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At an Undisclosed Location

July 27, 2009 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Greetings from an undiscolosed location on the East Coast. Since I’m here for the Martha Stewart Radio Show on Tuesday, I flew in a day early to start planning our Fall and Christmas 2010 line (can you believe it?! Fall lines already?!). I spent a full 8 hours learning and working on the building blocks for the perfumery and am completely euphoric about the entire planned 2010 line.

First we went through and smelled the individual fragrance building blocks, comparing base notes like Tonka Bean, Madagascar Vanilla and Indian Sandalwood. Then, we started creating from the ground up.

My nose was definitely fine tuned with the entire day of sniffing and I smelled individual notes that I’ve never smelled one-off – the most exquisite jasmines, the most ethereal roses and rare wild mugeut.

I had help for the day; a wonderful friend and early Bramble Berry tester came in from Conneticut to help me sort through all the fragrance options. I was lucky to have her because my nose needed a rest after a hundred plus sniffs.

Tonight I head into the heart of the city where I stay just a few blocks off of Broadway. Tomorrow is Martha Stewart Radio (call in at 1:30 EST with any questions you have about soaps and toiletries). After the workday, I have a super fun evening planned with a good friend (and Bramble Berry customer) to go see the musical ‘Billy Elliot.’ I listened to the soundtrack for most of the plane ride and am interested to see the choreography to go with it.

Martha Stewart Radio Show

July 26, 2009 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

I’ll be on Living Today on Sirius Radio on Tuesday at 1:30 EST. You can get a free 7 day trial and listen on your computer by signing up here. If you have soapmaking questions about melt and pour, herbs and additives in soap, using Flexy Fast, or creating soap in layers a la SoapQueen.TV tutorials, please call me live at 1-866-675-6675.

I made some fun exclusive projects just for the show and I am excited to share them with you on air.

Gettin’ my Geek On

July 25, 2009 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

I recently had my iPhone replaced after it mysteriously quit working at peak performance. The technician suggested that I get a case to house my precious connectivity device in to save it from wear, tear and general destruction that dropping causes. I got what he recommended: a boring black plastic protector. But secretly, I chafed at the big bulky case. It ruined the lines of the gorgeous and shiny iPhone.

Tonight, my Dad sent me a link to Ultra-Caseand I couldn’t be more enchanted. I want several of the cases and in fact, am now envisioning myself as some sort of iPhone fashionista – changing my case to match my outfit.

While I’m at it, I’d like to customize my laptop. Its fine deep navy blue color doesn’t really say ‘fun! bubbly! happy!’ (which are the personality characteristics I’d like my laptop to convey to random passerby in coffee shops and airports). LaptopSkins.net has a wide variety of colorful and whimsical designs to make my laptop pop. And should I really decided to go all technista fashionista? I can coordinate my laptop skin and my iPhone case.

Frozen with Indecision

July 24, 2009 Filed Under: Business Musings

Yesterday, I spoke at the Women Business Owner’s monthly luncheon for a panel focused on driving a growth oriented business in a difficult economy. The Women Business Owner’s group meets at the Washington Athletic Club in Seattle on the last Thursday of the month and exists to “propel resolute women entrepreneurs to embrace their fullest vision of success”

The panel primarily focused on the realities of doing business in an economy with sticky credit markets (banks aren’t lending without lots of hoop jumping), scared customers (people aren’t spending money because they’re worried about stability), and jumpy vendors (vendors are requesting pre-payment for orders when typically Net 90 would have sufficed).

Some really great advice came out of the panel discussion:

1. Run the numbers – Assuming you can find a bank to lend to you, don’t take money that you’re not 100% sure you can pay back. Funding losses through a credit line has never been wise and it’s especially unfortunate in our current economy.

2. Keep an eye on the Cost of Goods Sold – Watch your margins. Don’t sell for a loss. You’re not Wal-Mart and can’t afford to have loss leaders.

3. Marketing matters – Ignore social media at your peril. Reach out to customers any and every way that they will have you.

4. Don’t cut across the board – Foolish companies cut across the board. Really foolish companies cut where their customers notice. Be strategic with your cuts thinking 2 to 4 years ahead of time.

5. No one is going to save you – If you’re waiting for your white horse & handsome prince to come in and look at your books, tell you what to do and hold your hand through the whole business process, Dede Henley told us, ‘Don’t hold your breath. He’s not coming.’ Take charge of your destiny. Learn how to run your company. Do the stuff you don’t want to do. Find a mentor to guide you through the rest.

