Packaging Archives - Page 6 of 9

Sweets for the Sweet

April 9, 2009 Filed Under: Business Musings

I recently had an excuse to spend some time in the delightful Seattle neighborhood, Pioneer Square. In addition to a delicious little coffee house that serves drinking chocolate, Sweet Petula has their adorable retail shop in the Pioneer Square neighborhood. If you’re a bath and body products lover (or should I say ‘connoisseur’?) like I am, you’ll appreciate every inch of this charming shop. I bought a good selection of their goodies and have been enjoying them ever since.

First of all, everything in the store is merchandised absolutely with clean precision that matches the simple, classic packaging sensibility. But, as I looked closer, I got to see the magic behind the perfectly ordered shelves. Apparently, little elves do not perfectly stage and set the shelves (another fairytale story ruined for me); one hardworking Ms. Cory Smith does and wow, does she work hard.

Cory took me behind the scenes to her manufacturing (which was arranged just as precisely as her store) and impressed me with her thoughtful production practices and tidy workspace. I am pleased to say that her soaps were great in the shower and the square bath fizzy/salt cube above is a relaxing bath time treat. If you’re in Seattle, visit the shop! You’ll be amazed with the refined selection and excellent products.

The shop also sells Sweet Anthem’s perfumes. Because it was my lucky day, the enchanting perfumer Meredith was at Sweet Petula’s shop when I got there. She had a wonderful grasp of perfuming and a commanding presence when speaking about her passion for blending scents. I left with a fistful of Meredith’s goodies as well as a full bag of Sweeet Petula’s products.

Not in Seattle? Buy Sweet Petula’s goodies here or here. Check out Sweet Anthem’s shop and blog here.

New Brushes and Soap Boxes. Oh Boy!

March 24, 2009 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Shaving Brush – The old fashion shaving method is coming back! This brush lathers any shaving soap brilliantly and is gentle on the skin. Give the man in your life the smooth shave that he deserves! The diameter of the brush handle is 1 1/4 inches and the height measures 4 1/2 inches. $4.00

Blush Brush – This brush is made with real goat hair and is perfect for evenly applying rouge for that sophisticated and glowing look. The diameter of the brush handle is 3/4 of an inch and the height measures 3 3/4 inches. $5.50

Foundation Brush – DIY mineral makeup is all the rage these days. Apply your handmade foundation or bronzer with a brush that’s made with real goat hair, soft to the touch and will help you create an even skin tone or sun-kissed look. The diameter of the brush handle is 1 1/4 inches while the height measures 3 3/4 inches. $9.00

Soap Box– This soap box is a fabulous find and fits our log mold soaps perfectly. This white, one piece box is easy to put together and will hold a bar that is 3″ x 3.5″ x 1″. It’s a blank canvas for your custom label! 12 boxes for just $4.00

Have a question about this blog post? Come join us at Bramble Berry’s Facebook page and we can help you out with any of your soapy questions!

Soap Boxes Steal the Show

March 4, 2009 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

We’ve been inspired and surprised! In our latest monthly newsletter, our new soap boxes stole the show. Despite our attempt to showcase beautiful hand milled soap, the new white soap boxes took center stage.Twice as many readers clicked on the soap box blurb than any other article in the newsletter. Because they were so unexpectedly popular, we thought our blog readers would want to check them out as well.

Interested in our monthly news letter? Sign up here.

Have a question about this blog post? Come join us at Bramble Berry’s Facebook page and we can help you out with any of your soapy questions!

Vera Bradley Cards?

February 17, 2009 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

I just purchased the cutest, non-functional stationary! My staff is going to think I’m nuts because as far as I can tell, you can’t actually mail these cards in the mail. But, next time one of you gets a fun little prize box from me, you can get you’ll get one of these super cute, hand stitched cards from Bebe and Alice.

Also, this adorable postcard/card set from Saratams touched my heart because of adorable Kylie and Nicolas so I picked up a set of these little “Brothers” cards. As a bittersweet punctuation point, the purchased helped to benefit the Cora Paige Playground.

I’m excited to get these handmade cards in the mail because I am down to the last of my card drawerand have lots of thank you cards and greetings to write. For once, the cards aren’t letterpressed but they looked so fetching that I just didn’t care.

