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!
Tutorials on soapmaking, bath fizzies, lotions and more
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
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!
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
The baker says:
Although it’s not a cupcake that I created from scratch, this cupcake was inspired by one of my fave Malay dessert, Puteri-Salat a.k.a Seri Muka a.k.a. Glutinous Rice with Egg Custard. I basically use my fave basic moist vanilla cupcake recipe and simply fillled and iced the cupcakes with the egg custard. I love the East-meets-West combo and so did my samplers.
The actual dessert is the cake slice up front with the inspirational me-too dessert cupcake behind.
Filed Under: Business Musings
In a case reminiscent of the Coty J-Lo Glow versus GLOW back in 2002 – 2003, there’s another David and Goliath match up in the scent world. If you’re not familiar with the GLOW case, click here to read a great article by Inc. magazine about that lawsuit. Jennifer Lopez and Coty settled out of court in this case. Click here to read that short press release.
The short story for the new David and Goliath suit is: E-Bay decided in 2001 that PerfumeBay was too close a name for their liking. E-Bay believes that the word “Bay” is so closely identified with E-Bay that anyone using the term “Bay” in their name is descriptively misleading to potential consumers. So, E-Bay sued Jackie Tran and her small company.
Jackie fought back. And, she won on almost every count. But this is America where the end of a court case never seems to be the actual end. The court asked Jackie to change her name to perfume (space) bay.com. Worried about losing her rankings in search engines and the 300,000 customers she currently has, Jackie chose to take her case on to the Appellate Court in the hopes of keeping her original URL.
Her full story can be found on her blog MakesNoScents.com.Check it out when you have a few moments to spare. Then, think about growth plans for your business. If you’re thinking about growing big, big, big, consider investing in a $500 Trademark Review with your local Intellectual Property Attorney. It might save you heartache and headache when you do get that first million dollar nationwide distribution agreement.
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
I have the privilege of speaking at the Crave Show in Seattle today. I’ll be going back tomorrow and speaking at 12 and 4:30 so if you’re in Seattle, check out http://www.craveshow.com/and get last minute tickets to attend the party.
One of Bramble Berry’s customers was there with their super cool indie beauty products. I have used Knelow’s lotions for years and highly vouch for their customized lotion blends and am continually excited by their innovative blending and unique scent combinations. You can find their e-commerce site and story here.
Other topics that the audience asked to hear about were mentors, best advice for starting a business and information about support networks. I’m hoping to do a show with Whitney & Wyatt about making soap or lip balm in the future.
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
I can’t believe I forgot to post these yesterday! Oh well, they are still glorious examples of great melt and pour by the soap artists at Otion!
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
The Saponifier Magazine has named their best supplies for the year as voted on by readers.
Bramble Berry took 2nd place in the Best Fragrance Oil category and also 2nd place for Best Overall Supplier.
We’re thrilled and honored to have been included in the round-up. All told, there were 59 different suppliers that were listed. We’re delighted that our customers feel passionately about our service and products.
Thanks!
Filed Under: Business Musings
Bleach manufacturer Clorox is the latest big player to muscle into the naturals market with the acquisition of Burt’s Bees for $925m.
Large companies are beginning to pick off small natural and organic personal care firms to capitalise on the growth of the niche market and ultimately boost its top-line growth.
On its current double-digit growth path Burts Beesis set to achieve sales of $170m in 2007, which is around five times less than the price Cloroxpaid for the company.
Justifying the high price is the sales potential of Burt’s Bees. Clorox expects the acquisition to provide an additional two points of sales growth in the fiscal years 2008 and 2009.
Clorox CEO Donald Knauss said: “This acquisition allows us to enter a growing market that’s consistent with consumer megatrends.”
“The Burt’s Bees brand is well-anchored in sustainability and health and wellness, and we believe it will benefit from natural and ‘green’ tailwinds”
Organic Monitor director Amarjit Sahota told CosmeticsDesign.com that Colorox will also benefit from the green image of Burt’s Bees.
As for Burt’s Bees, Sahota questioned whether the move would be in the long-term interests of the firm, despite the deal meaning that Burt’s Bees products will be sold through mainstream retail channels.
He said: “We expect Burt’s Bees to become damaged by the acquisition because of its impact on customer and retailer perceptions of the brand.”
In a recent interview with CosmeticsDesign.com Sahato expressed concern that multinationals with strong established retail channels are marginalising smaller brands and selling diluted natural and organic products.
