Tutorials on soapmaking, bath fizzies, lotions and more
Here’s my friend and fellow Pinterest obsessor Heather, winner of Seattle Bride Magazine’s Best of 2012 for her creative and unique wedding favors, with some tips for packaging your soaps – great for craft shows, Etsy, or gift giving! -Anne-Marie
Hi! This is Heather from Heathoriginal reporting in. I am absolutely thrilled to be on the Soap Queen blog and to have this opportunity to be chatting with you about one of my favorite things…packaging!
Happy Tuesday! It’s time again for another installment of our ever popular Talk it Out Tuesday series (check out our previous posts on lip balm, preservatives, bath bombs, melt and pour, lotion and colorants). I am super excited about this week’s topic because it is all about my latest crafty obsession…nail polish! Read on to find out more about how to customize your own nail polish and all the fun nail polish-themed products that Bramble Berry carries.
How do I customize my own nail polish?
All you need is a suspending nail polish base, a nail polish bottle, nail polish mixing balls and your favorite colorants. Here’s a quick breakdown in three easy steps:
1. Make sure you are working in a well ventilated area and away from any open flames. Nail polish is extremely flammable (extremely!). Carefully pour the nail polish base into the bottles. Fill it to the shoulder of the bottle (where it bends), or just below the shoulder if adding fragrance. Then, use Bramble Berry’s tiny funnels to add your choice of micas or glitters. NOTE: the funnels do not work to fill the actual polish; it’s too thick. This is a WYSIWYG process – what you see is what you get. Remember, you can always paint a little bit on a piece of paper to make sure you’re happy with the color – or add more later.
2. Once your mica or glitter has been added, place a couple of the nail polish mixing beads into the bottle, then slip in the brush and firmly twist the cap on. You should hear the brush click right into place.
3. Shake well and apply! It really is that easy and there are so many color mixing options. [Read more…]
It’s fun to take a stroll down memory lane by looking at the archives of the Soap Queen blog (well, if you’re into soaps and crafting, that is). There are a few ways to search for posts past; if you remember the title, type it in the search bar and click “go!”. If it’s a specific type of project you’re looking for, say Melt and Pour or Soaks and Scrubs, you can click on one of the headings in the left column. If you’re looking for something by season or other key words, you can search for favorite posts by date or tag by clicking on the “Archive” tab above. Now that I’ve offered up enough ammo to keep you distracted for the rest of the week (tee hee!), let me show you what’s caught my eye recently: Honey Ale Soap! Such a great way to celebrate Octoberfest traditions by making this non-alcoholic homage to a local favorite, the micro brew. I’ve reworked this fun technique to pay homage to the *other* beery holiday of the year.
8 oz White Soap Base
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Recently Bramble Berry was contacted by artist Kim Faler with a unique request; she needed enough melt and pour soap base to create a literal wall of soap to be featured in the Mass MoCA exhibit “Invisible Cities“, where artists were called upon to re-imagine urban landscapes. Dream come true, right? We were happy to help out this first-time soap maker with her piece “Untitled (99 44/100% Pure)“, which featured Bramble Berry’s LCP White Melt and Pour Soap Base scented with White Tea and Ginger Fragrance Oil. We’re delighted that this innovative artist agreed to answer some questions and share some pictures of the final project. Psssst: the frame wall below? All soap.
Guess what day it is?! Its Make it Monday! So far on this round of cold process challenges, we’ve seen hundreds of naturally colored soaps (check out this eye candy) and some absolutely phenomenal unique tops! (Psst…Check back later today to see the winners of the most recent #uniquetops challenge!). So are you ready for this week’s challenge?
Mission (if you choose to accept it)
Simona from Bramble Berry marketing did a darling melt and pour project that turned out way too cute to not share with everyone. Thanks Simona! And check out her other guest post on Cocoa Powder (yum). Enjoy! -Anne-Marie
This soap evokes childhood memories of summer art projects. One of my favorites, a treat, was using Sun Print paper. Depending on how much paper we had, we’d spend hours collecting and doing practice arrangements – you have to be quick with the set up to achieve the “best” print. We’d run around the house and yard to gather various plants, feathers, keys and other fun and funky shaped objects. A patch of driveway would be selected and we’d layout our sheet, arranging our found objects just so on the paper. After carefully setting the glass onto the arrangement we’d anxiously watch and wait for the blue to turn to white. Then we’d run to the hose to “process” our masterpiece, watching the white turn back to blue where our objects were not.