Zaja Natural Soaps

February 16, 2009 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Zestfully Ambrosial and Joyfully AromaticZaja Natural is owned and operated by Zaidat (pronounced Zaeedot) in Ohio.
She sells an extensive variety of fabulous bath and body products, including over 100 different types of Soap, Bath Cream Gelato and Natural Deodorants (just to name a few).Zaidat’s inspiration? “I believe that wonderful ingredients and creating a balance between smelling wonderful, and keeping your skin clean are an important part of life“. I couldn’t agree more!

The packaging is deceptively simple! It’s crisp and clean with a professional and artisan look. I could hardly wait to get the packaging off so I could dive in to the wonderful fragrances and sumptuous texture of the soap. Once unwrapped, I found these wonderfully swirled pieces of soap art.

The soap on the left is Zaja Natural’s best selling soap, Sands of Chergui, named after the dry and hot wind in Morocco. The other soap is their Original Musk with notes of Patchouli, Ylang Ylang and Rose. Both soaps smelled complex and fresh and performed nicely in the shower with a rich and creamy lather.

Check out her shop, Zaja Natual for more soapy goodness and inspiration. Or, to get your own pair of amazingly swirled soap art.

My Obama Soap is Here!

February 12, 2009 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Superb graphic design. Fabulous texture. Decadent luxury. Cheeky message. The Obama Soaps delivered (literally and figuratively) and I love ’em! They came fully packaged in an adorable, happy and patriotic wrapper (think red, white and blue). The soaps pack a visually effective punch with great delivery on the product itself. The soaps smell strong and have excellent lather. Overall, I give this soap a 100% approval rating.

Loving this Soapy Inspiration

February 5, 2009 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

I’m hard at work today on the projects for the Marth a Stewart Radio Show tomorrow. They’ve requested me back on as a guest to talk about Valentine’s Day Projects. We’ll be talking about the Rose Bath Fizzies (here), a new melt and pour project that I’ll be posting on Friday and the Champagne Face Mask (here). I’m dragging a bit though. It’s been an exhilarating, thrilling week with our site launch, Congressman Larsen’s visit (here) and fragrance planning (coming soon? Toasted Rice/Quinoa fragrance and an upgraded candle line that’s skin safe). I’m losing focus. So I looked for awesome handmade soaps to get me back on track today. They totally did the trick.

Sagegold Soaps

“Sagegold’s hand-crafted soaps are a product you will enjoy using every day, as well as a gift you can be proud to give to friends and family”. I agree! The soaps are mouth wateringand the layers are technically superb.Lori Nova will be at Otion this summer for the Soap Weekend Intensive and I’m hoping to convince her to do her layering and swirling class so I can really perfect my layering techniques.

Mimosa Hand Made Soap – Not just for Sunday Brunch!

Dress Green LLC
“Dress Green is dedicated to the care of all skin types wanting to enhance their natural beauty.” If you are a Bellingham local, visit the Handmade Life in Fairhaven at 910 Harris Ave. or online at www.TheHandmadeLife.com.

Your Morning Cup of Coffee Exfoliating Soap with Olive Oil and Cocoa Butter
(Could this get any better? Yum! It’s ideal for the great Pacific Northwest, home of Starbucks and the $4 latte)

PureHeart Elegant Soaps
Shari is the Creator of PureHeart Soaps. She uses natural pigments, essential oils and her creative genes from her Mother to create her magnificent soaps.
Visit Shari’s website www.pureheartsoap.com.Barnyard Soaps (Way too cute! And, speaking from experience, I know how difficult it is to do melt and pour dioramas. These are superb.)

Mountain Madness Soap Co.
Since 2005, Jennifer has owned and operated this fabulous soap company. I appreciate her green living philosophy, her use of bright colors and unique ideas. Every bar starts with 60% unrefined olive oil, organic palm and coconut oil and the rest is pure inspiration.

Power to the Peeps Gourmet Soap
(These chicks make me ready for Spring and the yummy marshemallow Peeps that come with the turning of the season.)

c&B Co. Handmade Savons
Their soaps and body product look divine and their labeling is professional and eye catching. Jed is the owner of the company and says “Our Cranberry Almond smells freakin’ awesome. It’s sweet, spicy and exfoliating.” This made me laugh and instantly crave a Cranberry Almond bar.

Cranberry Almond

I hope these soapy inspirations get you pepped up and inspired for your own stellar creations.

Tweet that you’re reading this post by clickinghere and share these finds with everyone.

