Soap Queen

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Essential Oil Feature: Star Anise

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Star Anise is a sweet smelling essential oil that smells just like black licorice! Since I adore black licorice (I’m drooling right now thinking about salted licorice from Norway), of course I love this essential oil. It’s great for soaps, lotions, scrubs and soaps beautifully in cold process soap (who got one of our bars from the last soap swap?). Below is more information and reasons why you should try the fabulous essential oil.

Star Anise EO (Illicium verum) : Known as star anise, star aniseed, or Chinese star anise. Star anise is a naitive evergreen shub of China. Star Anise essential oil is steam distilled from the star-shaped seeds.  The oil is very high in the chemical compound anethol, which is responsible for the distinctive aroma similar to liquorice.  It is used to make many liquors, and (warning: random fact ahead!)  is also the primary chemical source for the anit-influenza drug, Tamiflu.  Some reports claim that over 90% of the annual harvest of Anise goes to the manufacture of Tamiflu.

Star anise can be used in chest rubs to help alleviate bronchitis, coughing, cold and other respiratory congestions as well as rheumatism.  It can be used in massage oils to help relieve sore muscles, and works well in bug repellent sprays. It is also a relaxing oil, and helps relieve stress and insomnia. Star Anise blends well with rose, lavender and orange.  Our Star Anise is lip safe at 1-3%, and makes a wonderful licorice lip balm!

Anise often arrives “frozen” in colder months. Not sure how to get a solid essential oil back to liquid? Read our handy tutorial here.

Night time blend: 4 parts Orange, 3 parts Anise, 3 parts Cedarwood, 3 parts Neroli, 2 parts Chamomile. Blend with a carrier oil for a massage, or drop into a hot bath.

Anise also blends awesome with Lavender (1:1), Spearmint (1:1), Orange (3:1), Chocolate Fragrance (1:1) and Patchouli (1:1).

Who is using Star Anise Essential Oil? What are your favorite blends?

Have a question about this blog post? Come join us at Bramble Berry’s Facebook page and we can help you out with any of your soapy questions!

The Art of Cultivating Friends

Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

I’m in a few different business Mastermind Groups. I cherish each and every group I am in and find value in their interactions. One of the questions that has been extremely popular lately among all my groups is this:  How do adults make friends?

When we were in high school and college, it was easy to make friends. We were thrown into natural groups because of the shared schooling experience and then from there, it was just a matter of finding the people that ‘fit’ with you. As adults, it’s considerably more difficult to find and form close friendships. There’s a variety of reasons for this. We’re busy with our own lives, focused inward on ourselves and our families. Any extra time is usually spent on self improvement (from working out to meditation to reading) or doing fun things with family. Outside of work, adults don’t spend a lot of time in groups, or tribes.

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Jamisen Loves Doggies

Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

June 2011

I was remiss in telling you that Cookie was Jamisen’s first dog that he has met. And, I have unfortunately offended my dear niece doggie Samantha who met Jamisen at least 1 week before Cookie did. Whoops! Can I blame my slip on lack of sleep?

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Faux Funnel Pour: Advanced Cold Process

Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

This is a great alternative to column pour and funnel techniques. This pour creates a unique and fun swirl in your soap with no two bars exactly the same. Plus, bonus points for getting to soap with a buddy since this technique works best with four pouring hands.

If you have never made cold process soap before, I strongly suggest getting a couple of basic recipes under your belt before diving in, as this is an advanced technique that requires you to move quickly. Check out Soap Queen TV on Cold Process if you want to get started with cold process. It’s a 4 part series that will take you through the basics (and be sure to watch the episode on Lye Safety). Bramble Berry also has some helpful reading tools for you bookworms out there.

