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NEWS - Soap Blog
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Ramblings from the soapmaker...
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Sunday, September 16, 2007
September 15, 2007
This morning while taking
a shower, I looked at our soap rack and thought "that might be an interesting picture," so after I got out, I took
one.
A lot of times people at shows will ask me "what's your favorite soap," and I am usually
stumped. I don't have just ONE favorite, I really don't. They are different and I really like them all
(ok, I will admit, I'm not a floral fan so the gardenia and lilac have never made it into MY shower!). But I do
tend to have a lot of them in the shower at any one time, and usually use 4-5 bars during a shower, just 'cause I love
playing with the bars and making sure they still lather and smell good. Product testing, you know. : )
Anyway, here's what our soap rack in the shower looks like (there are at least 14 kinds on there!).
August 30, 2007
There are some exciting changes here! Last night I added a shopping cart
and email newsletter sign-up to the website, which should make it much easier and convenient to just order your soaps online.
I will periodically send out email news/coupons/special offers, so please sign up!
The big show in Little Falls
is coming up quickly (approximately 100,000 customers!). I'm as ready as I can be! It's a little scary
not knowing how much soap I should have, I'll be taking everything I have made so we'll see how it
goes. I just might not have any soap left after the show, but already have more curing that won't be cured
enough for the show. And I'm making more today in my big cauldron in the basement (just kidding!).
August 28, 2007
Just catching up on emails, and from a forum I belong to I ran
across this post:
The selling point of handmade soap is that it is made from good ingredients by
someone passionate about his or her craft. For me 'good' ingredients doesn't mean the most expensive ingredients,
just appropriate ingredients chosen from knowledge of the benefits and properties they bestow. This takes time to learn and
you learn through trial and error.
I
just thought that little tidbit was worth sharing!
I thank you for your orders, I really do. I wish
everyone knew the benefits of handmade soap and was willing to give it a try!
August
27, 2007
I am SO excited to say that Real.
Simple. Soap. is now traveling the world!! I sent an order to South Korea today to someone who heard about
my soaps online in a forum. How cool is that?!
I've been trying some new recipes and new scents,
and one I absolutely love is "Fall Harvest." It first reminds me of butterscotch, and then you get the rest
of the fall scents in there. It looked like butterscotch pudding as I was pouring it into the mold, and I think
it's going to be a fantastic soap.
I also played around a little with my basic recipe, adding more castor
and babassu oils to get even better lather, and a little more shea butter for better moisturizing. Commercial
soaps have the "advantage" of using detergent foaming agents, while we soapmakers learn to rely on the properties
of different oils. That's half the fun too, tweaking and trying out new recipes.
A few other scents
I've been working with are unisex scents that I'm pretty sure I'll be offering later. The one downside to
soapmaking is waiting so long for soap to be ready. When I make a small trial batch, which is typically a 4-bar size
batch, I need to wait the four weeks minimum to really try it out and see how good it is. Then I can make more, but
it's another 4-6 weeks before it's ready for sale.
Goatsmilk soap is another recent experiment. After
having customers ask me if I had goatsmilk soap and reading more and more about the benefits, I decided to give it a try.
I think that's going to become a regular offering too, at least in a few scents. The first batch has a mandarin
orange scent which is pretty subtle. It should be ready in about another 3-4 weeks.
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