Search Results for: www.brambleberry.com

Cupcakes. Yummy Yummy Cupcakes.

August 1, 2007 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

I went to go visit Cupcakes on Denham Street in Vancouver BC. The store did not disappoint. It was bright, happy and colorful. The line of cupcake devotees was almost out the door. The cupcake and cake offerings were creative, colorful and displayed attractively.

They had cute Cupcake-branded hang tags and stickers that were available for purchase, encouraging easy gift giving and helping to further the Cupcakes brand aesthetic.

A 4-pack went for $10. Single cupcakes were $2.50

There were mountains of cupcakes. I devoured a Red Velvet cupcake. It was mushy, yummy, and practically melted in my mouth.

Carried away by the sugar high, I asked for a “I (heart) Cupcakes” t-shirt. The bill for one cupcake plus the t-shirt came to $38. It was one expensive t-shirt. Note to self: check pricing before buying.

If you are ever in Vancouver BC, it’s worth a trip down to Denham street to grab a cupcake (or four) and stroll along the beautiful waterfront, just a few blocks away.

Interview with David from The Bubble Roome

July 31, 2007 Filed Under: Business Musings

Interview with David from The Bubble Roome

A-M: David, your flair for packaging is fascinating! Tell us about your background and how you got into soaps and toiletries.

David: I’ve been a graphic designer for 10 years, starting with print projects and then moving into web work. Around 2001, I was freelancing and was constantly looking for the next job. After 9/11 everything in the city kind of stopped for awhile and the job market for freelance seemed very inactive. So I began to think of ways to make money on my own terms, without sending out resumes and waiting for work. I had always been interested in Melt and Pour Glycerin soap, but as I began researching in bookstores I became very curious about Cold Process. I started test batches, then came up with recipes for 16 (too many!!) soaps, and began designing the labels not really concerned how or where they would be sold. It was a fun hobby that I had felt had retail appeal.

A-M: Are you working out of your home right now? Or, are you in a warehouse type space? We’d love details about how it’s set up.

David: I am working out of my apartment, and making my products in my tiny Brooklyn kitchen. I am so jealous of other crafters with the luxury of a garage or basement, but these limitations have caused me to be inventive and extremely organized. The kitchen is filled with Container Store shelving attached to the walls, with lots of labeled plastic containers for herbs and ingredients. One table with a blender and Cuisinart, and under the table 5-gallon buckets of oils. In a storage closet I have a 14-tray bakers rack that I bought for the soaps to dry on. Shipping boxes fill every nook and cranny and, the bane of my existence – styrofoam peanuts – litter the floor all over the apartment.

A-M: You’ve gotten some very heavy hitting press lately. Was Lucky a total surprise or did you do a guerilla marketing campaign to get all of your press?

David: I’ve been very lucky with the press I’ve received, but it is one of the benefits to being in NYC that you can have stores exhibit your work with magazine editors as their customers. One of the best blogs on the internet (designsponge.blogspot.com) spotted my soaps in her neighborhood store and when she wrote about them I got a lot of interest from other retailers as well as web orders. From that, the beauty editor of Teen Vogue asked for products for her magazine. Her friend is Christina Mueller, the beauty editor of Lucky, and that spread to People Magazine, and Bust, and so on. The Lucky piece was a surprise because it had been killed each month since November, so I just gave up hoping. Then I closed my site for reformulations and Lucky came out, and everything kind of exploded.

A-M: Do you notice any spike in sales when you get national press?

David: Definitely. Because I don’t really advertise, the press I receive is what generates the spikes. Lots of web orders, but even better, is the attention from other retailers who hadn’t heard of TBR.

A-M: What are your goals for your company?

David: I want to outsource my recipes to a reputable manufacturer because working in the kitchen is getting old (fast!). I also need a fulfillment center to handle shipping. I have a great rep company lined up to represent my work to retailers, but they were worried when I said I made the products in my kitchen. They felt that they wouldn’t be confident taking orders if I couldn’t fill the orders quickly. So if I want my business to grow (and I feel a rep company is the only way for that to happen) I have to produce larger volume with outsourcing.

A-M: Who are your favorite authors or mentors?

David: A key business book for me was “The E-Myth” by Michael Gerber. It describes the common pitfalls of entrepreneurs and how to overcome them.