6. Action Matters – My strong belief and the message I tried to convey is that action – any action – is better than no action. Do not look out into the world at large and fret about things that you cannot control (the economy, peak oil, rising sea levels etc…). Focus on the things you can control in your sphere of influence.

You can take charge of your destiny by creating a small business that you build one customer at a time. You can take charge of your quality of life by committing to a fitness routine. You can take charge of the depth of your relationships by committing to authenticity and deep connection with your family and friends. You can take charge of how you react to outwardly disappointing circumstances.

If you want to have a great business in two years, what steps do you need to start taking right now to create a stable and predictable sales cycle? Do you have your Big Hairy Audacious Goal (a la Jim Collins)? Have you broken it down? What are you doing right now, today, to make sure that you’re successful and rising above the rest in the future. Don’t be frozen with indecision. Take small baby steps until you reach your first workable goal. Then, just like a mountain climber going from camp to camp, start putting one foot in front of the other until your next goal is achieved. You can do it. The secret to success isn’t a secret at all – it’s try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try again. And then, try some more.

Don’t be a time manager, be a priority manager. Cut your major goals into bite-sized pieces. Each small priority or requirement on the way to ultimate goal become a mini goal in itself.

–Denis Waitley

I’ve posted many blogs on setting and achieving goals. You can review them all here.

Layers Made Easy

July 23, 2009 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

Yes, it’s that time once again! Soap Queen TV is here.

This week’s episode is all about layers. I make a very boldly colored soap to show how you can take a plain mold and spice it up.

Soap Queen TV Episode 12: Basic Layers from Soap Queen on Vimeo.

Here’s a link to the bleeding colors post I mentioned.

And here’s what you’ll need to make this project:
Clear melt & pour soap base
Liquid red oxide
Liquid black oxide
Liquid green oxide
Sparkle gold mica
Mango Peach Salsa fragrance
Loaf mold
Basic shapes mold

Spray bottle with rubbing alcohol
Heat safe container for melting soap
stir stick or spoon

Woof! Woof! Walking the Dog Soap

July 22, 2009 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Curious about how that gelled Periwinkle and Hyacinth High pH Labcolor soap turned out yesterday? Here it is in all it’s purple splendor. WOW! I had forgotten how strong those colors go after the gel phase morph. The soap does lather colored so it’s going to be turned into a confetti bar or given away to children who will love the idea (though their parents probably won’t be).

The big success of the day was this Dog Bone Soap. I made the mold with our Flexy Fast Molding Putty. The soap is not the ideal color yet but we’ll get there. It’s a special project for the Martha Stewart Radio Show next week. I dare you to try and figure out which is the real dog bone and which one is the soap impostor.

Tomorrow, I’ll be in Seattle speaking on a panel at the Women Business Owners group on building a growth-driven business. But I haven’t forgotten tomorrow is SoapQueen.TV release day and am excited to post a new episode for you on making layered melt and pour soap.

Soap Intensive Weekend Hangover

July 21, 2009 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Amber and I still feel a bit like we’ve been beaten soundly about the neck and shoulders with a cold, wet steak but we’re coming out of our intense weekend rarin’ to go with more soapy projects for you. It’s hard to believe but we’re finalizing our Christmas line (as I write) and are planning out Christmas projects.

First up, I spent the day in the testing lab designing and finalizing two new colors for the Labcolors Line (Pool Blue in middle & Sky Blueon bottom and top layers). This is a photo of them in Cold Process soap.

I added a bunch of Pearly White Mica to the Perfect Teal and made the unique texture on top using a spatula at the end. And that strange drag in the middle is from sifting Pearly White on to form a clear layer. Obviously, not my best attempt.

Next, I started a test batch of Hyacinth and Periwinkle High pHLabcolors. It is so warm in the soap studio that the soap is gelling without any sort of insulation.

Here is a photo of the ‘Floap’ soap I made two weekends ago, unmolded and cut. It’s getting surprisingly hard and I can hardly wait to use it in the shower to see how long it lasts. It’s getting yellow as it is exposed to air longer. I hope it doesn’t end up going brown. Fingers crossed.

