advice Archives - Soap Queen

Advice from Our Customer Service Team

June 4, 2018 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

The Bramble Berry customer service team gets about 2,300 emails, chats, and phone calls a week. That number jumps to more than 5,000 during the busy holiday season. They answer questions about everything from goat milk soap to starting a small business. We asked the team what posts they share most often, as well as their best advice for beginners. Find their answers below.

Tina

How long have you been with Bramble Berry?
7 years in July

What blog posts do you share with customers most often?

What advice would you give to someone just starting out?
Mistakes are part of the fun! Be open and okay with everything not turning out as you envisioned. Sometimes things turn out better. Also, maybe start with a basic recipe with a few ingredients first rather than jumping in with a 100% coconut oil cold process soap with a swirl design and raw honey as an additive.

Carla

How long have you been with Bramble Berry?
6 years

What blog posts do you share with customers most often?

What advice would you give to someone just starting out?
Anyone can do it! Trust yourself, have patience, and pay attention to the recipe.

Terah

How long have you been with Bramble Berry?
4 years

What blog posts do you share with customers most often?

What advice would you give to someone just starting out?
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Even if you’re following a recipe, there can be some trial and error before you get into the groove of things. We’ve all had failed batches, even after we become experts!

Matt

How long have you been with Bramble Berry?
2 years

What blog posts do you share with customers most often?

What advice would you give to someone just starting out?
Don’t be afraid to experiment with your creations. You don’t always have to “soap inside the lines” – learn how to formulate a recipe and make changes to it, how to resize your batches, and get creative!

Chloe

How long have you been with Bramble Berry?
Almost 2 years

What blog posts do you share with customers most often?

What advice would you give to someone just starting out?
For a beginner soapmaker my best advice would be to measure everything twice because once you make your soap you can’t go back – like baking a cake!

Customer Service Tips for Small Businesses

May 14, 2018 Filed Under: Business Musings

It’s no surprise that providing good customer service is an important part of running a small business. This post has tips about how to interact with customers so they’ll keep coming back.

Why it’s important
As a small business owner, you wear a lot of hats. The thought of making time to answer questions on social media can be daunting. Kellie with Old Field Farm definitely understands – on top of selling her soap, she also works full time. She said there are a lot of talented makers out there, so it’s important to stand out with fast and friendly customer service.

“I feel like the customer can go anywhere with access to the internet,” she said. “We really try to make our customers feel important. We like to respond quickly to let them know we hear them.”

Beautiful soaps by Old Field Farm.

Reputation is another aspect to consider. Many small business owners can’t afford advertising, so word of mouth is very important. Sarah with Spicy Pinecone said you need to be consistent, fair, and efficient with every customer.

“People talk and share their experiences – both good and bad. In the age of social media, your actions will be spoken about,” she said. “No matter what happens, you must always remain professional and never discourteous, give the customer your full attention, and always use your manners (even if your customer is a difficult one).”

How to Take Advantage of Trends

January 29, 2018 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

Keeping up with trends used to mean switching on your TV or picking up a magazine in the checkout line. Now the most popular colors and designs are right at your fingertips. All you have to do is scroll through Instagram or Pinterest. That makes it easy to try new things and keep your products fresh. Learn how to incorporate trends into your designs below.

Where to find inspiration
Inspiration is everywhere you look. Instagram is a great place to start. Fellow soapmakers can help you brainstorm – the #BrambleOn tag is full of amazing designs. Seeing all the photos in one place can help you identify what people are loving at the moment. You can also search tags like #soapshare and #soapmaking, then follow your favorite makers from there.

Pinterest works in a similar way because you can follow pages that share things you’re interested in. You can also search a subject and see every DIY project under the sun.

“I love Pinterest, that’s my favorite place to go,” said Yvonne with The Snoblove Bar. “Galaxy is a thing right now. So if you type in ‘galaxy,’ it will pull up everything from painting to lipstick, and you can see all the variations of the way people look at the theme.”

