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Facebook Photo of the Week (January 4th ~ January 10th)

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Looking to to get your soap in tip-top shape to sell?  Of course having a quality product is crucial, but it also must please the eye. This quick video shows you how to put together our cute and sturdy cardboard soap boxes that give your products a professional look.

Looking for more packaging inspiration? Check out the Make it Monday: #Packaging album on Bramble Berry’s Facebook, and scroll through our packaging products! After you’ve packaged your creations, it’s time to learn how to properly label them. This guest post is full of valuable information regarding how to label botanical ingredients in your products according to government regulations.

This week we also announced our Winter 2014 S.O.A.P panel search. Eight lucky soapy fans will be chosen to help us decide on new fragrances for our Spring 2014 line. Sound like fun? Head over to this post, enter to be a part of the team by tweeting, pinning or blogging about your favorite Bramble Berry product, and you might be chosen to help us test the mystery fragrances.

As for our Facebook Photo of the Week, there’s no mystery here: this soap is simply stunning!

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On Assembling Soap Boxes

Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

Beautiful handcrafted soap? ✔ Check. A schedule of craft shows, list of farmers’ markets, or growing Etsy shop? ✔ Check. Equally lovely packaging to go with your equally lovely soaps? Uh-oh! Many crafters may not realize it, but the way products are packaged influence a consumer to buy just as much at the actual products themselves. These soap boxes, made from sturdy cardboard, are elegant enough on their own or easy enough to embellish with ribbon or crinkle paper.

Sturdy and compact, the Sleeve and Tray Boxes are the perfect soapy packaging.

Each box measures 3 1/4″ long, 2 3/8″ across and is 1 1/4″ deep, and has a small oval cut out so the actual soap can be smelled and viewed without opening the box.  Boxes arrive in two pieces — the main box and the slide sleeve. Assembling these little guys is easy. Here is a quick Instagram video demonstrating how:

For more packaging inspiration, check out this Make it Monday: #Packaging album on Bramble Berry’s Facebook.

What are you favorite ways to package soaps or other bath & body products? Answer our survey below!

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world’s leading questionnaire tool.

Sunday Night Spotlight: Natural Colorants

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

“Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways. ”
― Oscar Wilde

Herbs impart natural color to soap

The first thing anyone sees about your soap creation is its color and shape. The thing that will intrigue a customer and get them to pick up a bar of soap is not the scent; it’s the color. From LabColors, to micas, color blocks for melt and pour and pigments, there are many options for coloring your soap. If you prefer to use natural ingredients in your soap, you can still achieve vibrant, beautiful colors using natural colorants. Natural products that impart color include clays as well as herbs and botanicals.

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Facebook Photo of the Week (December 15th ~ December 21st)

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Can you believe Christmas is next week? These last few weeks of the year have been racing by, and I’ve been busy with end of the year festivies (taking the annual Santa photo, for example. It went over exceedingly well….).

The blog had a lot of action on it this week. Kenna of Modern Soapmaking kicked it off by sharing solid tips on how to run your own business and on finding inspiration. Make sure to read her interview to find out what she considers to be her biggest business mistake. Do you sew? Have you ever thought about sewing? Here’s an easy tutorial on making little pants for babies and toddlers. You can size them all the way down to newborn up to 4T. Curious to know what commenters called “gorgeous” and “beautiful” this week? Click on through to see the Smoky Bay Cold Process Tutorial and see how gradiants took a colorful upscaling. Over 35% of candle sales happen during the Holiday season. If you are curious about how to capitalize on that trend, read all about EcoSoya Advanced Wax here and check out the oh-so-seasonal Chai Tea Latte Candle tutorial.

Now on to the Facebook Photo of the Week! These soaps are worth their weight in gold, frankincense and myrrh.

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Sunday Night Spotlight: Suspending Nail Polish Base

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

As a quick and easy gift or for a crafty night in, homemade nail polish can’t be beat! I also have it on good authority that nail polish parties are the hot ticket at Otion. We have rigorously tested our Suspending Nail Polish Base to make sure it can suspend all sizes of glitters, and we’ve found the best usage rate is 5 – 7.5% (max) for the glitter. If you add more than that, it won’t matter how lovely and light the glitter is … it’ll still sink. Our nail polish base is also formaldehyde, toluene and DBP free.

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Facebook Photo of the Week (November 30th ~ December 6th)

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Welcome to the end of another week! We started the first Monday back from the Thanksgiving break with an interview with one of our favorite soapers, Andrea from Soap4Squares. Then, we shared a scrub to buff away that wintery dry skin with our Rough Patches Wash Tutorial. Walnut shells are a super gentle exfoliant, and they’re quickly becoming one of our favorite additives. In fact, we used them again to mimic sand in our Stormy Seas Cold Process soap! Finally, we posted a quick vid on how to properly prep colorants for cold process soaping. If you’re new to cold process, it’s a great skill to learn!

Speaking of color, this week’s Facebook Photo of the Week includes plenty of color. The gold top really makes the fuchsia embeds pop!