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Wrap It Up

Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

On our (super active) Facebook Fan Page, Cigar Bands come up in conversation at least once a week – how to create them, how to use them, how to print them etc… and though we’re a little slow, we finally got the hint and created some easy cigar bands that you can customize yourself for your products. This cigar band was designed around the oh so popular 12 Bar Square Silicone Mold

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Jamisen Loves Books

Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

“If daily reading begins in infancy, by the time the child is 5 years old, he or she has been fed roughly 900 hours of brain food! Reduce that experience to just 30 minutes a week, and the child’s hungry mind loses 770 hours of nursery rhymes, fairy tales and stories. A kindergarten student who has not been read to could enter school with less than 60 hours of literacy nutrition. No teacher, no matter how talented, can make up for those lost hours of mental nourishment.” (USDOE, 1999)

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Bath Bombs + Salt = Love

Filed Under: Bath Fizzies

My basic bath bomb recipe was seeming a little “vanilla” lately (aka: in need of a change). So to spice things up and continue with the bath bomb theme of the week, I mixed it up by adding Fine Grained Dead Sea Salt and some Himalayan Pink Salt for garnish. The salts combined with the new Orange Grove Fragrance Oil is just what I needed to make extraordinary double duty bath bombs!

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Soap Queen Loves Dirty Laundry

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

“We” (meaning the royal “we” for all of Bramble Berry!)  have been obsessed with Jeanee’s Dirty Laundry Blog for quite some time. I’m pretty sure the entire customer service and marketing team check in daily (including myself). Her posts are always cheeky, fun and inspirational, which is why we invited her back for a second time to be on the Bramble Berry S.O.A.P. testing team (a group selected to test new fragrance oils for Bramble Berry- read more about S.O.A.P. here). After testing the mystery fragrances in her mini bath bomb cupcakes, she was a dear and sent us a sample of each (sweet!). You shouldn’t have, Jeanee, but we’re so happy you did. My marketing team and I were like jungle animals, fighting to smell each bath bomb at the same time.

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Make Like a Fluffball and Get Back Up

Filed Under: Business Musings

I saw this adorable video this week (yes, I know, I’m probably the last person in the entire word to see it). I chuckled and made an audible “Awwwww” sound. You would have to have a heart of steel to not find the video adorable.

Sometimes  life can feels a little like those adorable fluffballs, one setback after another, one ‘No’ after another. It’s important to remember when you’re knocked down that it’s not the end, that you will get up and that things will continue to move forward.  For example, if the only thing you know about me and Bramble Berry is our current website, this cheery looking blog and the lovely photos of a healthy and happy family, you’d be missing 90% of the story. Over the years, there have been plenty of doors closed and mishaps (like when our entire warehouse flooded with groundwater and sewer and insurance wouldn’t pay for the damage  or when our office roof literally peeled off in hurricane-force winds or when I was embezzled from or watching me go through a painful and contentious divorce or when … … the list goes on and on). When those things happen, my mantra is always “Thank goodness I have a successful thriving business to even have these problems! After all, if I didn’t have a warehouse, there wouldn’t be a roof to be torn off!” Sure, it’s hokey but it puts it all into perspective for me.

Bramble Berry’s Business Coach suggests celebrating successes for one day and never wallowing with setbacks more than one day either. I’ve embraced this philosophy and it’s served my company and my life well. So, my friends, make like a little fluffball duck and just keep on keepin’ on; get up, every single time, and move forward, even if it’s just a little bit at a time. When you look back over a lifetime, you’ll be amazed at how far you’ve flown.

Have a question about this blog post? Come join us at Bramble Berry’s Facebook page and we can help you out with any of your soapy questions!

Neck Strength Improves

Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

P1020341Jamisen is so fun right now as he follows along great with books. We all love reading to him, even Grandpa who brought one of his favorite books from when he was a little boy. We are so pleased to see Jamisen’s neck strength continuing to strengthen as he gets older.