Yvonne with The Snoblove Bar uses Pinterest for inspiration. These are her Geode Blossom Bars.

Other options include blogs, YouTube, magazines like Willow and Sage, and the Soap Challenge Club.

Don’t feel limited to just soap pages. Yvonne follows Pantone and interior design pages for ideas. She also loves seeing all the colors and textures in fashion shows.

Tania with Soapish follows people who make paper art, stationary, and pottery. She visits local stores and galleries to see their newest inventory. As a cake decorator, she also finds plenty of inspiration from baking techniques. For instance, you can create shapes for cookies and cakes using fondant. You can use a similar technique with soap dough.

Tania with Soapish created these adorable succulents using soap dough.

Some of our favorite bakers include SweetAmbs, who creates intricate cookie designs using a variety of tools. Lottie & Belle creates over-the-top cakes with piping and embellishments.

How to incorporate trends in your designs
Once you find a trend that speaks to you, it’s time to work it into your project. Lisa with Small Batch Soaps takes a trend like unicorns and breaks it down into key elements. That includes a horn, ears, eyes, rainbows, and glitter. She identifies which of those she’s interested in and then draws her design out on paper.

If she hasn’t tried the technique before, she heads to YouTube or other blogs for advice on how to get started. Then, she makes a small batch to see how the idea translates to soap.

“There are endless ways to interpret a trend, and I think that’s why it’s possible for anyone to incorporate trends into their products, while still staying true to their brand,” Lisa said. “For example, if you don’t feel like putting a unicorn horn on your soap is on brand for you, maybe you could try a rainbow or pastel colour palette, adding some glitter, or stamping your soap. No one knows your aesthetic better than you, so if you design it, I think people will recognize it as yours.”

Lisa with Small Batch Soaps makes several variations of these stunning unicorn bars.

Yvonne with The Snoblove Bar likes to approach trends a few different ways. The first is a more literal interpretation. For instance, she noticed people are loving flamingos right now. Options for working with that trend include a flamingo embed in the middle or on top of your bars. You can also create bright pink bars and then cut out flamingo shapes using a cookie cutter or sharp knife.

With the Daisy Cold Process Soap, we went with this method. The embeds are made with the Mini Daisy Silicone Column Mold and the soap features a classic yellow and white color palette.

The other option is a more abstract interpretation.

“Sometimes it could be the feel of it,” Yvonne said. “So maybe it’s not a flamingo embed, instead I could make feathers with cold process soap dough. I could play with the colors.”

Yvonne sometimes goes more literal with her designs, like the beautiful piped flowers on the Pretty Peach Bar.

You can play with elements of the trend rather than making it the main theme. In place of embeds, the Swirled Orchid Cold Process Soap features a purple and white swirl design topped with jasmine flowers. It’s scented with Blushing Orchid Fragrance Oil.

Staying true to your brand
It can be tempting to incorporate every trend you love into your designs. However, it’s important to ensure they still look like your products. You want people to recognize your creations and come back for more.

Yvonne kept seeing soaps inspired by Minions. She thought the bars were adorable, but she couldn’t find a way to work the theme into her line. Her brand is feminine and light. She works with pastel colors, piped flowers, and elegant embeds.

“It wasn’t the trend that would work best for my business,” she said. “You gotta know what you are, what makes you you, what makes your brand your brand.”

Tania with Soapish agrees. Her creations contain a lot of shapes, angles, lines, and layers. If she can find a way to work with a trend using those design elements, she’ll give it a try. If not, she’ll try something else.

Tania loves working with angles and layers.

“Go with what you love,” Tania said. “I think that if you love something, if you find something that speaks to you, something that you just can’t stop thinking about – translate that into your art. That’s what keeps you consistent and keeps your products aesthetically pleasing. Stick with what you love and you can’t go wrong.”

Find The Snoblove Bar
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Find Soapish
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Find Small Batch Soaps
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Craft Fair Tips from Makers Video

November 29, 2017 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

Every market or festival you attend is a learning experience. Vendors learn new ways to decorate their displays, faster ways to assemble them, and what products people want to buy.