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Best Business Practices: Facebook

Filed Under: Business Musings

Facebook has become a ‘must have’ for business. If you’re on Facebook with your business, there are tips and tricks that you can follow to help increase your user engagement and create a connection with your customers. Given how quickly Facebook changes their business practices, it’s important that you keep up with their policy and layout changes after setting up the page and reading this blog post. I make sure to check in at Mashable every few weeks to ensure I’m not missing anything major.

 Best Business Practices: Facebook [Read more…]

Facebook Photo of the Week (Feb 1st ~ 8th)

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Happy February! I’m so excited for Valentine’s Day and all the soapy projects that you have planned. Need a little inspiration? Check out this bath fizzy tutorial For the Love of Waterlily and our Embedded Hearts M&P Tutorial for some ideas. We’ve also introduced a brand new Make it Monday contest with a twist: it’s a Make it Month!

And now the winner of this week’s Facebook Photo of the Week!

BellaBrice Body Care [Read more…]

#Photography Winners

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

A couple of weeks ago we introduced the first Make It Monday of 2013 and we couldn’t believe the response we had to it. Over 400 photos were entered into the contest and we were all bowled away by the response! To see all of the photos entered into this contest, check out our Facebook Album:  Make it Monday: #Photography. This post of winners going to be a little different then other Make It Mondays. Because of the number of entries (did I mention it was over 400??!!) I knew it was going to be tough to pick just a few photos to highlight. So we picked some of our faves in five different categories: lighting, closeup, props, backdrop and soap as art. Even then, it was hard to choose. =) Are you ready for the winners? Drum roll please… [Read more…]

Facebook Photo of the Week 1/11 – 1/18

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

What an exciting week we’ve had here at Bramble Berry! I’ve enjoyed watching the hundreds of photos coming in from our newest Make it Monday contest and awed and inspired by your creativity. We still have another week to go and I can’t wait to see what you have in store for us. We’ve also released another new SQTV episode featuring Jeanee from Dirty Laundry — check it out here. Are you ready for this weeks winner? Check below…

Monument Soapworks [Read more…]

Facebook Photo of the Week 12/17 – 12/21

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Christmas is only four days away and I just can’t wait (family, family, family!). This month has been full of fun projects like our Hot Process series: Crock Pot Camo, CPOP Swirls, and HPOP Layers; interesting contests like our Make it Monday: #Christmas Schwag; and even a couple Facebook photos of the week (see here and here). We also celebrated this month of giving by going out on our annual Salvation Army Shopping Trip and holding our Bramble Berry Cooke Exchange (more on that later, but check out last year’s swap here). But, on with the show. Here’s the winner of this week’s Facebook Photo of the Week:

Linda of The Enchanted Bath

This week’s photo comes to us from Linda of The Enchanted Bath. Linda shared a gorgeous cold process soap made with our Turkish Mocha Fragrance Oil that had me drooling all over my keyboard (since I know what that fragrance smells like and in a word, it is ah-maz-ing). Using just the fragrance oil to color the soap’s main body, Linda added a touch of Titanium Dioxide to the frosting to keep it nice and white. She says that the Turkish Mocha “Smells delicious and it’s flying off the shelves at my store. I highly recommend this fragrance!” Thanks for being a part of our soaping community on our Facebook page Linda, I’ve really enjoyed watching you grow in your craft and try new things with your soaping. There is a special little package headed your way. [Read more…]

#Christmas Schwag Eye Candy

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Thanks to everyone who threw their hats in the ring for the Make it Monday #Christmas Schwag Challenge! Check out the winners here. And before the holiday season sneaks away from us just as quickly as it approached, I thought you’d enjoy a peek at the over 200 (!) entries from the challenge. Everyone’s photos are also in the Facebook Photo Album for your enjoyment over the holiday break. We’ll be back next year with more fun Make it Monday Challenges, but until then feast your eyes upon this bounty:

Collage One [Read more…]

#Christmas Schwag Winners

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Christmas is coming! Christmas is coming! I can hardly believe that this year has gone by so fast. It seems like yesterday that we were started our very first Make it Monday challenge but it was actually this summer. It’s been so much fun seeing you all participate in these challenges and coming up with such clever and fun products all year, and we can’t wait for our next series (starting next year!) to see what you have up your sleeves. Are you ready for the winners of Make it Monday #Christmas Schwag? Drum roll please…

Christmas Schwag Winners

Top Row: 

Jill Lemaster-Moore – ‘Yultide Soap Balls’

Yurie from Kumamama Soap

Krista Scott – Adaptation of  Cool Yule Peppermint Loaf from Soap Queen

Middle Row:

Katie from Royalty Soaps – ‘Holiday Cheer Cold Process Hanger Swirl Soap’

Patty from Lather Rinse Clean – ‘Snowman Cupcakes’ with Fresh Snow Fragrance Oil

Heather from Blackbird Soap Company – ‘Enchanted’ 

Bottom:

Amanda from Bubblina’s Soap Boutique – ‘Christmas Tree Soap’  with  Santa’s Spruce Fragrance Oil

Ludmila and Pablo from Epuyen Jabones Artesanales – ‘Christmas Magic Wands’

Jenny Rose from I‘d Lather Be Soaping – ‘Christmas Cheer Soap’ [Read more…]