Search Results for: www.brambleberry.com

Plaid Video with SoapyLove

October 12, 2009 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

When we flew Debbie from SoapyLove up to Bellingham to teach at our sold out Otion Soapmaking Weekend Intensivethere were many, many comments asking for a video of the classes to bring the learning into your own home without having to travel to Bellingham.

Anne-Marie and SoapyLove making soap on the Soap Queen TV set

Debbie and I have done a SoapQueenTV video that is over 13 minutes long and details how to make the amazing plaid soap concept. You can buy access to the video here for $5.95 or buy the video and the supplies kit for under $30 here. The kit comes with access to the video, everything you need to make the soap and a handy full color print out with instructions on how to make the plaid soap.

PS – We’re starting planning for SWI2010 (Soapmaking Weekend Intensive 2010). Are there any teachers you’d like to see on the rostser? Any special projects that would push you over the edge to come and hang out with us for the weekend?

Nellie Cashman Awards – We Won!

October 11, 2009 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

The 2009 Nellie Cashman Businesswoman of the Year event was a once-in-a-lifetime party. The entire process started back in early 2009 when nominations for the award were taken. All the nominees spoke at an early morning breakfast, filled out many essay questions and then waited as the judges went through all the applications. When I was chosen in the final five nominees, it was an exciting day! The judges then went over our business history with a fine toothed comb. They called customer references (thank you to Joanna from ProductBody and Debbie from SoapyLove for vouching for me as customers of Bramble Berry). They also called our lawyer and our accountant and asked for tax returns to confirm all the information in the applications. Nominees were judged on our entrepreneurial spirit (35%), ethics and community spirit (25%), financial and management skill (20%) and the difficulty and risk we have endured to achieve success (20%). The other fabulous finalists were Kathy Casey, Marcia Ives, Julie Tappero, Mari Eriksson.

Before the big event (held at the Fairmont Hotel in Seattle with 350 well dressed people in attendance), there were many opportunities to get to know the other Nellie finalists better. We did panel interviews for the Women Business Owners group, an interview with Chat with Women and had lots of opportunities to interact. All the nominees are incredible women – inspiring, unique, community-minded and whip-smart. One of them (Mari) runs a bead company. I’ve made earrings a few times but when I went into her store to make my necklace for the big night, I felt like a kid in a candy store. And who knows, I may have found a new addiction!

One of my stressors about the evening was the six minute speech that all the nominees had the privilege of giving. It’s stressful to speech in public, no matter how much you do it, and this night was particularly nerve wracking. My whole family was in attendance, friends from the Women President’s Organization were there and several of my business mentors were there. My biggest fear was crying up on the stage. Thankfully, the Nellie committee hired a speech coach to help all the nominees on their speeches and Jean Hamilton helped put my racing heart and fearful mind at ease. I didn’t cry. I made it through the speech and even got applause through out the speech (well, in fairness, my Dad and my Husband were applauded but that’s close enough).

Though I had a wonderful support network there to celebrate Bramble Berry and everything that our team has accomplished over the years, I was not expecting to win. In fact, I had told my entire family that it would be a fun party but that there was “no way” I would win up against such an incredible group of women. When they called my name, I was shocked. I had been so confident that I would not win that I hadn’t written an acceptance speech (seriously). I managed to speak coherently for a few minutes about how important it was that women continue to help women through mentoring and collaboration, thanking my family and the Bramble Berry team and acknowledging the other incredible women nominated for the Nellie.

And then, I floated off the stage. It was one of the best nights of my life. To have my family and friends all together in one room, celebrating our successes and then to be acknowledged for the hard work that Bramble Berry puts into helping other women achieve their goals was a once in a lifetime, epic evening.

Do you know someone in Washington State who qualifies? Nominate them next year!

Nellie Cashman Award Qualifications.
Nominations are accepted from businesswomen who meet the following criteria:

Nominee must be a current woman business owner with headquarters in the Puget Sound Area (King, Snohomish, Whatcom, Pierce & Kitsap Counties).
Nominee must be primarily responsible for the financial performance of her business.
The business must gross over $1,000,000 and have at least 3 employees.
The business must have been in operation for at least 5 years.
Nominee must have greater than 50% equity ownership in her business, unless the company is publicly held. If the company is publicly held, the nominee must be the original founder or purchaser and be actively involved in the company’s day-to-day management.