I also did a horrific experiment with yogurt and cold process soap where I was trying to find the max amount of yogurt you could add to soap before it broke down. I’ve found that saturation point and my soap is a separating, brown stinking mess.

Finally, I spent around 4 hours designing projects for Martha Stewart Radio. I’ll be on next Tuesday, taking live calls, talking about Flexy Fast as well as some upcoming SoapQueenTVepisodes.

Here’s a preview of the project. Expect more details in the next week of what we came up with.

Plaid, Tarts, Colors & CupcakesOtion, SWI

July 20, 2009 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

The final day of our Otion Soap Intensive ended yesterday and I’m already getting excited about planning our next one. Have suggestions on what you’d like to see at the next one or a special instructor that you’d love to see at Otion? Let me know! Class is limited to 12 people and we already have one person on the sign up list for next year. You can get on the sign up sheet by calling Otion at 360.676.1030

Sunday started with an Intro to Melt and Pour. I crammed as much information on the basics in as I could in one short hour so that Debbie from SoapyLove would have the maximum time possible to showcase the versatility that melt and pour provides.

She taught two of her signature projects: Perfect Plaid and Soap Tarts.

Despite the complexity of the projects, every single student came away with amazing soaps to take home and recreate themselves.

Debbie’s teaching style is easy to follow and every student left with many ideas on how they could take the techniques she taught and apply them to their own soap projects to give their businesses a unique and personalized twist.

Lori Nova from The Nova Studio finished our day of instruction off with the ever-so-helpful, ‘Color with Confidence’ class.

She has tested over 70 colorants in cold process soap and saved everyone hours of testing by showing us the colors in soap and explaining how and why the colorants act the way that they do. It was a useful class that illuminated the mystery of colorants in a easy to understand way.

The big soapy reveal happened at the very end of class when we unmolded our layered and swirl soaps. Lori’s precise method of soapmaking produced gorgeous bars with perfect layers and swirls. Everyone got a chance to try three different beveling tools to give their soap the final professional touch.

We wrapped up with a sweet treat dessert and graduation. All of the students received certificates of completion and a cupcake to send them on their soaping journeys.

It was an enjoyable weekend for everyone and we are excitedly planning Otion Soap Weekend Intensive 2010!

Mad for Plaid

July 18, 2009 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Me being silly around Debbie’s (Soapylove) in-process soap pieces for plaid soap! Debbie’s fun and amazing projects are coming soon to SoapQueen.TV as a special project tutorial – I can’t wait to share the process with you.

The Soap Intensive finished this evening with cupcakes, laughter and chaos. I’ll post photos and a full run down tomorrow. Until then, happy soaping!

How Much Can You Learn in One Day?

July 18, 2009 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

The second day of the Soap Weekend intensive was… well, intense! There was so much information and hands-on projects that we are all exhausted. The students all seemed a little shell-shocked by the end of the jam-packed day.

Here were the highlights:

First I discussed and demonstrated the basics of Cold Process Soapmaking. Yes, I know I should be wearing long sleeves – but it was so hot. We were so lucky to have my husband’s borrowed air conditioner form his office but the temperatures still got above 80 degrees in the Soap Instructional Lab; thus the short sleeves.

For the second part of my class each student was able to come up and weigh out one of the ingredients or try their hand at stick blending the soap. Notice the bag they are pouring out of. They are the Bramble Berry boilable fixed oil bags so that you can melt solid oils in the microwave or boil them. Plus, they are space saving from a shipping standpoint saving money and saving the planet through less packaging.

Every student ended up with 2 bars of soap that they fragranced and colored themselves. The bars use the nearly same recipe with the only difference being one had a superfat of 1% and the other 10.5%.

Next up, was Lori Nova sharing her incredible swirling and layering techniques.

Lori generously shared her award winning and precise way of swirling soap perfectly. Her method of soaping is detail oriented and she keeps copious notes for every batch, assuring that she can replicate every success, every time.

Here is one of the completed soap batches getting ready to be covered and insulated. Can you believe she actually made this gorgeous soap while 15 people watched? Lori is the consumate professional who kept cool and delivered a perfect batch of soap, even with questions being fired at her from left and right.

