Congratulations to Leslie Rodriguez! Leslie, email me with your address so I can get your goodies out in the mail to you!
info (at) brambleberry (dot) com
Light Posting Day
Hi Happy Soapers!
I’ll be having a very light posting day today because one of my perfumers is here for a visit. She flew out from the midwest for the day to sniff, soap and plan out our fragrance map for the year. We’ll be at Otion all day, soaping and smelling the latest and greatest trends. If we have time, we’ll take a trip to Bath and Body Works, Victoria’s Secret and The Body Shop to see if there’s anything that inspires us there.
Just a reminder that today is the last day for the contest. Enter to win all the beautiful prizes pictured above. Click here for the details or to enter.
FLOAP soap
Thanks to Joanna over at The Soap Bar blog, I am now $35 lighter in the wallet but oh so enticed by this super cool cold process FLOAP soap!FLOAP soap appears to be a traditional cold process soap recipe with a lot of air whipped into it. The bars feel a bit like a light, fluffy marshmallow. It’s odd to pick up a bar of soap that has 4 ounces in volume, only to have it be as light as a feather in your hands.
The soaps all came wrapped in individual gift wrapped paper. It was like Christmas opening all the pretty wrapping. The care taken in wrapping definitely enhanced my FLOAP experience.
The Neapolitan Shaving Soap is a denser bar of soap with light to no whip. It is the only bar that I purchased that may last longer than 2 weeks in the shower. The bar just feels heartier. The layers are crisply done and the scent is strong and sweet.
Cow-Ma-Flage is a marvel of layering and sophistication. It is a gorgeous bar of soap up close. And, it smells delish! Gudonya just came out with another bar that is done in the same design, only with purple and white colors, reminiscent of a purple cow. It’s quite beguiling.
Chocolate Truffle soap is very intriguing upon first inspection. It’s a great idea but in reality, the using of the bar wasn’t as mind boggling cool as the first look at this innovative marvel. In the shower, little bits of the bar kept coming off and the marshmallows mostly ended up in the drain. My husband actually begged me to put another bar in the shower since he was tired of this bar breaking apart. So far, the other bars are staying quite put which is good. The breaking-apart must be an aberration for just this soap type.
Bubble Cola smells like a hot summer day on the playground, right after someone has spilled their pop! It’s a fun smell that kids will appreciate.
The soaps all came wrapped in individual gift wrapped paper. It was like Christmas opening all the pretty wrapping. The care taken in wrapping definitely enhanced my FLOAP experience.
Each bar seemed more pretty than the last. The green soap above is Peony Paradise. While not my most favorite scent, the soap is an artist marvel. The green is a shockingly bright green.
The Neapolitan Shaving Soap is a denser bar of soap with light to no whip. It is the only bar that I purchased that may last longer than 2 weeks in the shower. The bar just feels heartier. The layers are crisply done and the scent is strong and sweet.
Cow-Ma-Flage is a marvel of layering and sophistication. It is a gorgeous bar of soap up close. And, it smells delish! Gudonya just came out with another bar that is done in the same design, only with purple and white colors, reminiscent of a purple cow. It’s quite beguiling.
Chocolate Truffle soap is very intriguing upon first inspection. It’s a great idea but in reality, the using of the bar wasn’t as mind boggling cool as the first look at this innovative marvel. In the shower, little bits of the bar kept coming off and the marshmallows mostly ended up in the drain. My husband actually begged me to put another bar in the shower since he was tired of this bar breaking apart. So far, the other bars are staying quite put which is good. The breaking-apart must be an aberration for just this soap type.
Bubble Cola smells like a hot summer day on the playground, right after someone has spilled their pop! It’s a fun smell that kids will appreciate.
Overall, this was a wonderful present! Of course, I bought this present myself but it still felt like a present with all the bars wrapped individually. The soap is light, airy and fluffy, like nothing I’ve felt or touched before. I am trying not to get obsessed about figuring out the secret of their light, fluffy, cold process floating bars.
Did you post your idea?
Just posting another tantalizing photo of some of the goodies in the prize pack for this week’s contest.
Doesn’t this mini bath cupcake from Open Sundae’s look amazing?
Click here to enter the contest.
New Molds at BB
Bramble Berry has some fun new molds for the Guest Mold (Heavy Duty Mold) section. Here are a couple of them. They’ll be up for sale tonight or tomorrow morning.
The Party Stars would be ideal for New Years. I see it with glitter, a clear Labcolor to allow the glitter to shine through and Champagne Fragrance Oil.
Baby Footprint molds? Sweet! I love babies. I love soap. What’s not to adore about these molds? They are perfect for gifts for new moms (belly balm lotion bars, anyone?) or for favor bags after a baby shower.
Details for both molds: price: $6.00
size: 2″x2″x.875″
6 cavity – 1.25 oz each
Just put that right on my hips, please
Contest Reminder
Just two more days to get your entry into the contest! The randomly drawn winner will receive a fabulous goody basket of handmade products from small indie companies.
Pictured on the left are just a few of the prizes: three Posetts Perfumes (Haute Love, Ultramarine and Madame X) and one of PJ’s Soaps (scent: Ocean Mist).
Click here to enter the contest. It’s easy – all you need to do is post a comment about you’d like The Soap Queen blog to make next!
Cabela’s Experience Based Stores
I am totally having a jealous moment over Cabela’s coming-soon Lacey, Washington store. For the uninitiated, Cabela‘s sells hunting and fishing gear, at excellent prices.
Shoppers come from far and wide to shop at Cabelas, many times driving well over 100 miles to visit a Cabela store. The most amazing statistic is that the typical Cabela’s customer spends 3.5 hours in the store. Three and a half hours, shopping, in the same store! Even I don’t do that at Nordstrom’s (which is like a toy store for adult females).
The latest Cabela’s store in Lacey Washington will include:
- Hundreds of mounted animals displayed in dioramas
- Conservation Mountain, a two story simulated mountain equipped with working waterfalls, a stream and a trout pond
- A 16,700 gallon walk-through aquarium stocked with fish native to the Northwest
- A restaurant serving venison bratwurst and smoked elk sandwiches.
This isn’t a store. It’s an experience.
No wonder people will drive for 100 miles and spent over three hours browsing. The latest store is expecting to have the same annual draw as a Costco or Wal-Mart and generate over $70 million in gross revenue for Cabelas. They will employ 350 full-time and part-time stores.
This Disneyland like store has gotten me thinking – what if Otion had scheduled times that they made soap, every day or once a week, so that you know that if you show up at Otion at X time, on X days someone will be doing something fun and interesting.
We have to test new products and formulations so why not make it an experience that becomes a cult-like phenomenon? It’s something that deserves more thought and discussion.
Satsuma Press Holiday Designs
Satsuma Press has come out with some simple and elegant letterpress holiday designs. See their entire line here and buy it at Etsy!
Readers of this blog might recall that I’m a total sucker for anything letterpressed (click here to see an explanation of what letterpress is, here to see a previous Satsuma Press purchase, and here to see the gift that Norman at Bramble Berry gave me for a wedding present).
Go check out the Satsuma Line. Be prepared to be seduced into buying some well- designed, artfully printed cards.
Detailed Crockpot Soapmaking How-To Video
Monkey World Cupcakes
These amazing cupcakes look delicious. It’s lunchtime. If I were closer to Seattle, I’d seriously consider heading over to Bluebottle and grab one of these sugary morsels.
As it is, I’ll sit here at my desk and try to be content with my hard boiled egg, pear and Douglas Fir Tip Tea for lunch.
Soap Contest over at The Soap Bar Blog
Joanna is having a contest over at The Soap Bar Blog! Click here to read about her contest. It’s easy: just email her a photo of your most creative soap to enter.
This is my entry for the day.
Crave Show Round-Up
Thanks to the gals at Knelow, I had a smashingly fun time at Crave today. We talked for (literally) hours about incense formulations, making lotion with real brewed coffee and the drama of parabens in lotions. Lisa and Jamie are awfully cool chicks who are passionate about what they do. Their dedication is apparent in their products.
I came home with a stash of their goodies! My favorite Knelow product is their unscented coffee lotion. It has a delicious realistic smell and supposedly, caffeine helps cellulite. I’ll take all the help I can get in that department.
The Nars gal, Ashley did my make up for the Wyatt & Whitney Show panel discussion. She used bold colors (orange eye shadow!) and smokey eye accents. I felt glamorous when she was done with my face.
The make-up artist, Ash Martin, has her own indie business making cool leather things. Here is a photo of one of her necklace creations.
The statement piece looks even more ornate up close. It’s clear that much time and energy went into making this unique piece of jewelry.
The statement piece looks even more ornate up close. It’s clear that much time and energy went into making this unique piece of jewelry.You can buy her leather jewelry and straps at Kick It Boots and Stompwear in Ballard or call
Ash at 503-997-0759 to have her do your make-up for your next big event in the Seattle/Portland area.
Wyatt, Whitney and I did a panel discussion about finding your bliss. Though, today, we sure talked a lot more about the not-bliss part of being self-employed than the actual bliss part! In hindsight, I wish I had been more positive and upbeat about all the groovy good things that come with being self-employed. When the show actually airs, I’ll figure out if I was the mistress of darkness for all the would-be entrepreneurs in the audience or just a mini dose of cold reality. Whtiney and Wyatt were funny, charming co-hosts and I’m looking forward to designing a show with them around soap. Hopefully they can be lured to Bellingham for a day of soap, cupcakes and creativity.
Tomorrow is back to the normal day job sans eye make-up (to-do: write and record new Otion radio ad, supervise Otion while Erik is gone to a merchandising course, review Accounts Payable credit card charges, follow-up with five retail stores for Organic Fusion, normal email and phone call backlog, design fifth aromatherapy study for clinical aromatherapy certification).
Just a reminder, there are a few more days of the contest. Click here to read about it and enter for a fabulous gift basket of handmade bath stuff.
Pink Lemon Cupcake
I’m back from the second day of the Crave Party show! I have photos and stories to share later tonight.
In the meantime, feast your eyes and allow your mouth to water while gazing upon this Pink Lemon Cupcake.
Yum!