Learn more about the WBO (Woman Business Owners) and Nelli HERE

Soapylove Tutorial: Delicious Layered Soap Cookies!

October 10, 2009 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

We’ve been working behind the scenes together for quite some time now on the new Soapylove supply line getting all of the colors, fragrances, molds, and soap bases just right before we were totally happy and ready to put the Soapylove and Bramble Berry seals of approval on them. Now that they’re out, expect some fun tutorials and projects on how to use this fun line of products.

To introduce you to some of our favorites (but it’s hard to pick your favorite when they’re all your babies!), I have put together this easy and super adorable project. The scalloped rectangle mold is used to look like yummy old fashioned cookies and can be made in two “flavors”: vanilla/strawberry, and chocolate/vanilla!

Supplies:
Sweet Treats Colorant Set
Delectable Desserts Fragrance Oil Set
1 lb. Naturally Clear Soap Base, cut into small cubes
1 lb. Bright White Soap Base, cut into small cubes
Scalloped Rectangle Mold
Rubbing alcohol in spray bottle
Cutting board and knife

For the strawberry/vanilla combo, for each soap you are making, melt 3 ounces of clear soap base (20 seconds on high in microwave). Stir in a few drops of Buttercream Yellow colorant. Then add a few drops of Vanilla Frosting fragrance oil and a few drops of Vanilla Stabilizer.

Pour in a layer of this soap, just to 1/4″ thickness. Allow to harden at room temperature.

Now melt 3 more ounces of clear soap base and color with a few drops of Pink Frosting colorant. If you would like a softer shade, you can stir in a drop or two of the White Icing colorant. Now add a few drops each of Strawberry Jam and Vanilla Stabilizer.

Check soap temperature to make sure it is no hotter than 120 degrees. Now spray your Vanilla layer in the mold with alcohol and pour in the Strawberry soap until 1/4″ from the top of the mold. Allow to harden completely.

Briefly reheat the Vanilla soap for 10 seconds or so in the microwave. Check the temperature again, spray the Strawberry layer, and top off the mold with soap. Allow to harden.

Gently pull sides of mold away from the hardened soap, invert and unmold. Voila!

For the Chocolate version, use clear soap base with Bakery Beige for the “cookies”, then white soap base or clear base colored with White Icing colorant for the center. I recommend the Chocolate Fudge and Vanilla Frosting fragrance oils.

Make sure to check back here at The Soap Queen often because I’ll be back with lots of great projects featuring the new Soapylove supplies! See you then! — Debbie

Soap Queen TV: Gingerbread Man Soap

October 8, 2009 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

This gingerbread man soap project has been a favorite of mine for years and is one of the most popular kits at Bramble Berry. Our gingerbread man soap mold is easy to use and the results are always adorable. I couldn’t resist sharing this classic project, but I wanted to give it fresh, new twist. So I created a little box template that fits the soap perfectly and gives a nice finishing touch as a gift.

Soap Queen TV: Gingerbread Soap Project from Soap Queen on Vimeo.

To make the soap you can just purchase the kit here or get these ingredients individually:
Gingerbread Man Soap Mold
Clear Melt & Pour soap base
White Melt & Pour soap base
Merlot Mica
Cappuccino Mica
Gingersnap fragrance

To make the box you will need:
Bramble Berry Box Template
Cardstock
Scissors or craft knife
Bone folder or butter knife
Glue stick or double stick tape
Ribbon

Nellie Cashman Awards tonight!

October 8, 2009 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

I can’t wait to share with you who won and photos from the evening. The awards banquet is tonight (eek!) and I’ll be blogging it up with photos and tidbits by Monday at the latest. I am sooooo excited for tonight’s dinner. My whole family will be there, along with my business mentor Charlie Billow from Charlie’s Produce and Bramble Berry’s COO, Norman. It’s going to be a night to remember for sure. I have to give a six minute talk in front of 350 people and have butterflies already … But right now, I’ve got to make it down to Seattle for a full day of meetings before the awards ceremony starts. I haven’t forgotten it’s ‘Tutorial Thursday’ though – expect one later today!

Budget Molds are Back!

October 7, 2009 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

We’re so thrilled and honored to be the exclusive distributor for Soap Mold SuperStore (formally known as Martin Creative). They have reorganized their business and are back and better than ever! These single cavity molds are a fantastic deal (just $3.50 each)! Check out all of the single cavity cuteness HERE!