He called for tighter regulation of the naturals market to prevent companies from selling ‘natural’ cosmetics that contain relatively few natural ingredients.
Burt’s Bees, which was previously owned by private equity firm AEA Investors, has been a strong campaigner for greater regulation of natural and organic cosmetics in recent times.
Sahato fears that may not continue after the latest buy-out because of the demands of the mass-market and the fact that Burt’s Bees new parent company has no history of selling natural or organic products.
The takeover of Burt’s Bees follows two major acquisitions of natural personal care players last year, namely L’Oreal’s acquisition of Body Shop and Colgate-Palmolive buy-out of Tom’s of Maine.
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
I’ll admit it. I bought Britney Spear’s new CD. And (defensive voice) it’s good. The CD should be an effective comeback vehicle for her (if she can get her personal act in gear).
What’s not good is her profligate spending habits. Click here to see CNN’s article on Britney’s spending round-up. It’s a textbook example of money not buying happiness and also proof that even rich people don’t save.
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
The little Bakery Co. is selling an adorable gift for almost anyone of the female persuasion. The Little Starlet Cupcakes Set is $29 and includes the very cool silicone baking tray! Little and big girls alike will love receiving their very own lilac colored soft silicone cupcake tin…with six playtime starlet cupcakes.
What’s a “Playtime Starlet Cupcake?” They are six squishy soft cupcakes that are hand sewn out of soft and scrumptious material. The $29 kit contains 3 vanilla, 3 chocolate with white, purple and pink sugar icing – all topped with shiny star beads. It’s gift ready in a lovely lilac silicone cupcake tin with cello wrap and ribbon.
Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap
We’ve been having a great time at Otion with melt and pour.
These dual colored Sunflowers were made by Andrew, my brother-in-law. He is certainly getting talented at melt and pour, isn’t he? The mold is by Milky Way and the colors used are Cellini Red, Emerald Green Labcolor and Canary Labcolor. Detail work was done painstakingly by hand with a dropper.
These two lovely soaps on the left were made by yours truly. The blue soap pictured on the right of the photo is a difficult soap – three pours. Sadly, the photos don’t show its true glory. The top layer is clear soap with lovely navy blue sparkles. The blue used is Labcolors Aqua. The soap on the left is a dual pour soap utilizing copper sparkle mixed with merlot mica for contrast.
Have fun trick or treating tonight and be safe!
Filed Under: Cold Process Soap
Playing With Soap has a helpful post, complete with photos, on layering Cold Process Soap. Click here to see it.
I do layers the same way: pour at a very pudding thick trace and try to work quickly.
I’ve heard other soapmakers actually make three batches (rather than separating one big batch into three parts), one right after another. The time in between batches allows the layers to harden enough to support the next layer.
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
We are busily shipping out orders and dreaming of fun projects to experiment with when the holiday rush is over.
The new contest for the week is easy – post a comment *in this thread* with the dream project you’d like to see us tackle. Not much is out of bounds so suggest the wildest, most difficult, exotic project or just keep it simple – either way, you’ll get an entry into the fabulous random drawing for the goodies photographed below.
Among the loot is a Sweet Pea candle (the pink one in the back) from Full Moon Candles, two of the Choco Balm Experimental Lip Balms and a Banana Nut Bread Beeswax candle and more!
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
Thanks Carrie-Gigi at Mud Puddle Girl for sending me a fabulous goody pack! Carrie-Gigi has showered me with gifts before (click here to read about her fun billows) and this time, she’s sharing her Soap-Queen inspired chocolate lip balm. Back in September, Carrie-Gigi wrote me to share the good news about her new product line: Muddle Puddle Girl. She said:
I am very passionate for what Mud Puddle Girl stands for. And it’s really not about playing in mud~ but making a splash! One of the 1st products within the Mud Puddle Girl line will be: Mint Chocolate Puddle/ lip balm. Pure ummm…used your recipe, then tweaked it to call it my own.
The lip balm is quite tasty and leaves a little zing on the lips because of the mint that MPG‘s have added to the straight chocolate lip balm. But, staying true to the Chocolate Lip Balm project (click here to see the final recipe), MPG really did include chocolate in the lip balm.
Thanks for the samples and for liking the Choco-Balm recipe enough to make it your own. Go see Mud Puddle Girl’s site here. As for me, I’m going to sit here smacking my lips all night!