mountainmadness

Metro with natural elements...

It took me a while to think of a description.

If you are looking for B&B, I use SweetCakes Mistletoe Kiss. It is one of my best sellers for soap at Christmas time.

Jennifer

WOW, I feel special thanks now I can really appreciate all your work on this soap!!

I LOVE IT!! I can't see the different oranges (still looks like yellow and red to me) but I sure can see some peels in there now, green and yellow for sure.

WOW, I'd love to smell that one.

Ooooh I have a small one ouncer of a citrus blend EO, maybe I should try it out with some peel in it. Did you dry the peels first?

Once again, that is some great soap, I really have enjoyed all of your soaps.

I purchased some lemons, limes and grapefruit. I peeled them and cut the peels into long strips. When they dry they will curl.

I went to the health food store first because I wanted to see if they sold them but all I could find is grated.

I used a blend of lemon, orange, yuzu and clementine oils.

Thanks again.

Jennifer

It looks like fudge to me.... How can you go wrong with something that looks like fudge?!

Great job Michi!

Graet soaps.

So do you cut your soap by-the-slice at the show or you just haven't cut and wraped them yet?

I really like the 'naked' marketing approach. I normally do cut them prior to the show and stack them up. I just wrap in white tissue paper and label with pre-printed labels that I have made.

I am doing a HUGE show in Nov. though and am trying something different to set me apart from the others that will be there. I will leave the soaps in logs and have a few cut bars on the top of the stacks. When they are purchased I will then cut and do my normal wrapping and labeling.

Thanks again for the compliments.

Okay Michi... just for you I made the Citrus Soap larger. (just click on it)

I know the pic doesn't show it very well but it is all yellow with two different shades of orange and white.

Thanks everyone for the kind comments.

To answer your questions:

1) I purchase my colorants from The Pigment Lady. If you google it you will find her.

2) I live in Fairbanks. I was born and raised here. What made you move? Is your family military?

Jennifer

I have been out of work since last week due to hernia surgery. Ouch. Now that I am up and moving I have the soap pots out again.

I am doing 5 shows this fall/winter and am getting ready for all of them.

It has been so long since I have posted pics I thought that I would show you all what I have been up to.

Thanks for looking.

Jennifer

P.S. I am not very good at posting pics so here are the names:

1) Alaskan Blueberry soap

2) Citrus Peel- made with a blend of citrus oils and grated grapefruit, lemon & lime peel.

3) Mistletoe Kiss- a BBW dupe. It is one of my favorites at Christmas.

A lot of companies will test their FO in CP soap and will note the results in the description. I know that Brambleberry, The Scent Works, SweetCakes, etc. do.

HTH.

Jennifer

whats the best thing to keep your soap in and fresh til you sale it?

Because you make M&P it differs from CP. Depending on where you live and the humidity you may need to wrap it right away to keep it from sweating.

Be prepared when you go into business.

It still amazes me the questions that you get when you are selling. You need to be fully informed on your products. A few that come to mind....

1) How long does a bar of your soap last?

2) What are the ingredients that you use?

3) Does soap go bad?

4) What do you use to color your soap?

5) Will it stain my washcloth?

6) Is this soap made from scratch?

I would suggest that you continue making, testing and reading. It is amazing all of the things that I thought that I knew when I really didn't know much at all.

Good luck.

I make a pumpkin soap with real pumpkin added at trace and use a blend of allspice EO and non-dis. vanilla as the scents. The allspice makes for the perfect pumpkin pie scent. A bonus also that it does not discolor. I have made pumpkin soap before with pumpkin FO and it turned brown...

HTH.

Jennifer

www.pvsoap.com

I am not sure what size that you want but that is the only place that I have found them.

I have often thought about this myself but I cannot do it. I have the top 10 that I always have in stock and always carry but I then do offer a lot of seasonal scents and different limited editions.

I justify this in my own mind by looking at some big companies like Bath & Body Works. They usually offer many limited edition scents just for the seasons. This keeps things new and fresh and also encourages your customers to buy because they know you may not have it the next time.

That is the way that most of my repeat customers start out the conversation when they come to see me.... "So, I came by to see what is new this week!"

I just cannot be so limited. I think part of the fun is doing something new and different so I do not get bored.

What kind of soap are you selling? MP or CP?

I found the flakes were a little more "static-y", I like pellets.

I agree with that Robin and we all know what happens when you lye is static charged... the fun begins! :undecided

You should pour your soap as a 'newbie' at first trace... Trace is when you can take a bit of the soap with a spoon or your blender and drop it on top the soap batch in the pot and it leaves an mark for a second. It is not really thick but the consistancy is changing. It is difficult to describe but I am sure that I saw some pics posted before on what 'trace' looks like.

Did you add fragrance oil and if you did, did it get instantly hard when once you started stirring it in?

It is amazing how CP works for stains. I had an unscented, uncolored bar that I found. I used it on an oil stain on one of my t-shirts from getting a little too crazy weighting out my olive oil for soap. I just wet the bar, rubbed it on the stain and threw it in the wash. It worked well. Granted, the bar that I used was my 'normal' recipe so it had good stuff in it but I think that a 90% palm or lard and 10% coconut for lather would work well.

I too think that you would be just fine with making a 'stain stick' in a push up or twist tube.

I would like to be in the know for the Vanilla Bean Noel also pretty please!

TIA.

Jennifer

My top sellers are:

1) Lemon Peel

2) Alaskan Blueberries

3) OMH

I have some others that are right up there too but the Lemon Peel out sells all of the rest....

A lot of people like cinnamon... I do a spicy blend because most cinnamon FO's or the EO are not safe on the skin.

Great job. Did you store yours in the fridge?

I made some this weekend too. Mine was the exact color as your but I made peppermint. I used a piece in the shower this weekend. The problem was I need to adjust my recipe. I think more gelatin and less liquid soap. I set mine on the shower rack and when the steam hit it, it became transparent and started dripping. The lather was great but I need to fool around with the recipe.

I infuse all of the time. I use fresh herbs, flowers, berries, etc. with no molding issues. I always infuse in olive oil. You can achieve a scent in your soap with infusing oils.

If you add dried herbs, flowers, etc. to your soap than it is just for texture and interest not scent. MOST herbs will discolor to brown when you add it dried to your soap. Keep this in mind because some look really gross- IMO.

The only fresh herb that I have used is basil. I just chop it up in small pieces.

HTH.

Jennifer

I think that you can use something nice without being expensive.

At farmer's market I just use kraft brown bags that you buy as lunch bags. (100 for around $2.00, sometimes less) I stamp all of the bags. It is very inexpensive, has a nice flat bottom on it for stacks of soap and goes with the whole market theme.

For fancy Christmas and craft shows I use kraft bags with handles. I had a roll of my logo stickers printed and use those for each bag. It really makes it more up scale. I use the stickers because they are 4" ovals and are perfect to put on my metal wash tubs that I display some of my products in.

You bags are very cute by the way....

Have you checked the shelf life on yours yet? I had gotten some when it first came out and it molded on me in less than a month - it was sooo gross lol

I read that the trick to that is using table salt. The salt will deter the mold from growing. I am just in the initial making and testing phases. I will not be selling these for quite some time.

I know that I may be strange but I always like to finish the project in my mind before I even make it...