Susan Cavitch’s book “Soap Maker’s Companion” was a great start, though I feel it’s a bit too technical. A business model I have is Lisa Price of Carol’s Daughter, who also used to make products out of her Brooklyn kitchen, and due to being on Oprah is now a huge success.

A-M: Favorite fragrance?

David: In terms of designer fragrances, it’s Stella McCartney.

A really subtle rose that’s hip and elegant. And Lush’s Karma always makes me happy. My fave EO combination is Ginger, with Peppermint and Sweet Orange. My favorite Bramble Berry FO to the list. It’s Arabian Spice, and was used in one of my Brooklyn Slice Soaps to represent the middle-Eastern “Atlantic Avenue” neighborhood. Intoxicating and very popular.

A-M: Product from your line that you’re absolutely diggin’?

David: I’m working on a new Butter recipe with lots of botanical extracts, proteins and three kinds of butters.

A-M: Any last words of wisdom to cottage industry mavens out there?

David: Mainly it’s not too give up or get overwhelmed. When I walked by a Bath and Body Works I can get discouraged and think “why I am bothering. There are already 1000’s of bath lines out there”. But there is enough of the pie for everyone to have a slice.

Contact information:

david e johnston

www.thebubbleroome.com

www.thebubbleroome.blogspot.com

Creative Planter

July 31, 2007 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

My dear husband Chris has been purchasing plants and delivering them to my office every week for over 2 years. He has never missed a week.

Unfortunately, I kill about 85% of the plants. A few do end up living. Those lucky plants end up at our home. For those that live long lives, thissmallish-but-cute planter from doe would look very unique.

Salt-Water as Gas?

July 31, 2007 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

PichPosh Bath CupcakeC

July 31, 2007 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

I’m a little obsessed with cupcakes of all sorts. I recently spent too much time trying to backwards engineer bath cupcakes. I was successful. Click here for directions on how to make bath cupcakes.

Last night, I took a bath with the PichPosh Solid Bubble Bath cupcake. Though they have many fragrances to choose from, I did the Vanilla based standby, Angel Food Cake. The Bath Cupcake itself is a heavy weighted dense confection. It must weigh about 8 ounces. It is colorful and feels like a decadent delight.

After 3 minutes of fizzing, the solid bubble bath was awash in color and foam.

Yes, those are real sprinkles. I know because I tasted them. They almost covered up the strange taste of the sodium lauryl sulfate.

After 10 minutes, there was still a sizeable chunk of bath cupcake. I was impressed with the staying power of this bath sundry.

20 minutes later, it was still a decadent delight as it fizzed and fizzed and bubbled and toiled and troubled. It was a bath bubble machine. Like most bubble baths, the bubbles dissipated without constant stirring and water interaction but big $9 chunk kept going for over 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, the party-in-a-cupcake had almost fizzled out and all that was left was a chunk of the bottom and a substantial amount of the top (due to the protection the sprinkles lent the no-exposed-fizzy muffin top).

Though I don’t love sitting in SLS for a prolonged period of time because of SLS’s reputed drying properties, this was a fun product and a good value – 20 minutes of bubble party is nothing to sneeze at.

Happy Monday!

July 30, 2007 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

funky flowers close-up
Originally uploaded by be cheery

This is a great example of using happy sugar flowers to personalize your cupcakes in a fast way! The effect of all the cupcakes is simply stunning.

I wish we had a cupcake bakery in Bellingham, WA. I’m reduced to driving to Seattle (Hello Cupcake Royale!) or heading to Vancouver, BC for my fix. It’s just not doing it.

Contest Prize Winners

July 30, 2007 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

As a thank-you for bearing with us during the 3-day blog freeze, we are (drum roll!) doing more than just the initial number of prizes we promised! Three readers from last week are all winning a copy of our DVD on melt and pour soapmaking or cold process soapmaking (their choice) and Five 3-D molds (their choice again!).

So, Jennifer (the Jennifer from post #2 from last Monday), Mary Helen, and Renee, please drop me an email at info (at) brambleberry.com with your addresses and your choices of soap molds and DVD.

The page to view the soap mold choices is here.

The page to view more information about the DVDs is here.

Thanks for participating. Check back in the next few weeks with another contest (sneak preview: it will include one of the Moon Valley Lotion Bars as a prize).