If you have never made a layered soap before, please watch the Basic Layers episode on Soap Queen TV to brush up on the basics before tackling this project.
What You’ll Need:
Organic Clear Melt & Pour Soap Base
Shea Melt & Pour Soap Base
Non-Bleeding Teal
Activated Charcoal
Liquid Glycerin
Tangerine Essential Oil
Ylang Ylang Essential Oil
Lavender 40/42 Essential Oil
Cedarwood Essential Oil
12 bar square silicone mold
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The search for Teach Soap recipes continues. If you missed the original call to action, check out the blog post (here). We got such a wonderful response that we thought we would keep it going…like, all the time! So the next time you come up with an original and amazing recipe, email us at teachsoap(at)brambleberry(dot)com with the recipe and beautiful pictures for a chance to win a $10 coupon code to Bramble Berry and the praise and adoration of soapers for years to come (and the crowd goes wild)! No deadlines, no stress, just fun tutorials to help build the Teach Soap community! Check out the guidelines below.
Guidelines:
If your recipe is chosen, the $10 coupon plus gratitude and adoration is yours for life.
[Read more…]If you’ve been soaping for a while, you’ve probably heard the term ‘INS Number’ and if you’re like many soapers, you scratch your head, research it a bit and then keep soaping your favorite recipe. An INS number refers to a numerical value that explains or describes the properties an oil will have when reacted with sodium hydroxide to make bar soap. It relates to the degree of unsaturation and molecular weight of the oil. Full disclosure: I don’t use INS numbers. I don’t find that they relate well to a finished batch of soap and how it will be perceived by me (or anyone) in the shower. The Bramble Berry lye calculator does not include INS numbers either. That said, some soapers swear by INS numbers though so like many soaping issues (example: to gel or not to gel?) using INS numbers is a personal preference.
I’ve been making a lot of soap in the last few weeks – testing out new products, trying fun techniques, putting a different spin on color schemes and generally having a creative time in the Soap Lab. I made the soap below with Labcolors (Canary, Tangerine, Red and Berry Red) and the always delightful Pineapple Cilantro fragrance. You can tell that this was a batch that I was playing with some swirling and design techniques on. That’s the bonus of a wide, flat horizontal mold – lots of canvas to play on.
Have you ever heard the term “burping your blender?” and then wondered what that means and how it applies to soapmaking? It’s a super easy trick that I do every time I make cold process soap that helps prevent air bubbles in your CP soap. Try it on your next batch. You won’t regret “burping”. I promise!
The cold process soap pictured above is a gorgeous combination of Brown Oxide, Yellow Oxide, Ultramarine Blue, Hydrate Chrome Green and Black Oxide. It’s scented with an earthy combination of Patchouli and Spearmint. There is just one problem…those darn air bubbles! Either the trace was too thick when it was poured or (cough cough) ‘someone‘ didn’t burp their stick blender. Here’s how you burp your stick blender to avoid those pesky bubbles in your soap.
Burping: Before you turn the stick blender on to mix the oils and lye together, gently tap the stick blender on the bottom of the of your container until you see all of the air bubbles come out. Do you see that big air bubble below? You’ll be glad you didn’t whip that air into your soap when you cut the final bars.
Check out that monster air bubble surfacing!
Other Tricks: When combining my oils and lye I also like to pour the lye down the side of my stick blender. By letting the lye run down the side of the blender, you eliminate any splashes that could cause air bubbles. Kat from Otion also suggest keeping your temperatures on the lower side. She finds that super hot soap can cause the soap to bubble a little bit. Check out the lye and burping tricks in this episode of Soap Queen TV (you can fast forward to minute 3:50 to see the action). And if you have never made cold process soap, check out the series for beginners here!
How do you avoid air bubbles? Do you have any other ideas?
Quick! What were your top three best sellers for last year?
