Anne-Marie Faiola, Author at Soap Queen

Mineral Make Up Guide Kudos

May 19, 2008 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Thank you to Mineral Make Up Blog for reviewing our eye shadow kit. This is what they had to say about our product:

Lately, I have just noticed that there is a growing number of mineral makeup mavens out there who are more adventurous and started mixing their own formulations, adding some minerals to make their finishing powder or foundation work for them *maybe for oil control*, and some super adventurous ones have ventured into color like blushes and eyeshadows.

Check out Bramble and Berry’s Custom Mineral Eyeshadow Kits. The kit helps in our DIY venture with what shades we would want to use as our eyeshadows. The kit contains all the ingredients needed to make eyeshadows, measuring scoops plus pots to store them with. They come in two sets, one in “Neutrals and Metallics”, and one in “Vivid.” With that, they also provide you with an instruction booklet to be able to achieve what shade you want to create. Sounds fun, right? They all retail for $44.95, and with that much ingredients, I think that alot of shades can be created.

Thanks for the vote of confidence!

Hummingbird Art Soap

May 19, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Thank you to Judith Ann from Sugar Island Treasures for sending us this fabulous photo of her Hummingbird soaps.

She is very artistic, having painted the Hummingbird photo in the back of the soaps and making the Hummbingbird soap to match. Using our Melt and Pour Tool Kit and the Milky Way Hummingbird mold, she made these wonderful Hummingbird soaps with the Non-Bleeding Red & Purple (mixed to make Fuscia), Green Patina Sheen Mica, Sparkle Gold and Merlot Mica. NOTE: The Hummingbird Mold has been discontinued. You may like the 6 Cavity Guest Bee Silicone Mold instead.

I am in awe of her artistry and the patience and vision required to make this beautiful soap a reality.

It’s Honey Season! Time for Honey Soap!

May 19, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

We have a local honey producer that we trade old barrels for honey with. Wendel, from Fourth Corner Farm in Ferndale makes the best honey and for an affordable price! We trade so much with him though that we’re just a bit overwhelmed with honey and I think that all the staff have 3 or 4 bottles already.So, I’ve started researching different ideas for how to use our excess honey!

Relaxing Honey Bath- Put 2 oz. of honey in a glass with 5 drops of Lavender Essential Oil. Add 1 or 2 Tbs. of the honey lavender to your bathwater to help you relax and to combat insomnia.

Honey can also be used as a dressing for wounds. Applied externally, honey is useful for healing minor cuts and abrasions by drawing excess water from tissues and reducing swelling. In addition, honey contains a germ-killing substances call inhibin which helps prevent infections.

Allergy help! Supposedly, if you eat local honey that has been harvested locally for 5 days, this will help you with your hay fever because of the grains of pollen in the honey. Remember, no unpasturized honey to infantsbecause of botulism risks.

Honey can be used as a healthy snack after working out. The glucose and fructose in honey have been predigested by the bees that produced it and are easily absorbed by our digestive tracts.

Finally, honey in Cold Process soap helps to produce a moisturizing bar. Hint: If the soap gets too hot, the honey will scorch and turn brown so try to keep your temperatures below 120. Also, if you use the honey at more than 10% of your recipe, you will be more prone to heat tunnelling.

I use honey at a 3% usage rate and add it at thin trace, to a low temperature (100 degrees) soap and use less insulation than normal to help prevent the heat tunneling.

If you like to use honey in your soaps, be sure to plant many bee-friendly plants in your yard to do your part to support our flying friends. Bees are mysteriously dying in large numbers right now (the phenomenon is called Colony Collapse Disorder) which not only affects honey for soapmaking but food for humans to eat. Over 1/3 of the crop species in the US use bees to pollinate. Without the bee colony’s health, we may soon find ourselves paying more for honey, fruit and almonds. So, when beautifying your yard, think of our flying friends too.

European Honey Bee Touching Down
Originally uploaded by autan

Sunday Relaxing

May 18, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

My folks visited this weekend. It was a gloriously sunny weekend in Bellingham (thank you, weather gods). We played a raucous game of Bocce Ball, complete with a kitschy ceramic squirrel as a prize. Whoops, my Mom is reading this. Make that a “delightfully charming, moss-covered, heirloom” squirrel. Modesty prevents me from saying whether my brother or I won. But, if you come over to our house, be prepared for an amazing, squirrel oriented front yard display.

My Mom even made me my favorite birthday cake = Betty Crocker Cherry Chip Cake Mix with (store bought) Canned Frosting. It was truly a gift from the heart. My Mom is a phenomenal baker and could easily have made a complex, from scratch, decadent delight. It pained her greatly to use a cake mix but as my newly sugar laden tummy can attest, it hit MY spot.

I had five pieces. FIVE.

And, I am only mildly repentant. It was that good.

Make Food Soaps

May 17, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Congrats to Bramble Berry customer Lisa from Feto Soaps for this amazing 5 minute spot on HGTV’s show “That’s Clever.” I was lucky enough to meet Lisa at the Soap Guild show this year. She was a bubbling personality with superstar qualities. It’s a joy to see this great recognition for Lisa and the craft of melt and pour soapmaking.

