Soap guild 2014 Archives

Guest Post: Formulating Scrubs and Body Butters

July 1, 2014 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

Who doesn’t love a luxurious, skin-loving body butter? Butters and lotions are great because there a whole range of skin-loving ingredients to use. Want a whipped shea body butter, avocado salve or rose water lotion? You got it! This post is a wrap up from a HSCG 2014 session by Marla Bosworth, of Back Porch Soap Co. and Bath & Body University. It’s all about formulating your own luxurious butters and lotions. Happy lotion making! — A.M.

Have you ever wanted to make a luxurious body butter or sugar scrub, but weren’t sure where to begin? Marla Bosworth, of Back Porch Soap Co. and Bath & Body University, presented us with some stellar advice for making scrumptious scrubs & butters. She had her lovely daughter demonstrate the process while she explained the recipes, too!

We learned some great tips for formulating salt and sugar scrubs. For example, Marla reminded us to consider the rinse-off factor of the oils we choose to include in our recipes. Light oils rinse off much easier than a heavy oil or solid butter, and leave skin feeling soft and hydrated, whereas heavier oils will probably leave a greasy layer behind. If you do use a heavier oil (such as coconut or olive oil), blending with some lighter oils is probably a good idea.

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Guest Post: Exfoliants in Soap

June 18, 2014 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

In addition to beautiful colors and fantastic fragrances, exfoliants can add a touch of interest to soap to make it extra special. Bramble Berry carries 19 exfoliants, from Bamboo Powder to Walnut Shells. Talk about choices! Our guest blogger Jean Horn did an excllent re-cap of a Soap & Cosmetic Guild Conference session about navigating the wide world of scrubby possibilities, as well as how to choose the best exfoliants for your bars. Scrub up! — A.M.

Here’s what I saw when I walked into this session:

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Guest Post: Nailing New Trends in Nail Polish

June 16, 2014 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

In this Soap Guild 2014 recap post, guest blogger Jodi Chen walks us through the ins and outs of creating your own nail polish. The session was presented by Christina Rose, owner and creative director of KBShimmer Bath and Body. Read on to learn all about creating an awesome nail polish that will stand the test of time. — A.M.

Walking into the conference room set up for Christina Rose’s presentation on handmade nail polish was a bit like walking into a candy store. An enticing array of glitters, micas, and pigments were laid out on a table, shimmering in the light. Bottles of nail polish base sat in tidy rows, beckoning like tiny blank canvases awaiting a creative touch.

Christina brought so many fun glitters to experiment with.

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Guest Post: Testing Natural Colorants in Cold Process

June 5, 2014 Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

We’re taking today off from our normally scheduled cold process tutorial to show you this fantastically thorough recap of a session at the 2014 Soap Guild. Our guest blogger Jean Horn attended Ruth Esteves’ session on natural colorant testing in cold process. Natural colorants are a beautiful option for cold process soaping, but it’s important to know how they behave and which ones will stand the test of time. Read Jean’s excellent recap of the session, and then give natural colorants a try. — A.M.

Ruth was fighting a cold the day she presented, but she was happy to let me snap a picture of her anyway. She did an excellent job on her presentation, and she is co-owner of The Nova Studio in California.

Have you ever thought about moving toward using mostly natural colorants? Is this something your customers are asking for? If so, the information presented in this session will be extremely helpful to you.

Which natural additives will withstand the rigors of cold process? What is a natural colorant? Ruth’s presentation on testing natural colorants contained some great information addressing both of these issues.

Some natural ingredients that can add color to CP soap include plants, spices, Herbs and Botanicals, Clays, vegetables, and fruits. This Brazilian Clay Sampler from Bramble Berry is an example of the beautiful colors that clays lend to Cold Process Soap. Wow. Aren’t those soaps gorgeous?

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Guest Post: Pricing Your Products

June 2, 2014 Filed Under: Business Musings

Making soap is the fun part, but developing a pricing strategy to sell your soap is often the not-so-fun-part. Our guest blogger Dawn Cabral-Quimby came back from Soap Guild 2014 with an excellent run down on Lela Barker’s strategy on product pricing, and it’s a must-read for any soapy business owner. — A.M.

Do you have accurate product pricing? Are you accounting for your labor? Overhead? Factoring in your paper towels used? What!?