The Fine Art of Packaging

January 24, 2009 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

The White Aisle is a small stationary company out of New Hamshire that resembles all that is classy and beautiful. These are my purchases that I absolutely could not resist this last summer. As I pulled out my last ‘thank you’ card (sniff sniff), I took a moment to reflect on the exquisite packaging and the implied value it creates.

Golden Nugget Bath Crystals

I tried to resist these cute little button soaps but to no avail (I need no more soap, probably for an entire lifetime). Notice the tiny button on the ribbon matches the soaps. I love the extra attention to detail.

My staff roll their eyes every time I buy more cards (see another card splurge here). They “forbid” me to by more cards until I use what I have (which is a glorious drawer full). They did give me grief for this purchase but, I just couldn’t help myself. You all know I’m sucker for good design! And, the cards are all gone now … so, I’ll definitely be needing more!

Elegant Boh Bon Soap Company

December 23, 2008 Filed Under: Business Musings

Colette in Customer Service found a soap site a few months ago. She immediately came to my desk, eyes all big, practically begging for me to buy some of their goodies so she could see them in person. I’m a sucker for simple, elegant packaging and handcrafted products so I wasn’t too hard for Colette to sell. Boh Bon Soap Company has an adorable web site, beautifully crafted products and inspiring design. I love the story about how they got their name. It’s always good to pay homage to those that have influenced and encouraged you.

I purchased lots of goodies from Boh Bon Soap – their “Fresh Squeezed Citrus” pack (which had a bar of Citrus Soap, one bottle of bath salts, and one soy candle in a tin). I also purchased the “In Bloom” gift box with 4 bath tea bags. And, since soap is my passion, I couldn’t resist just one more bar – their Pink Grapefruit Ylang Ylang Shave Soap.

The packaging of these products is simple but clever. They use standard white take out containers for gift boxes and corrugated cardboard to wrap their soap in. It all looks fabulous because of the well thought-out, colorful matching labels.

In the photo above, the basic white takeout box was dressed up with a plain kraft round label, ta cool printed grosgrain ribbon and finally the professionally printed label. You can’t really tell but the “Fresh Squeezed Citrus Relax Pack” part of the label was actually printed on a clear label and stuck on top of the Orange label. This is a really smart thing to do. This way they can have thousands of orange labels printed to save money and they can use them to label any of their products. Being a small business means thinking about the cost of everything, even something as “small” as your labels. The overall look and feel of the entire brand is a well organized and strategically bright which dovetails nicely with the superior products inside of the clever packaging.

Thus far, my favorite part of the entire box of goodies I purchased is the candle that came in the “Fresh Squeezed Citrus” pack. It is a tiny little travel candle but it really packs a serious smell punch. And, of course, it’s packaged well which only adds to the delight. I wouldn’t hestitate to buy more goodies from Boh Bon Soap Company.

TAS Soap or "Spare No Expense" Soap

December 17, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

I recently received some TAS soaps in the mail. They were so gorgeously wrapped that I hated to unwrap them to photograph them. On the inside of each handmade paper wrapping, there was an extra special touch of wax paper to protect the soap from any scent loss or color bleed due to the fragile nature of the handmade paper. Teresa, the owner of TAS, has a very artistic approach to soapmaking. She was a textile artist in her “previous life” and focused on museum-quality tapestries. Her attention to detail with her packaging shows her love for art and beautiful things.

Teresa has been soaping since 2001 but has a much longer history with soap. Her Mother actually made soap in a big black kettle with tallow that she rendered herself. Teresa says, “It’s in my DNA.” When she started soaping, her philosphy was to “spare no expense.” She thought to herself, “How much can I pack into this bar of soap so that it has the optiumum quality, luxury, look and feel?” With ingredients like yogurt, coconut cream, rhassoul clay, beeswax, aloe vera and even champagne, Teresa has set about to make each soap a unique and nourishing art form. It took her many years of “pushing the envelope” to figure out ideal recipes that incorporated all of her exotic ingredients and wonderful essential oil blends.

TAS square-ish shape was originally inspired by a square shaped cookie cutter that Teresa found. She refined the shape, little by little, from there, eventually coming up with two sizes of bars (4 and 6 ounce) that retail from $7 to $9 from the TAS site here. Some of the stores that sell TAS soap sell it for as much as $12 per bar. With the beautiful handmade paper and exquisite designs in each bar of soap, her soaps sell very well in upscale boutiques. Teresa is actually looking for a few more boutiques to sell her product so if you have a store that is interested, you can contact her here.

