, we have an exciting contest for you to participate in. It’s Bramble Berry’s first ever Pin it To Win It (PITWI)! The team and I love Pinterest (check us out here) and all the fabulous and fun new ideas it gives us and we want to pass this fun onto you. Over the next week we want you to pin your very favorite Soap Queen tutorials (such as Easy Whipped Shea Butter or How to Make Cupcake Bath Bombs — two of our most popular tutorials to date) and Bramble Berry products for the chance to win a $50 Bramble Berry Gift Certificate. We’re giving away 4 certificates so there’s 4 chances to win!
Guidelines:
- Choose three Bramble Berry products and two of your favorite Soap Queen tutorials and pin them to any of your boards!
- Be sure to include the hashtag #soapmaking on Pinterest (we can easily search for your hashtag to help keep all the pins straight).
- Link back to us in the comments below with your Bramble Berry Style pin and a couple of reasons why you chose those products and tutorials. Or, you can also just link us up with your user name URL for Pinterest and we can find them that way too.
- You have until November 10th at noon to enter. At the end of 1 week we will randomly pick 4 winners to receive a $50 Bramble Berry Gift Certificate.
While you’re pinning, check out our super fun community board, the Soapy Pinsters!
Ready! Set! Pin!
New Friends
“The language of friendship is not words but meanings.”
-Henry David Thoreau
Making Scented Nail Polish
One of the things I love about making Nail Polish from scratch is the instant gratification factor. It’s ready as soon as it’s made! If I decide I’d like a quick custom color for date night tonight, boom. Done. And so much fun to experiment with different colors and color blends. The addition of a favorite scent makes for an unexpected twist on a classic cosmetic.
Cuteasaurus Rex
Jamisen’s second Halloween celebration kept with the animal theme (last year, he was a cow). Only, this time, it wasn’t an actual living animal. He went as a Cuteasarux Rex! And, while I would never be one to be competitive, I’m pretty sure he was the cutest Cuteasaurus Rex at the Harvest Festival celebration we went to (with, or without, the headgear).
It’s raining cats, dogs, and an occasional frog around here so we opted for an indoor party. Plus, Jamisen has never eaten an actual bar of candy so we figured he didn’t care much about the actual trick’or’treating part of the night. [Read more…]
#Halloween Winners
Happy Halloween!
What is everyone dressed up like today? I’m dressed up as a soapmaker and have been testing recipes like a mad scientist all morning. Jamisen’s outfit is way cuter than Mom’s. He’s going to be a dinosaur, which is the cutest thing you’ve ever seen. Babies + Halloween costumes = cute overload. Stand by for pictures!
And now for the main event: Halloween-themed fun on the Bramble Berry’s Facebook page. We have Jack-o-Lantern’s, eyeball cupcakes, mummies, candy corn and fingers (’tis the season for soapy severed fingers). Thanks for going the extra mile in the creativity department! Now, please give a hauntingly happy drum roll for the winners of our Make it Monday: #Halloween Challenge…
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Top Row:
Miranda from Wildflower Avenue Bath and Body – Pumpkin Babies
Kymberlee Ricke – Eyeball Bath Bombs
Sayab Soaps – Melt and Pour Mummy Bears
Middle Row:
Sherry from Sherry’s Suds & “Scent”sationals
Alissa from Just Bath & Body Stuff
Lori from Nemesis Productions/Spooky Grrrl Bath and Body – Undead Pumpkin
Bottom Row:
Dawn Moore – Single Use Soaps using Water Soluble Paper
Char from Little Body Treats – Zombies Loves Brains
Suzanne from Suzy’s Soaps
Thank you to everyone who entered this spooky contest and for more eerily fun inspiration, check out our #Halloween Album on our Facebook page. And look forward to next week when we resume our Make It Monday challenges.
What’s New for Fall
New items are rolling into the Bramble Berry warehouse what seems like every day! We are keeping busy finding shelf space for all the new goodies. Even with the shelf puzzles, we are finding 30 seconds to vote daily for Bramble Berry in the Fed Ex Grant Contest. We’d love your vote too so we can build a virtual Soap University! Vote HERE.
Here’s a round up of the latest additions to the Bramble Berry family:
Production Assistance
Announcing Givember
Give + November – get it? =) Givember is a month long celebration where Bramble Berry gives back to you, our wonderful customers, readers, friends and fans.
What to expect:
- For current newsletter subscribers, four newsletters during the month of November.
- Four exclusive, brand new projects! Each newsletter will have a new project to help get your creative juices flowing for the holiday craft season.
- Free coordinating label templates with each project.
- The first of the four newsletters will go out this Thursday. Check your inbox (sometimes your spam filter catches them too) and be sure to keep an eye out every week for the entire month of November.
- Free sample kit with Bramble Berry purchase (Amount varies but generally, $125 or more) – a different kit every week – while supplies last. Look for those announcements on our home page every week. If the freebie kit isn’t on the home page, it’s all gone for the week.