In other product news, Bramble Berry just added a delicious, amazing Black Cherry. It lasts and lasts in soap in a tart and delicious way. Finally, we just got a shipment of Olive Butter in stock. Expect it to be on the site in the next few days.

More Business? More Soap? Survey

October 7, 2009 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

I couldn’t help but notice how awesome the discussion was on the ‘This is My New Normal’ blog post. It made me wonder, do you want more business posts? More personal musings? Or do you like things the way they are?

I’ve designed a two question survey to discuss this very question. You can click here to take the survey. And when you take the survey, leave a comment below (honor system) and I’ll enter you to win a set of SoapyLove products.

Successful? Coconut Milk Batch

October 6, 2009 Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

From this:

to this:

I made a new Coconut Milk Batch today and switched out two variables:

1. Temperature

2. Fragrance

As cold process soapers know, fragrance makes a huge difference in how your soap performs. At Bramble Berry, we test each and every fragrance three times before adding it to our line. At least one of these tests is a larger batch. Sometimes, what happens in a small batch isn’t how a fragrance reacts in a large batch. The Orange Blossom I tested in the Coconut Milk Soap Volcano had performed admirably in one large batch already and done well in a small batch as well. But, when I tossed in the added stressors of a hot milk batch, well … that was enough to throw the Coconut Milk Soap over the edge.

This batch, I paid attention to the temperatures. When I mixed, my soap was a warm 137 degrees which was still too hot for my liking. The big change was the fragrance switch. I made this soap with Buttercream & Snickerdoodle (2 parts) mixed with Relaxing (1 part). I did 100% Coconut Milk in place of the water and reacted the lye with the Coconut Milk.

The soap did great. It traced quickly and had a wonderful texture once the stick blender had worked its magic. I fragranced the majority of the soap, leaving a bit out for a white swirl to provide texture and contrast to the soon-to-be-brown soap (thanks to the Vanilla in the two fragrances I chose).

I split the batch three ways: 1 log mold, 1 Pumpkin Mold (to test release with this hard CP soap) and 1 Flexy Fast mold.

The non-fragranced soap stayed a cool 103 degrees in the mold.

The fragranced pumpkin soap got nice and warm, up to 159 degrees while starting gel phase.

The loaf mold stayed a similar temperature at 153 degrees. It did start to expand with all of the heat produced during gel phase and cracked the top of the soap.

The soap in the loaf did not get as warm as the 100% fragranced individual soap because the loaf soap had swirls of cooler, non-fragranced soap running throughout. The crack started small, when the soap was around 140.

After the soap hit over 150 degrees, the crack started widening and pushing outwards and up. It never got taller or wider than this. Heated soap expands. Since the top layer of soap was cool and more hard than the gelling middle, it gave way to the expanding soap by cracking.

I’ll take photos of the final soap in the next week to share with you. I feel confident that if I lowered my temperatures to 120 and used frozen coconut milk that the soap wouldn’t have cracked. Cracked or not, the soap is one luxurious bar with 75% Coconut, 25% Cocoa Butter and Coconut Milk in place of water. I can hardly wait for the 6 week cure time to use it!

Cool Heavy Duty Mold Tip

October 6, 2009 Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

I was on the SoapDishForum this week and saw these great looking Oatmeal, Milk & Honey soaps by hobby soapmaker Wayne in Indiana. Their CP soap turned out great in the Heavy Duty Molds with crisp, clear details. I will admit, I’m a ‘pour into mold and let it sit for a week and the pop out’ kind of soaper but I do like how super crisp their soap turned out. They said: “We do lightly coat them [the molds] with mineral oil (PAM type sprays don’t seem to work here), then put them in the freezer for an hour after an overnight sit. They usually pop out fairly easy.” Thanks for the tip, Wayne!

My New Normal

October 4, 2009 Filed Under: Business Musings

I’m done. I’m saying ‘Sayonara’ to a bad habit that I picked up in November 2008. I’m going to quit saying, ‘When things return to normal.’ That sentence ends a million ways, ‘When things return to normal, we can start advertising in your magazine again. When things return to normal, I can finally buy you a functioning computer. When things return to normal, we can finally raise the price on our Otion Soap Bar Experiences. When things return to normal, I can finally start to look for a new warehouse.’ When, when, when … how about never, never, never.

I’m not one of those people that believes that as soon as I (complete this sentence: move to a new state, finish my degree, break up with my boyfriend, marry my dream guy, move out of my parent’s house, pay off my credit card debt, get my weight under control), my life will be better. I’ve always plowed ahead, telling myself ‘This is your life. This is your reality. Live it now. Don’t live in the future.’