Teresa hand wraps and hand stamps her soap bars and calls it a “labor of love.” Her philosophy on running her own business is that “Ya’ gotta have fun, ya’ gotta have balance and ya’ gotta have it within the paramters of your health and well being.”

TAS has a soap of the month club as well. Click here to check that out. It’s a great gift for anyone that will be sure to delight and impress, all year round.

Grumpy Girl Candle & Bath Company

November 25, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Seems like everyone is singing the praises of Grumpy Girl these days. And after I received my purchase from their shop, I can see why! In addition to the gorgeously packaged products, they sent free samples and a really sweet thank-you card. They have an online shop (free shipping this Friday!) and a very popular shop on Etsy.

Their Cuppy Cake Bath Bombs are packaged so well that they really do look like the picture on their website when you get them! Ours was scented with their Booty Call blend – an intoxicating blend of almond, honey & brown sugar. Her frosting skills are definitely better than mine.

These totally fascinating soap slices are part of their Cranky Kid line. Everyone I showed this bar to was totally entranced. You can help but to look at it from every angle trying to figure out how it’s done. I like the creativity; it’s a nice take on the “fish in a bag” approach that has been popular for a few years.

This bar was scented with their appropriately named Acid Trip fragrance blend – a mix of Patchouli, Orange and Lemongrass. The talent to do a swirl like this takes my breath away. Working with so many colors, and such a thin trace … wow. The soap is a true work of art.

If you’re looking for a gift that won’t disappoint this Christmas, you can’t go wrong with Grumpy Girl Candle and Bath Company.

Free Label Designs

November 21, 2008 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

Hope I don’t sound like a broken record but I just want to makes sure and share these fabulous and free label designs. And I while I’m at it, I’ll list the other free labels designs we’ve offered too – so they can all be found in one convenient place!

To use these files we designed them to be printed onto our full sheet water resistant labels. But you can use any label that is a full 8 1/2 x 11 size. Alternatively you can just print them onto the paper stock of your choice and glue or tape them onto your bottles and soaps.

First I’ll start with the labels above that were created for our Christmas project series:
Christmas Forest Labels
Fresh Snow Labels
Cranberry Fig Labels
Cinnamon Sugar Labels

For our Mother’s Day projects, we made
Rose Amore labels

For our body powder projects we made labels that fit the Bramble Berry white plastic powder shakers. Powder labels here.

I hope this makes your Christmas and Holiday projects look even more snazzy and professional.

Sushi Soap Art

November 21, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Isn’t this Sushi Soap made by Teresa at The Two Tadpoles clever? I squealed with delight when I got her creative care package in the mail. Everything is soap, even the Wasabi! She packages up everything smartly, with a finishing touch of chopsticks on top. For $20, you could have your own Sushi Soap set.

Teresa shows more details of the soap and how she packaged the set on her other blog Demeter’s Dance.

Gift season is almost here. This would be the perfect present for the Sushi Fan in your life.

Where the Soap & the Bath Fizzies Play

November 17, 2008 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

My most recent soap purchase was from Panhandle Girl. I chose them based on their cheeky website and crafty product names. When the package got here, it did not disappoint. I can’t get over how put-together their packaging is. Of course, their products are pretty swell too! Given that they promise “fiercely fabulous products” on their site, I wasn’t surprised.

I purchased the Take-Out To Go-Go gift set with 3 bars of soap – my choices were Cowboy Love, Cowgirl Love and Hot Tamale along with a bar of the Mermaid Power Ginger-Lime soap and jar of the Bettie Spice Body Creme. And of course a Queen Bee lip balm (how can I pass up anything with Queen in the name?)

I love the creative use of the take out containers as well as the adorable logo! When Panhandle Girl confirmed by order via email, the email they sent was laid out perfectly, with matching branding and colors. It put the Bramble Berry shopping confirmation email to shame (hanging head. I vow to change this in the new year. Thanks for the kick in the patootie, Panhandle Girl).

I’m using the Cowboy Love Patchouli soap in my shower right now. It smells very strong and cleans with large bubbles. Every Cowboy and Cowgirl, even if you’re not home, home on the range, should check out Panhandle Girl. You’ll love their well made, unique, retro-glamtasticly hot products.