We went to the Holiday Festival of the Arts here in Bellingham, WA and asked makers to pass along that knowledge in this video. They share their tips for making your products stand out and decorating your display. They also talk about the advantages of selling at festivals versus online or in stores. It’s a great resource for first-time sellers or those considering whether to give markets a try.

Special thanks to:
Robert with Keene’s Jewelry
Cat with Sea Witch Botanicals
Karma with Karmela Botanica
Sheila with SheRa Creations
Susan with Ebb and Flow Knitwear

Tips for Soaping in Small Spaces

March 31, 2017 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

Soap supplies tend to add up fast. A few fragrances here, a few molds there – all of a sudden your kitchen is completely taken over. Storage is limited for many soapers, especially those just starting out. Luckily, the soapmaking community has fantastic advice for soaping in small spaces. We asked people to share their tips in a recent Facebook post and there were so many great responses. Check out some of the tips below.

Stack the supplies up, not out
Don’t I know this only too well! I try to go as vertical as possible in terms of shelving to store supplies and curing soap. -Vanessa

The counter/vanity/sink area in my master bathroom is my soaping area. Very small space, but I’m utilizing the high ceiling by installing wire shelving, wall mounted spice racks for EO/FOs and rolling Rubbermaid drawer sets for storage under the counter. It’ll do for a beginner! -Sarah

Soaping has totally taken over my former dining room. I have a six foot tall shelf where I keep most of my soaping things. To make better use of vertical space, I’ve added a pair of shoe racks (perforated bottoms so the soap can cure), and three small baker’s cooling racks. -Robin

Advice to my 20 Year Old Self

December 6, 2015 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

I attended the Whatcom Women in Business event a few weeks back (congratulations to Lydia Place director for the win). The question they asked all the nominees was: “What advice would you give your younger self?” There were some funny responses (“Dump that guy!“) and some serious responses (“Study harder. It makes a difference.“) All of the answers were interesting. Then, I saw Cupcakes & Cashmere’s post and got inspired to do my own. To be clear, I am thankful for every twisted turn and every difficult thing that has ever happened to me because it led me here, with a life, a family and a business I love. Even with that gratitude firmly in place, there are still lessons learned to share with others to hopefully save some pain and shortcut a few of those learning lessons.

Making melt and pour back in the day. =)

Advice to my 20 year old self:

1.) You are the sum total of the 5 people you spend the most time with. I had a lot of friends in my 20s. Some of them I’m still best friends with today and find value and inspiration in their company. And some of them drifted away as we grew apart. There’s one friend who I loved binge watching DVDs of 90210 with while eating Doritos and Oreos. We never got out of our sweatpants. I outgrew this phase. If you don’t want to be turn into the habit, quit hanging out with the person that enables the habit. Hang out with people who drive you to be better, who you admire and who lead lives that you would be proud to trade with. Go outside, take the sweatpants off and make some new friends.

Give it all You’ve Got, and Then Some

July 23, 2014 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

I recently had a mentoring session with a smart woman named Kay. She had been out of work for a while but had finally landed a job. It was 50% under what she wanted to be paid, but it was a job. The company itself was in disarray; it was a serious mess. After just the first week, she knew she could help them dramatically, but she was not being paid what she thought her help was worth. She asked for my advice — should she go in, take charge, and make a difference even though she was not being paid for it?

Upon more discussion, she had a fear that she would be taken advantage of and that her efforts would not be recognized financially. She worried that the boss would take her gift and leave her at the same financial status. It’s been a long time since I was an employee and I’ve forgotten many of the games that unscrupulous employers play. But ultimately, this is about Kay, not her boss.

[Read more…]

Interview with The Silk Soap Company

July 16, 2014 Filed Under: Business Musings

Several months ago, I received a magazine along with a kind note from Kristen Koscielniak of The Silk Soap Company. Kristen and her soapy business had landed the cover of Delray Beach Magazine, and Kristen reached out to share her exciting news.