So, why am I doing it with business? I think it’s because the drop in the stock market and consumer confidence in late 2008 was so mind blowing that I couldn’t comprehend that maybe, just maybe, everything really was changing that quickly. My puny comprehension couldn’t take in the scope of a new playing field. Instead, I just waited, along with the rest of the nation, until ‘the recession ended.’ Every panel I’ve listened to or spoke on this year had at least one speaker saying, “Well, when the recession ends, I’m going to…” or “I’m hearing that the market is improving so I’m just holding on until …”

We keep being told the recession is ending, that the housing market is stabilizing and that we’ll soon return to the halcyon days of 2005. That’s fine. You go ahead and wait for that but I’m done waiting. I’m going to act as though our fractured marketplace and our difficult economic climate is the new normal. I’m re-adjusting what I think ‘healthy’ profits look like and I’m going to get realistic and engaged in what the current economy has to offer. To hope, wish, and pray for anything else is just bad forecasting on my part and it does a disservice to my company, my staff and my customers.

What does that mean? It means that I’m going to get up earlier, stay up later and be hungrier than ever before for new market opportunities, for new customers and keep my eyes focused on the prize: building a company that lasts the ages, that is around for my grandchildren to inherit and love the entire process. And, it means that I’m not waiting around for the market to turn around to lay plans for my better future: I engaged the services of a commercial broker last week to look for new warehouse property for Bramble Berry and I’m forging ahead with our expansion plans into soap mold manufacturing. I’ve readjusted the tint on my rose-colored-glasses considerably but I’m still holding on to them because I know, eventually, someday, I might need them again.

Coconut Milk Volcano Update

October 3, 2009 Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

This aftermath of the soap volcano turned out pretty good and I loved playing the role of Mad Scientist. Get caught up and read the explosion blog post here.

It has the look of hot process soap with a fabulous texture. Thank goodness the ammonia smell from the milk has dissipated. It smells like Orange Blossom now, a potential new fragrance that I’m testing. I know it’s not the most attractive soap that you’ve ever seen but it’s already pretty hard and it will be great in the shower. The ingredients are definitely luscious! Coconut Milk, Coconut Oil and Cocoa Butter – yummay!

I’m going to do more testing with this recipe next week so stay tuned. You never know what’s going to happen but I’m hoping with lower temperatures to avoid the soap volcano. Either way, a little bit of fast work with scooping the exploded soap back into the mold and the soap is saved. It may not be sleek enough to sell but slap a cute cigar band on there and it’s definitely friends’n’family gift worthy. Then again, the rustic look is always ‘in’.

Flexy Fast Fall Pumpkins

October 1, 2009 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

Ingredients
Flexy Fast Molding Putty
Clear Melt and Pour Soap
Sunshine Yellow (from Soapylove’s Jewelry Box)
Fiery Fuchsia (from Soapylove’s Jewelry Box)
Sparkle Dust (from Soapylove’s Jewelry Box)
Liquid Non-Bleeding Green
Pumpkin Spice Fragrance Oil
Butter Cream and Snickerdoodle Fragrance Oil
Vanilla Color Stabilizer
Droppers
A Perfectly Small Pumpkin (mine was 5.7 ounces)
Microwave safe container
Stir spoon
Vinyl Gloves

ONE: The first step to this project is making a pumpkin mold out of the Flexy Fast Molding Putty. Never used Flexy Fast Before? Check out Soap Queen TV to see a full tutorial.

Mixing your Flexy Fast: Flexy Fast comes as 2 parts, Part A and Part B. The usage rate is 1:6 (B:A) by weight or 1:20 (B:A) by volume OR mix a golf ball size of the white stuff to a marble size of the pink stuff. With vinyl gloves on, knead the two components together until fully incorporated. You’re done when you have a nice bubblegum color with no pink streaks, which will take about 1 minute.

Molding your Pumpkin: Carefully form the putty around your pumpkin. Really press the putty into the pumpkin to ensure that you get all of the realistic details and to release any air bubbles. Make sure there are no holes in the putty that the soap could potentially leak through. More thick is better than thin on this project so don’t be shy about forming a thick mold.