We’ve been nominated …

July 30, 2007 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

It was a nice surprise today to come into work and find that not only had our blog been unlocked (thanks Blogger for getting to me first thing Monday morning!), but we’ve been nominated for a Blogger’s Choice Award in the “Best Craft Blog” category. It’s exciting to be nominated. If you’d like to vote for us, here’s the URL to vote for The Soap Queen!

Using 3-D Molds – Layering & Color Details

July 30, 2007 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

Here are the final photos of our 3-D molded soap project. More advanced techniques include layering and detailing the cut outs in the soap.

Instructions for coloring in the dragonfly: You will need a dropper, a glass of very hot water, alcohol spritzer and melted soap in a contrasting color.

Draw up the melted soap into your dropper. If it is too cool, it will clog your dropper. If it is too warm, it will melt your dropper. I just make sure that my soap is not steaming before I pull it up into the dropper.

With your dropper tip situated comfortably in the crevice of the design, push gently down on the bulb until the soap streams out in an even manner. Slowly fill in the crevices and use the alcohol to smooth out the surface of your design.

I use the hot water to clean out the dropper in between squirts and also in case the soap starts to harden up inside the dropper before I am able to use it.

Doing multiple layers requires nothing more than patience. My tip is to use the same brand of soap base for all the layers. I always use the Bramble Berry House brand for layering. It seems to stick better in my opinion. Pour your first layer and wait thirty minutes. Melt your second layer, pour the soap and wait for thirty minutes. Continue to do this until you are satisfied with your coloring combinations. The secret to getting the soap to stick together is to use the same brand of base and pour fairly quickly in between layers.

I hope you have enjoyed your tutorial and that you feel inspired to try these fun, unique soaps on your own now! Expect the contest winners to be announced later today!

Colorful Lotion Shot

July 29, 2007 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Lotion
Originally uploaded by Shelbythenerd

Sadly, this blog is still locked. I spent the evening testing some delightful solid bubble bath and can’t wait to tell you about it when the blog unlocks for non-flickr posts.

The lotion photo on the right makes me want to utilize color more in my lotions. It’s bright, happy and colorful and better yet, for small businesses, the coloring will stand out nicely on the shelves.

Soap – Queen is still locked down

July 29, 2007 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Handmade Valentine’s Day Soaps
Originally uploaded by krizsa

I am sorry to report that The Soap Queen blog is still locked down from posting new articles. I have lots to report on too – finishing up the 3-D soap mold tutorial, visiting Open Sundaes in Vancouver and more cupcakes. And this week, assuming the blog gets unlocked, I will be able to post on cream soap experiments too! My fingers are crossed that Monday will be the day that Blogger is able to review the site and determine that it’s not a link-farming, spam site. =)

Anne-Marie

Crisp Beautiful Soap

July 27, 2007 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Soapmaking Day- Cut Bars
Originally uploaded by mollycakes

Blogger has accidentally decided that this blog is a Spam Blog. Whoops. So, they are in the process of okaying me again to post but for the meantime, the last final installment of the 3-D soap series is stuck in their system. Hopefully it will be freed up soon! =)

Anne-Marie

Contest Prizes Doubled!

July 26, 2007 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

We have doubled our Contest Prizes for the week! There will be two winners who will each win their choice of five heavy duty 3-D molds and a soapmaking DVD. The fine print: post a comment any time this week to qualify. Winner will be chosen Sunday night and announced Monday morning.

Using 3-D Molds – Trimming & Color

July 26, 2007 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

3-D molded soap needs to be finished off to make the bars look professional. I have not figured out a way to make 3-Dsoap without needing to trim. The coral colored bar on the right is fully cleaned up. A general rule of thumb is: the hotter the soap is, the more runny and thin it is. The cooler your soap is, the more viscous and dense it will be. The more cool you pour your melted soap, the less trimming you need to do. But, you will still need to trim.

Using a non-serrated knife (such as a cheese knife or a paring knife), hold the soap firmly in your left hand and wield the knife with your right hand. Reverse the directions if you are left-handed. Slowly start to trim the soap by drawing the knife toward you – slowly, slowly, slowly and carefully. Blood ruins a great soaping afternoon.

In the photo below, the speckling is caused by improper colorant mixing. If the colorant had been pre-mixed in a little water, the speckles would have gone away. Or, if the colorant had been mixed more vigorously in the soap, the speckles would have disappeared.

Tomorrow’s final 3-D soap mold tutorial will include information on how to layer your 3-D soap molds and color-in details using soap.