After a wide range of store-bought products left her skin feeling dry and irritated, Kristen began making her own melt and pour soap with added silk and hasn’t stopped! Read on to learn more about Kristen, her experience with branding and what inspires her to create. -A.M.

Run Toward Something Great

July 14, 2014 Filed Under: Business Musings

I recently attended a gathering of some of the top brand mavens in Washington state. With Seattle incubating some of the coolest, most hip brands in business, there were some heavy hitters at the table. I squeaked in because I knew the organizer. It was a heady dinner. The format was loose and easy; we shared a bit about ourselves, talked about what we wanted to do in the next year with our businesses and then answered a random question (think Table Topics, only geared 1100% towards vulnerability and business).

The whole chat started out like the Table Topics game… except much more intense! Photo from TableTopics.com.

7 Steps for Managing Change, pt. 2

May 21, 2014 Filed Under: Business Musings

This is the last part of a series on managing changes in life, whether the changes are small (adding more veggies to your diet) or large (opening up a new soapmaking business!). This is adapted from a speech I gave at a recent Leaders Engage to Exchange Ideas, or LEXI conference, in Seattle. Click here to read the first half of the speech.

4. Get buy in

Whatever transition you’re planning to make, even if it’s just the leap to cut all your hair off and go short for summer, it’s going to affect other people. And these are people you care about. And when you care about someone, you communicate. Plus, blatant self-interest means that you do want people cheering you and supporting you. And quite frankly, if you didn’t let them in on the plans ahead of time, that’s a lot less likely.

Let the people who matter in your life know about big changes.

So, if you’re starting a new business or a new work out regiment, and you’re checking out of the house a lot more, those household duties will fall more into your spouses’ and children’s laps than before. It’s important that they understand the trade-offs and what you’re actually asking of them.

If your dream is to start a soapmaking business, remember that things happens one step (or one bar of soap!) at a time.

In your case, it might be that someone needs to do the morning dog walking because you’re hitting a new Cross Fit class or you don’t have a family yet and have decided this is the perfect time to travel. Talk it over with the people that it will affect. It saves resentment, and relationships, in the end.

7 Steps for Managing Change

May 19, 2014 Filed Under: Business Musings

I recently gave a speech at a Leaders Engage to Exchange Ideas, or LEXI conference. The organization helps women become business leaders and mentors within their communities. I was honored to be a part of such a great conference, and speak alongside many strong, inspiring women.

Photo by Acclaimed Photography. See more photos from the conference on LEXI’s Facebook page.

This year’s conference theme was “Connect, Create, Innovate.” I think the things I’ve learned from navigating big changes and transitions in business thus far can also be helpful to fellow soapmakers, so I’m republishing the first half of the speech today and the second half on Wednesday. Happy soaping, everyone! =) — A.M.

Sudsing up with London Suds

May 7, 2014 Filed Under: Business Musings

There are too few male soap artists, but maybe the work of today’s soapy spotlight interview will change that. James Troia began soaping in 2013 after purchasing a $9 bar of soap that quickly fell apart. Determined to make something better, he started London Suds and hasn’t stopped soaping since. Read on to learn more about James, his soapy business, and how he has embraced social media to his advantage.

Soap Behaving Badly

January 22, 2014 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

I started my soaping adventures when I was young (ah, sweet 16), and have learned that not everything turns out perfectly the first time. Sometimes despite your best efforts during a soaping session, you’ll get batches that just don’t quite turn out right. It’s just an inherent (and disappointing!) part of soaping. I’m a firm believer in ‘practice makes perfect,’ and being persistent in mastering your technique will help you achieve what you want in your soap, consistently. While there are hundreds of soaping variables that can cause problems, one huge factor that can determine the success of your soaping session is the fragrance or essential oil you use.

All Bramble Berry Fragrance and Essential oils go through a thorough testing process to ensure they perform well in cold process soap.