When the names of the products sprang to your mind, where did you get this information? Was it a gut “This product is SUPER popular! I’m always selling it and I can’t keep it in stock!” or was it from hard data and metrics? If it wasn’t from hard data and metrics, you could be leaving money on the table. A business best practice that a wise mentor once shared with me is that he makes all decisions on sales and production based on the previous year’s sales. He doesn’t base decisions on his gut. He doesn’t make decisions based on what he likes. Rather, he uses data to figure out what the customer wants and likes. [Read more…]
Recently on our Facebook Page, someone asked about selling their products consignment. If one person is having that question, you can bet others are. Selling consignment is often a first step to getting into a retail store. Consignment means that a store owner will take your product and instead of buying it, they will pay you for the product when they sell it. You own the product, in their shop, and are responsible for stocking the store shelves. You and the shop owner work out a deal for a percentage of the sales – generally a 70/30 or a 60/40 split with the store getting 30% or 40%. The reason that the store gets less than 50% is because you, the small business owner, are taking all the risk. First you will need a contract with the shop owner.
(1) The percentage split – Are you getting 70% of the sales price? Less?
(2) Rent or extra fees – Is there administration cost every month? Is there any rent that the owner would like you to pay for your part of the store?
(3) Theft and damage – Mistakes happen and unscrupulous people happen. Who pays for that inventory? You or the shopowner? Or, is it a split?
(4) Payment – How often are you paid?
(5) Removal – If things aren’t selling, when and how can you pick up your products?
(6) Inventory – Are you keeping track of inventory or is the store? What if there is a discrepancy?
(7) End Date – How long does this contract last? Under what circumstances can you get out of the contract?
Other things that you will want to take into account are general business questions – is this store in a good location? Will the store owner give you good placement in the store? Can you work with them on in-store promotions? Will you be proud to have your merchandise in the store?
It’s important for you to do the research into the store before you approach the shop owner. Is the store in good traffic location? Will the store owner do a good job promoting her store (and your products)? Your soap will be tied up in the store, while you still own it. It is a big risk and that’s why you are normally paid more than 50%. If you get a chance, talk to other people that are consigning in the store about how their products are being treated in the store and how their products sell through. Past experience predicts future experience.
If you’re thinking about entering into a partnership for business, read my first post on the subject here. And then, print out this handy list, grab a cup of tea and your potential partner and start a discussion. Make sure to talk about all the things on this list because how you start with a partnership agreement is more important than how you end. Are you ready? Grab that tea, get cozy and get talking! Your (possible) business partnership depends on your honesty, authenticity and thoughtful answers – both now and in the future.
(1) What products will you actually sell? Just soap? Soaps + lip balms? Soap + lip balms + more? What products do you want to sell? Who do you think your customers will be? Will you sell at craft fairs, home parties, mail order, online, just to retailers or all of the above? Which ones will you tackle first?
(2) Will you be a corporation, an LLC or a sole proprietorship? This affects you and your family should something negative happen in the business, say, a bankruptcy. Though we all go into businesses planning for the best, we also need to come up with a worst-case scenario and planning what type of business entity you’ll be is the first step to that.
(3) How will you fund the business? Who is putting in what money? Who is putting in what time? In 6 months, who will be working what hours? What about vacation time? Do you get vacation time? What happens when one partner gets married and takes 2 weeks for her honeymoon (after basically neglecting the business for the 3 months before the wedding)? Resentfulness is a burning hole that can ruin any partnership and believing that others are not working as hard as you are? That’s prime grounds for feeling resentful.
(4) If you disagree with each other, how will you settle arguments? Mediator? A family friend? Does one partner have 51% and the other 49%? Is everything a collaboration? What level of decisions need to have two people to agree on them?
(5) What will you do with the money you make? Will you pull out your profits or re-invest them? Will you take salaries? Will you be paid hourly based on how many hours you worked?
(6) How can the company be dissolved if things don’t work out? How will you value the company if one partner buys the other partner out? Or, what happens if a partner (gulp) dies or has a major health issue that takes them out of the business?
(7) Let’s get philosophical: what are you life goals? Do you have professional and personal values? What are they? What are the maxims you live by? If your personal maxim is, “The early bird gets the worm!” and your potential partner’s maxim is, “Good things come to those who wait,” there could be a major potential for trouble.
(8) Gut check. Do you trust this person? Note: hopefully you’re really drinking tea and not alcohol because if you’re drinking alcohol, you might want to check in on this question tomorrow.
(9) What is your skillset? What is their skillset? Do they compliment eachother? What about weaknesses?
Talking about your expectations for the partnership and the business is important before diving in. There is big difference between being the best of friends and having to work with each other day in and day out (and sometimes, long into the night). Just like pre-marital counseling, you need pre-partnership counseling. When you work on these things early, you’ll be able to concentrate on building the business – not working out interpersonal kinks.