Ten years ago, Lela Barker was a broke single mother living in her parents’ spare bedroom. Today, she is the creator and CEO of Bella Lucce (an award-winning, international beauty company), the executive director of a Moroccan-based nonprofit and president of Lucky Break, a small business consulting firm serving the creative community.

Looking for more help starting a soap business? Check out the posts represented above!

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Guest Post: Soap Guild 2014 Wrap Up

June 1, 2014 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

The Handcrafted Soap & Cosmetic Guild concluded last week, and we had plenty of fantastic guest bloggers on the ground to report back on all the soapy goodness. Over the next few weeks, look for Soap Guild session recaps on everything from how to price your products to how to develop a killer body butter recipe.

To start things off, Gates Councilor of Burly Stone Soap Co. gave us his overall impression of the guild, as well as some important takeaways. He is already excited for next year! — A.M.

So after all was said & done, what did I learn? What were my takeaways from the week?

First and foremost, I’m humbled and emboldened at the same time.

I’m humbled for several reasons. I’m humbled by the level of skill, dedication & talent that I witnessed while I was at the conference. Soapers are kind enough, generous enough, and cool enough to happily share the knowledge they have. I’m humbled by the people who have been doing this for years, and have forged friendships, businesses & small empires!

Some of these great folks are absolute rock stars in the hand crafted soap world, for good reason. So thank you all for the gifts you gave me.

I’m emboldened because the folks I met are just like me. I may be behind the curve a little, but I now know that if I bust my butt & really focus, I can make Burly Stone a success.

The conference was an invaluable resource for learning, connecting, sniffing & seeing what is possible.

The 2014 conference was held in Tucson, Arizona

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Soap Guild Ticket Winners Announced

April 7, 2014 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

It’s been a little more than a week since we announced our Soap Guild Ticket Giveaway. I know everyone has been waiting patiently to see who won. With hundreds of inspiring stories to sift through, making a choice was not quick and was not easy. With the help of the Bramble Berry team, we finally reached a consensus.

We’re excited to announce Dawn of Horsin’ Around Soap as the winner of our ticket. Dawn’s commitment to volunteering in her community and her desire to help other women start small businesses is inspiring! Dawn’s soaps are bright, fun and full of color, and her packaging is elegant and professional. Take a look at some of them below:

And now… the twist no one saw coming! When we announced we had a Soap Guild ticket to give away, another soaper who couldn’t attend the conference came forward and said she wanted to give her ticket away as well. From the long list of incredible stories, the soaper chose Gates of Burly Stone Soap Co. as the recipient of her ticket. Gates and his partner Maurice make manly (some may even say “burly!”) bars of soap, and although they started making soap only 9 months ago, we all have high hopes for them. Take a look at their soaps below:

Thanks again to everyone who shared their stories with us — we wish we could have given everyone a ticket! The conference isn’t until May, but we’re already excited to hear about Dawn and Gates’ take on all the soapy workshops and presentations. Thanks again to everyone who shared their stories, and congratulations to our winners. Happy soaping!

Soap Guild Ticket Giveaway

March 27, 2014 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

The annual Handmade Soap & Cosmetics Guild Conference is completely sold out. With talks by the always-fabulous Lela Barker, Kenna Cote and keynote speaker Professor Dr. Vijai K. S. Shukla, this year is shaping up to be a great conference.

Though I was originally scheduled to talk, I have an unavoidable family conflict and will be unable to attend or speak this year. This saddens me because there are many friends I was looking forward to reconnecting with and many new things to be learned from the awesome speaker line-up.

Great news though – this means that there is one extra ticket for the Conference (clapping and cheering all around). And, that ticket can be yours.

If you would like to go to the Conference this year, just comment below for why you would like to go (in 150 words or less!) and I will pick one lucky attendee from the group of comments by next Friday, April 4. Please note that you need to provide your own airline and travel accommodations, but the Guild will pick up most of your meals while at the conference. For our guest blogger coverage of past Soap Guilds, check out the archives.

As a place to learn new techniques or perfect skills, the Soap Guild is unparalleled. These beautifully frosted cupcakes are from a session guest blogger Jean Horn attended at last year’s guild.

If you can’t go to the Soap & Cosmetics Guild Conference this year, there are a few regional gatherings that you may wish to attend. The Tennessee Soaper’s Gathering is coming up May 3 & 4. Michigan is May 10 (for information on that, email the organizer at [email protected]). Alabama is June 6 & 7 and Texas is June 13 & 14.