(Email subscribers, you won’t be able to see this video in your email. Click through to the blog to see the video.)

Contest Winner

May 17, 2008 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Congratulations to Jeannie, aka Pajama Mama in South Georgia.

She won 5 Aloha Molds (value $55 plus shipping) for her comments on this post. Email me at info (at) brambleberry (dot) com with your choices. You can pick them from this page. They’re in the Aloha Molds category.

We’re all excited to see what you make with your new soap molds.

Why Use a Custom Photo?

May 17, 2008 Filed Under: Business Musings

It’s about an extra $750-1000 to get a really great custom photo for your ad or cover of your book. Is that a lot of money? Of course it is! But, when viewed over the lifetime of the project (the total cost of the ad campaign, the number of books printed, the thousands of brochures handed out), it is pennies extra per ad/brochure/book cover.

Why wouldn’t you spend the extra money to ensure you don’t get caught with someone else’s iconic graphics for your project?

Shout-Out to Nahia Creations

May 16, 2008 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News, Business Musings

Shelley from Nahia Creations is no stranger to the Soap Queen (here, here), having been an avid reader and commenter from this blogs early days.

Check out the major shout-out she got from Rare Bird Finds. We certainly have an A-List Community around here. And, I’m feeling pretty good about my soap choices right now too – I have a bar of Chocolate Espresso Nahia Creations soap in my shower right now. Hint: You can buy your own Chocolate Espresso fragrance right here.

Congrats Shelley! You deserve the recognition; your soap & packaging are amazing!

Why Does Your Soap Cost So Much?

May 16, 2008 Filed Under: Business Musings

Wow! Thanks for the awesome response yesterday to the Craft Show Questions. A few commenters asked how to answer the questions that I posed.

Let’s have a discussion about that!

Here’s how I would answer the first question. If you have any thoughts on how YOU would answer or think that there is more to add from my question, please feel free to post your thoughts and suggestions as a comment. If you use this script, make sure you have a few main points that you memorize. This way, you can make it personalized with your flair and also shorten it as needed.

Wow! $4.50 for a bar of soap!? Why so much!?

“Thanks for noticing that the pricing is a little bit higher than the grocery store! The most obvious thing is something you can see in front of you – these are little miniature works of art. They are time intensive and hand made. But there’s a more reasons that they cost more (they’re not just a pretty face!) and in my mind, the most important thing is that I use real oils and real ingredients. The bulk of the grocery store brands are what I call a “Synthetic Detergent Bar.” This means that the soap is actually some form of lathering chemical (like SLS or Sodium Lauryl Sulfate) pressed together to form a bar of soap. “

(when they give you a disbelieving look, head into this section)

“Seriously! That’s why you need to use lotion each and every time you use that fabulous (insert big company name soap here). My soap uses skin loving oils like coconut, palm and sweet almond oil to produce a perfectly balanced cleansing bar that leaves your skin moist, clean and smooth to the touch when you get out of the shower.”

“In addition to that, I use only fragrances, colors and herbs that have been approved for use on skin and high quality ingredients cost a little more. I make everything in small batches to ensure that the product you’re getting today is the best thing that you could possibly use on your skin. And, you’re helping to save the environment by buying from me instead of (insert big company here). Did you know that they make all of their soap over in Asia? Think of the environmental cost of getting all of that soap made there and shipped over here!”

“My soap is also very hard and should last as long or longer than the commercial soap. Plus, doesn’t it smell so much better to you?”

“Finally, when you purchase from the little guy (me!), you’re supporting a better economic way of life. Did you know that little small businesses just like me contribute more to our local economy because dollars spent with me stay in our community, helping to make our community stronger? Small business is the backbone of American society (though you couldn’t tell through the big subsidies the government gives to big business!) and employs the bulk of the American workforce AND provides the majority of the tax base.”

“So, you’re not only paying for a better way to do business that makes this community stronger but you’re paying for a better bar of soap that is healthier for your skin, your family and the environment.”

“How many bars would you like? (make sure you ASK for the sale after going through all of that) I have a deal where if you guy 4 bars, it’s just $16 plus tax. They keep for a long time and also make perfect gifts.”

Paper Cut Out Art

May 16, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Thanks to the Desire To Inspire blog for finding this little gem of a papercraft artist last year. I’ve been following her and her store (here) for the last six months, waiting to pounce on the perfect original paper cut out art.

A Little Hut is a talented graphic designer who also sews, does block art printing and the lovely paper cut art pictured on the left.

After months of watching art come and go out of her store without any of it really fitting the look and feel of our house, I finally broke down and emailed Patricia to ask about a custom piece of paper art.

I can’t wait to see what it looks like when we get all the details visioned and she produces it with her artistic flair.

Great Gift for Knitters

May 16, 2008 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Thank you to CraftGossip Blog for loving on our Knitting Soap Project. Click here if you didn’t get to read how to make the soap or here if you just want to go get yourself the fabulous mold. Jasmine, the Editor of the Knitting CraftGossip blog had this to say about the mold: