Tutorials on soapmaking, bath fizzies, lotions and more
We’ve made sweet soapy cupcakes and piled-high macarons, and now these adorable doughnuts are joining the foodie soap family. Use the Doughnut Mold to make 6 doughnut halves, and then ‘glue’ the halves together with a little extra melt and pour. The tutorial below is for a Strawberry/Vanilla combo, but we also made mint chocolate ones too. There are lots of color and flavor combinations; be creative!
It’s hard to believe, but we are halfway through 2014. Remember those New Year’s Resolutions you set back at the beginning of the year? Yes, those resolutions! Do you need a refresher? Here’s the original post with all your goals to review what you said on December 31 about what you wanted 2014 to look like. In effort to keep myself accountable, I’m going to do a little mid-year performance review.
Here were the S.M.A.R.T. goals I set for myself, as well as how I’ve done so far:
Making soap is the fun part, but developing a pricing strategy to sell your soap is often the not-so-fun-part. Our guest blogger Dawn Cabral-Quimby came back from Soap Guild 2014 with an excellent run down on Lela Barker’s strategy on product pricing, and it’s a must-read for any soapy business owner. — A.M.
Do you have accurate product pricing? Are you accounting for your labor? Overhead? Factoring in your paper towels used? What!?
Ten years ago, Lela Barker was a broke single mother living in her parents’ spare bedroom. Today, she is the creator and CEO of Bella Lucce (an award-winning, international beauty company), the executive director of a Moroccan-based nonprofit and president of Lucky Break, a small business consulting firm serving the creative community.
Looking for more help starting a soap business? Check out the posts represented above!
The Handcrafted Soap & Cosmetic Guild concluded last week, and we had plenty of fantastic guest bloggers on the ground to report back on all the soapy goodness. Over the next few weeks, look for Soap Guild session recaps on everything from how to price your products to how to develop a killer body butter recipe.
To start things off, Gates Councilor of Burly Stone Soap Co. gave us his overall impression of the guild, as well as some important takeaways. He is already excited for next year! — A.M.
So after all was said & done, what did I learn? What were my takeaways from the week?
First and foremost, I’m humbled and emboldened at the same time.
I’m humbled for several reasons. I’m humbled by the level of skill, dedication & talent that I witnessed while I was at the conference. Soapers are kind enough, generous enough, and cool enough to happily share the knowledge they have. I’m humbled by the people who have been doing this for years, and have forged friendships, businesses & small empires!
Some of these great folks are absolute rock stars in the hand crafted soap world, for good reason. So thank you all for the gifts you gave me.
I’m emboldened because the folks I met are just like me. I may be behind the curve a little, but I now know that if I bust my butt & really focus, I can make Burly Stone a success.
The conference was an invaluable resource for learning, connecting, sniffing & seeing what is possible.
The 2014 conference was held in Tucson, Arizona
This week we looked to nature for soapy inspiration. If you are a candle maker, the Garden Candle Tutorial is a great project to expand your skills. If you prefer a simple, more natural candle, the Eco Chic Candle Tutorial is a fast and functional way to recycle jars.
We also shared the beautiful Juicy Orange and Sweet Rose Cold Process Tutorial. Made with 10x Orange Essential Oil and colored with Paprika, this cold process tutorial looks as fresh and juicy as it smells! Paprika is a fantastic way to naturally color your soap, as seen in the Indigo Spoon Plop Cold Process Tutorial. If you’d like to learn more about natural colorants, the Sunday Night Spotlight: Natural Colorants is full of info.
Speaking of natural color and additives, our Facebook Photo of the Week from Katie of Thumbprint Handcrafted Soap utilizes products from nature to give her soap lots of personality. Made with walnut shells, honey and cocoa powder, this Honey Walnut Hand and Foot Scrub Soap gently exfoliates the skin, leaving it silky smooth.
I’m a huge fan of fancy swirled tops, but for this recipe I decided to switch things up. This orange-scented soap is piled high with orange peels and rose petals, and the rich orange color comes from paprika — yes, the same paprika that’s probably in your kitchen!
Herbs, botanicals and spices as colorants are some of the best kept secrets in soapmaking, and you can learn more about using them in cold process soaping here. Finally, be aware that although the orange and rose topping is beautiful, they are natural items that will wilt or even mold if left in the shower and in wet conditions long enough.
Getting your products in the hands of customers — no less celebrities — is no easy feat. Carleigh Pearce of Ellison’s Organics did both. She started her soap and cosmetic business in 2012, and by April 2014 she had her handmade nail polishes in gift bags at GBK’s Luxury Gift Lounge in honor of the 2014 MTV Movie Awards Nominees & Presenters.
Carleigh mixes each unique polish color by hand using Bramble Berry’s micas and pigments. She also specializes in organic-oils melt and pour soap, and her Lego building blocks and figurines are a hit with kids. Read on to learn more about how Carleigh built her ever-growing nail polish & soap business from scratch!
A quick note: ‘Organic’ is a heavily regulated term by the USDA, while ‘natural’ is not. Do your homework before purchasing products that are labeled as ‘organic,’ and keep in mind that ‘natural’ could mean a range of things. Check out this blog post for more information. Bramble Berry carries a certified-oils Organic Melt & Pour Base as well as Organic Lavender and Rosemary Essential Oils.
April showers didn’t fail to deliver lots of May flowers. This clever Garden Candle is a fun way to bring the fresh scent of a spring garden inside. This candle features Sunny Herb Garden, which is May’s Sample of the Month. This fragrance performs wonderfully in cold process soap as it does not accelerate trace or discolor. It’s a sweet, floral scent, which makes it a great choice for fresh-smelling hair products or lotions.