If you’re not currently, be sure to subscribe to the Bramble Berry Newsletter (you can do so by visiting the BB homepage and signing up on the right hand form) so you can be in on all the fun projects. If you subscribe by Wednesday, you’ll be sure not to miss a single newsletter. Get ready, get set…let’s make this a Givember to remember!
Halvah Cheesecake Part Two: The Cake
Here’s part two of the Halvah Cheesecake from my dad’s 25 year old IOU! Check out the full story of the IOU and how to make Halvah from scratch tutorial here.
Ingredients:
16 ounces of softened cream cheese
3/4 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups sour cream
2 tablespoon spelt flour or all-pupose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped halvah [Read more…]
Budding Chef
“When you are truly comfortable in your own skin, not everyone will like you, but you won’t care about it one bit!”
-Unknown
Making Bath Truffles on Soap Queen TV
Learn to make luxurious and fun bath truffles! What’s a bath truffle? It’s like a bath fizzy with lots of moisturizing oils and butters that you crumble into your bath for a home spa experience. In this episode, I use cocoa butter and shea butter for that luxurious touch. Bath truffles are a great project for beginner and advanced crafters alike. They are easy to customize with fragrance and essential oils of your preference.
This video includes two recipes. The first is a natural mix using Kaolin Clay and Lavender Essential Oil. The second recipe is a Sweet Bubbly Bar using a blend of Chocolate and Vanilla fragrances. Both bath truffle recipes smell amazing, and feel great in the tub. Do be careful when getting out of the tub; the extra butters in this recipe can make the bottom of the tub a little bit slippery! To help the butters in this recipe disperse better in the tub, you can add a bit of polysorbate 80. Polysorbate 80 is an emulsifier and helps prevent large pools of oil and butter in bath water. [Read more…]
Behind the Scenes: SQTV + Dirty Laundry
It was such a fun day on the Soap Queen TV set with our special guest, Jeanee from Dirty Laundry! She flew all the way from Miami to film with the Soap Queen crew. Flying from Miami to Bellingham meant flying through the night (!), with two flights over 15 hours, and then getting in a car and driving 3 hours to our little ‘hamlet. Now that’s some (soapy) dedication!
Can you say climate culture shock? Jeanee (pronounced Ja-Knee) was bundled up from head to toe trying to stay warm in the sideways rain and wind storm we had over the weekend. Thanks for the welcoming, Washington! We did step it up for her by debuting our brand new aprons (made here at Team Bramble Berry headquarters) but I’m not quite sure that was enough to make up for the rain. [Read more…]
Talk It Out Tuesday : Nail Polish
Happy Tuesday! It’s time again for another installment of our ever popular Talk it Out Tuesday series (check out our previous posts on lip balm, preservatives, bath bombs, melt and pour, lotion and colorants). I am super excited about this week’s topic because it is all about my latest crafty obsession…nail polish! Read on to find out more about how to customize your own nail polish and all the fun nail polish-themed products that Bramble Berry carries.
How do I customize my own nail polish?
All you need is a suspending nail polish base, a nail polish bottle, nail polish mixing balls and your favorite colorants. Here’s a quick breakdown in three easy steps:
1. Make sure you are working in a well ventilated area and away from any open flames. Nail polish is extremely flammable (extremely!). Carefully pour the nail polish base into the bottles. Fill it to the shoulder of the bottle (where it bends), or just below the shoulder if adding fragrance. Then, use Bramble Berry’s tiny funnels to add your choice of micas or glitters. NOTE: the funnels do not work to fill the actual polish; it’s too thick. This is a WYSIWYG process – what you see is what you get. Remember, you can always paint a little bit on a piece of paper to make sure you’re happy with the color – or add more later.
2. Once your mica or glitter has been added, place a couple of the nail polish mixing beads into the bottle, then slip in the brush and firmly twist the cap on. You should hear the brush click right into place.
3. Shake well and apply! It really is that easy and there are so many color mixing options. [Read more…]
Make It Monday: #Halloween
If you’re struggling for a reason to love Mondays, we’ve got just the ticket: the latest Make it Monday challenge! Here’s the spooky twist…we’re looking for all things Halloween. Literal representations, interpreted color schemes, themed packaging. Anything with a spooktacular vibe goes!
Mission (if you choose to accept it)
- Create a unique soap that follows the theme for the challenge of the week. This week is all about Halloween themed projects — for all types of soaps and body products!
- Post your pictures of your cute and creative packaging to Bramble Berry’s Facebook page during the entry period (October 22nd -October 31st).
- Your entry must have the hashtag of the week in order to be entered into the contest. This week, your picture must have the hashtag #Halloween
- At the end of the entry period, Team Bramble Berry will pick our favorite entries. The winners of the challenge will be featured on the Soap Queen Blog. You have until Wednesday, October 31st to post your #Halloween photos. Please submit your photos by 12 pm (pacific standard time).
- You can submit up to three different pictures [Read more…]