TWO: The soap, color and fragrance quantities may slightly vary depending on the size of your pumpkin (my pumpkin was 5.7 ounces). For the stem, melt about ½ ounce of clear melt and pour and add a smidgen of Liquid Green (not even a whole drop). Mix well. Use a dropper to fill the stem part of your mold with green soap and spritz with rubbing alcohol to get rid of any bubbles.

THREE: Melt about 6 ounces of clear soap and add your favorite fall fragrance. I used ½ ml of Pumpkin Spice, ½ ml of Butter Cream and Snickerdoodle and 1 ml Vanilla Stabilizer to keep my orange color bright and vibrant. It smells like pumpkin pie!

Variation Fragrance: ½ ml Pumpkin Pie Cybilla, ½ ml Cream Cheese Frosting and 1 ml Vanilla Stabilizer. Delicious!

FOUR: Now that our soap has been scented, add 20 drops of the Sunshine Yellow and 1/2 drop of the Fiery Fuchsia from Soapylove’s Jewelry Box Color Set (it helps to put a drop of the fuchsia on your spoon and drip half of that amount in the soap). The Fuchsia is really strong so it just takes a teensy bit compared to the Yellow. Mix well until you have the perfect pumpkin orange. Then add a pinch or 2 of Sparkle Dust to give the pumpkin an extra festive touch.

FIVE: Check the temperature of the soap and make sure it’s no hotter than 130 degrees (we don’t want to melt our green soap that’s already in the mold). Spritz your green stem layer with rubbing alcohol to ensure the layers stick then pour the sparkly, orange soap into the mold and give it a final spritz with rubbing alcohol.

Tip: If the soap seems a little too big just cut it in half for smaller version. Even though it’s half the size it’s still equally as cute.

Coconut Milk Soap Volcano

September 30, 2009 Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

In my 16 years of cold process soapmaking, I have heard of of soap volcanoes in various soap forums, books and soap gatherings over the years. But until today, I had not experienced one for myself. The ensuing happenstance was so exciting that I started exclaiming ‘Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh‘ with such glee that Erik (manager of Otion) thought I was thrilled about what he was talking about. When I finally got him turned around to see the soap, his jaw dropped. Erik has been making cold process soap for only 2 years but has made 300+ batches of cold process soap in those two years. He’s never seen the volcano happen either. I shouted at the top of my lungs for the customer service team from Bramble Berry to come watch. They arrived just in time to catch the last of the show.

The soap literally bubbled out of the mold like a fizzy soda fountain, with mounds of frothy, bubbling caustic soap. The entire thing was funny because I was wearing my gloves and goggles but had I not been working on a protected surface with my hands and eyes covered, it could have been a disaster. The bubbling took about 90 seconds to finish. After it was done erupting, about half the soap was out of the mold and on the table.

Notice how much the soap deflated as it cooled down? It lost almost half of its volume!

The soap was super hot (over 200 degrees) as though it was going through a full hot process (or in-the-oven-hot process) gel phase. Since the soap hadn’t separated much, I just plopped all the soap that had overflowed back into the mold, patted it down (with gloves on – the soap is still caustic) and smoothed it out. The soap isn’t the most pretty soap I’ve ever seen but hopefully it will be usable.

I’ll cut the soap tomorrow to see how it looks and am hopeful I saved the batch. The experience reminded me of the valuable lesson about making soap with too many unknown variables. Coconut Milk + Cocoa Butter + Coconut Oil + Untested Fragrance = Super Pow Volcano Soap. This is why buying fragrance oils from a proven, tested vendor is so important for you too. If someone else has done all the testing for you, there is one less variable for you to worry about when you’re soaping at home or in your soap studio.

Soapylove Blending Frogs

September 29, 2009 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Debbie made these fun colors from the SoapyLove line of Jewelry Box Colors. You can see from the fun little ‘flies’ in front of the frogs what colors she used for blending.

From left to right:

Ruby Red

Fiery Fuchsia

Sunshine Yellow + Fiery Fuchsia

Sunshine Yellow

Turquoise Blue + Sunshine Yellow

Turquoise Blue

Turquoise Blue + Ruby Red

Turquoise Blue + Fiery Fuchsia

Turquoise Blue + Sunshine Yellow + Fiery Fuchsia

Aren’t those versatile colors? You get the veritable rainbow from just four easy to blend colorants. Debbie designed a colorant line that is easy to use, straight forward and comes with little droppers in the caps to boot. We’re all loving her colorant line for some of our fun fall projects (hint: tune in this Thursday to see some of her goodies in project action).