And don’t forget, you can also use this project to participate in our Make It Month!
To participate, simple make a project using Sunny Herb Garden or Carnation Fragrance Oil. Then, post your photo on the Bramble Berry Facebook Page with the hashtag, ‘#BrambleGarden.’ We’ll post a collage of our favorite projects on the Soap Queen blog on June 9. Hurry, because the posting fun ends Friday, May 30. If you need a little inspiration, check out the photos that have already been posted here.
Welcome to the (almost) end of May, everyone! It never ceases to amaze me how fast time flies. Within the last two weeks we finished up a rather rosey promotion, experimented with an adorably sweet new mold and perfected a sassy summer nail polish color. To keep up with all our latest news — including word of upcoming sales and promotions — subscribe to our monthly newsletter.
How is your Memorial Day Weekend so far? I’ve been laying low and catching up on yard work around the house, taking the kids on more playdates, and trying to work in a few trips to Bellingham’s beautiful beaches whenever the time and weather allows. Keep in mind that because there is a holiday on Monday, the warehouse will be operating with a skeleton crew and there won’t be anyone in customer service to answer the phones. We’ll be back in full force on Tuesday, though!
Pins:
From top left, clockwise:
Instagram:
I was doing a little experimenting with mica-covered embeds in cold process soap. This is a super fun technique that I’m excited to try again this upcoming week.
Tweets:
Have a great holiday weekend! To keep up with the latest soapy social media throughout the week, you can follow me on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, Vine and YouTube.
This week was full of fun soapy tutorials for both melt and pour and cold process soapers. If you are experienced with melt and pour and want to learn a new technique, the Melt and Pour Soap Ribbons Tutorial is the perfect project to expand your skills. The trick is adding extra glycerin, which allows the melt and pour to be easily sculpted.
If cold process is more your style, the Espresso Shot Cold Process Tutorial uses the new Espresso Fragrance Oil to create a bar of soap that’s perfect for any coffee-lover. The layers of color are easily created with the Multi-Pour Sectioning Tool, and coffee grounds add gentle exfoliation. If you love the multi-colored sections, the Natural Colorant Taiwan Swirl Tutorial features four layers of color created with natural colorants.
Speaking of color, our Facebook Photo of the week created by Amy of The Suds Cafe, is full of bright, summery hues! Scented with the Tropical Punch Fragrance Oil and swirled with Yellow Mica, Fired Up Fuschia Colorant, Tangerine Wow! Colorant, this soap conjures images of sandy beaches, fruity drinks and lots of sunshine.
With the piped soap on top and a dusting of yellow mica, Amy’s creation is full of color and summer spirit! If you are curious about piping cold process soap, this Rose Garden Cold Process Tutorial will show you how. If you are looking for an easier way to create frosting, this Foaming Bath Whip Frosting Tutorial creates fluffy icing in a snap.
Shown above (from top, clockwise) is Amy’s Mother’s Day Strawberry Frappucino Soap, Peppermint Chocolate Frappucino Soap, Peppermint Chocolate Bar Soap, and the Cucumber Melon Smoothie Soap. If these chocolatey soaps have inspired your sweet tooth, the Chocolate Lip Balm Tutorial and Almond, Chocolate and Lavender Cold Process Tutorial are sure to satisfy.
Find The Suds Cafe:
On Etsy
Post pictures of your crafty creations on the Facebook page each week for a chance to be featured on the Soap Queen blog and receive a sweet soapy package from Bramble Berry. Photos are chosen based on consensus from the Bramble Berry staff, so the best way to increase your chances of winning is to show us lots of photos!
It’s no secret that the Pacific Northwest is the coffee capital of the world. There’s a coffee shop on every corner (sometimes two!), and a never-ending thirst for the latest and greatest new drink. The passion for coffee spills over into passion for soapmaking, so when we brought in the brand new Espresso Fragrance Oil, we went to work designing the most coffee-tastic soap we could.
The Espresso Fragrance Oil is a true espresso scent. Whereas Turkish Mocha has hints of sweetness and cream and Chocolate Espresso Cybilla is brimming with chocolate-y goodness, Espresso is for the coffee purist. Along with a recipe that includes Coffee Butter, Cocoa Butter, Hazelnut Oil and real coffee grounds, this is the ultimate soap for coffee lovers everywhere.
This is the last part of a series on managing changes in life, whether the changes are small (adding more veggies to your diet) or large (opening up a new soapmaking business!). This is adapted from a speech I gave at a recent Leaders Engage to Exchange Ideas, or LEXI conference, in Seattle. Click here to read the first half of the speech.
4. Get buy in
Whatever transition you’re planning to make, even if it’s just the leap to cut all your hair off and go short for summer, it’s going to affect other people. And these are people you care about. And when you care about someone, you communicate. Plus, blatant self-interest means that you do want people cheering you and supporting you. And quite frankly, if you didn’t let them in on the plans ahead of time, that’s a lot less likely.
Let the people who matter in your life know about big changes.
So, if you’re starting a new business or a new work out regiment, and you’re checking out of the house a lot more, those household duties will fall more into your spouses’ and children’s laps than before. It’s important that they understand the trade-offs and what you’re actually asking of them.
If your dream is to start a soapmaking business, remember that things happens one step (or one bar of soap!) at a time.
In your case, it might be that someone needs to do the morning dog walking because you’re hitting a new Cross Fit class or you don’t have a family yet and have decided this is the perfect time to travel. Talk it over with the people that it will affect. It saves resentment, and relationships, in the end.