Finally, Jill ended the day with a hands-on lotion making class. She has a wonderfully organized way of teaching lotion making in stations all around the class room. We had a bit of a kerfuffle when beeswax was put out instead of emulsifying wax. No one could figure out just why our perfect, fail-safe lotion recipe wasn’t turning out until we realized that the emulsifying wax container was filled with bleached beeswax. Whoops. We quickly reset and everyone made perfect lotions with just a little delay. The mishap proved two things: beeswax isn’t the best emulsifier and that everyone makes mistakes. So, if you want to lessen your chance of mistakes, do the Lori Nova method of taking copious notes and follow a preparation check-list, each and every time.

Fany and Audrey working together to weigh out their oils for lotion.

Check back tomorrow night or Monday morning to get the Sunday wrap up. Debbie from SoapyLove is going to be teaching us her fabulous Soap Tarts and Plaid Soap.

Soap Intensive Weekend Starts

July 17, 2009 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Greetings from a packed and thrilling kick-off day for the Second Annual Otion Soap Intensive Weekend. We have a full class with 12 students who have flown in from all over the nation to learn from the best soap and business minds in the nation.

Today, we did a mini business boot camp taught by Ron Huntington, from Executive Mentors and Trainers. He covered important business basics such as:

Defining Vision

Determining Annual Priorities

Defining your Values

If you’d like to learn more about what he covered, buy the book “Mastering the Rockafeller Habits” by Verne Harnish. It’s a great primer for all businesses.

Then tonight, we started work on two very special episodes of SoapQueen.TV with special guest Debbie Chialtas from SoapyLove. She’s up here for the Soap Intensive Weekend (to teach her original Plaid Soap project and Jelly Donut Soap project). While she’s here, we started brainstorming on how we can bring more of the Soapmaking Weekend Intensive to you. Last year, you asked for a way to bring more of the classes to you and I think we have a great solution.

Shhhh … I’ll let you in on a BIG secret: we’re going to do a super duper, awesome, incredible paid tutorial fusing the best of ‘Let’s Get Soapy‘, SoapQueen.TV and SoapQueen.com Expect a the details and sign up to start the first week of August.

I can’t wait to start TwitPic’ing photos tomorrow from The Soap Intensive Weekend at Otion. Be sure to check the blog or my TwitPic stream for lots of fun photos from the day. And, of course, there will be a blog round up tomorrow night (late) after the classes and clean up are done. Until then, happy soaping!

Soap Queen TV Cute Packaging Ideas

July 16, 2009 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

In this week’s episode I show you how important it is to wrap your soap to prevent dew or sweat from forming on your soap. I also show how to assemble Bramble Berry’s soap boxes and some other ideas for wrapping your soap. While this episode has no explosions or fireworks, it’s an important episode to watch if you’d like to give your soap away or package for sale.

Soap Queen TV Episode 11: Packaging Ideas from Soap Queen on Vimeo.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Beautiful finished soap bar
Plastic wrap
Heat or embossing gun

Optional:
Clear tape
Label
Ribbon
Decorative paper
Soap box
Organza bag

Creamy Mango, Mango Lassi …

July 16, 2009 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

What’s in a name? Perhaps everything. Joanna over at The Soap Bar blog and the ultra fab Product Body loves our Limited Edition Mango Lassi so much she’d like to ‘drink it through a straw through her nose‘. While I’d not advise going quite that far, her enthusiasm is not misplaced. It’s a delightful fragrance which didn’t sell terribly well (much to my surprise and chagrin). Joanna believes it was my poor choice of a name. Either way now we only have it via special order (10 pounds) but we recently ordered a drum for a customer and have some left over.

I’ve put it up for sale in 1 pound sizes so you can try this fabulous fragrance and not have to get the full hefty 10 pounds (though, once you smell it, you’ll probably want to bathe in it so you’ll need 10 pounds). And, if you trust Joanna, you too will be looking for stray straws to enhance your Mango Lassi (‘creamy mango’) experience. Get your Mango Sensation/Sweet Mango/Creamy Mango/Mango Milkshake here.

Packaging Your After Sun Care Products

July 16, 2009 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Day One: Making a Healing, Soothing Sunburn Lotion

Day Two: Making an eas y Spritzer & Skinsicles

Day Three: Infusing Oils

Day Four: Soothing Skin Oil

You can package your products in anything you’d like. For the healing essential oils, a solid bottle that does not let in light is more stable than a clear bottle or jar that is opened and exposed to air. If you missed the basic labeling instructions for what you need on the labels, you can find them at the bottom of the Soothing Skin Oil post.