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Learn to Infuse Herbs and Teach Your Kids

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

E-Book Infusing: Herbs, Spices, Teas and Clays

Infusing Herbs, Spices, Teas & Clays – Have you ever wondered how to naturally achieve rich, vibrant color in your soaps, lotions, massage oils and lip balms? This is my how-to on infusing herbs, spices, teas, & clays for naturally adding color and the benefits of herbs, spices, teas & clays to your handmade toiletries. In this digital or paper book, you will find full color photo examples of finished soaps made using infused herbs. Within the 28 pages, you will find an extensive chart with 104 herbs, spices, teas and clays, with tips and notes on their color outcome. Also included are journal pages for you to print out to track your results as you experiment with natural colorants. If you want more journal pages, check out our 40 page Infusing Journal. You can also buy the Infusing Herbs book as a paper version here.

 

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The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011

Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

A new version of the Safe Cosmetic Act has been released. You can read the full version of it here. http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h2359/text Many of our customers have asked me why I haven’t come out with a position on the bill yet. The reason is two-fold: (1) I had additional questions that needed to be answered and (2) My sweet baby boy is adorable and still not sleeping (see baby monitor below). In the past, I have been able to travel to Washington, DC myself to meet with Legislators, talk about the bill and its verbiage and learn the intention between many of the points in the bill. With a newborn at home who depends on me for food, I have not been as active with this iteration of the bill as I have been previously. Thankfully, others have.

July 2011

Leigh O’Donnell from the Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild deserves our gratitude; she has been to Washington DC on this issue six times this year alone. She went to Washington, DC this week with a list of prepared questions from a group of vendors and small businesses about the bill. Many of my additional questions have been answered.  While the bill is not perfectly crafted and there are gray areas still existing, it is a better version of the bill than previous iterations. For example, small businesses are exempted from fees in this version of the bill.

 

 

I am thankful for the work of the Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild and their paid advocates in getting our voices heard. While the bill, as written, is not perfect, small business does have a seat at the table with the Handcrafted Soap Guild.  This bill continues to be a work in progress and this process does afford us the opportunities for change. The HSMG was invited to Washington, DC this week (as was I but was unable to attend) to meet with Legislators to talk about the bill and continue an open dialogue on how the bill can be improved and clarified.

 

 

This bill does need to be worked on; intentions in several areas are unclear, and, as written, are open to negative interpretations. But, it is better than what we have seen in the past and because of the HSMG’s careful education and the Legislators’ stated desire to work with small business, I am cautiously optimistic moving forward. Though Bramble Berry’s official position is that additional legislation is not needed for our industry, we believe that legislation is coming; if not this year, then the next. Thus, it is important to keep our lines of communication open to legislators and continue to work proactively so small business continues to be represented.

 

 

My hope is to go to Washington, DC in the fall to work on this bill on your behalf. In the meantime, Bramble Berry continues to donate to the Legislative Advocacy Fund of the Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild to help support their professional advocacy work in Washington, DC. I will keep you posted as the bill continues to change and the positions in it, clarified.

 

Have a question about this blog post? Come join us at Bramble Berry’s Facebook page and we can help you out with any of your soapy questions!

Tub Time: Goatsmilk Bath Tea

Filed Under: Soaks & Scrubs

This bath tea is made with luxurious goat milk, salts and cocoa butter.

This simple, four ingredient recipe only has 4 steps, making it easy to whip together a luxurious bath after a hard day on your feet.  What’s so great about goatsmilk?

Goatmilk is particularly moisturizing and nourishing to the skin because of capric-caprylic triglyceride. Capric-caprylic triglyceride is an effective skin moisturizer that helps to contribute to skin softness by forming a barrier on the skin to help inhibit the loss of moisture. It is the only milk that contains naturally occurring capric-caprylic triglycerides. The protein strands of goat milk are shorter than other types of milk and are more readily absorbed by skin.

Goatmilk also has naturally occurring lactic acid that helps keep skin smooth by encouraging skin turnover (it acts similar to a gentle peel). It also contains many vitamins, specifically A, D and B6, as well as the anti-oxidant Selenium.

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