Patchouli Orange Vanilla Handmade Soap

Today I made one of my favorite scents, Patchouli Orange Vanilla! If you have not tried this combo, you MUST! I swear, it is addicting!

I used beer for some of the liquid.

 For part of the soap I used organic cocoa powder for color and ground vanilla beans for exfoliation. The soap itself will not be too dark, so the cocoa powder will provide some contrast.

 I used dark Patchouli for the blend, which darkens to soap a little.

I bought some mixing bowls at the dollar store a few weeks ago. They really come in handy, although they don't handle too much weight. I like to use them to whip body butters, or for mixing scent into liquid soap. Just be sure not to fill them to the top with heavy liquids!

I added Bentonite clay to the entire batch. That is what the dark spots are....the clay sinks down to the bottom of the pot. I stick blend the oils and clay together before adding in the lye/beer mixture.

 I sprinkled ground vanilla beans on the top for contrast. In the above picture you can see the vanilla soap swirled with the patchouli/orange soap.

The little mold is for my soap nuggets. They are perfect for sample soaps and weigh approx 1.3 ounces each. I sell sets of sample soaps in my Etsy shop.


Stay tuned for the cut soap pictures!

Cut and Curing

My apple pie soap loaf is cut and on the curing rack. They should be ready in about 3 weeks. This mold makes taller soap, so the slices are a little thinner than my other loaf.

I was just using up the extra icing, but I do like how they turned out.

The cupcakes turned out great! These will be ready in about 4 weeks.

Tips For Etsy Sellers

I just realized that my anniversary on Etsy has passed and I have been selling for 4 years now!
I thought I would share some selling tips for those that are just starting out.
1. Pictures, pictures, pictures! I can't stress to you how important this is. Your customers can't "see" or touch your prduct, so it's your job to make your product stand out. I cringe when I see my first pictures, as I think most seller do. While I don't like my first pictures, I am amazed at how I have improved at capturing what I want my buyer to see.

 

This is my Dragon's Blood soap. While I love this scent, and this soap was amazing, the picture just doesn't do it any justice.

 This soap, as a buyer, appeals to me more than the first one. It's not perfect, but I am getting better.

2. Titles. I know that "Cruising through the Summer" is more appealing to a buyer than "Lemon Lime Soap", but a customer is not going to browse for "Cruising through the Summer", so you will want to make your titles direct and to the point.

3. Descriptions. Google picks up the first few sentences of your description, so this is the time to use your main key words. You will want to use key words that google picks up. For soap, I have found that the word "natural" is far more searched than the word "handmade".

After the main description, you may want to add:

* size and shape of product

* color - will the colors vary?

* how many will the buyer receive? I always include "this listing is for ________ so that the buyer is aware of how many they will receive. I like to take pictures of several soaps together, although the listing is for just one bar.

* how will it be shipped? will it come in a box? envelope?

* include a link to your shops main page. sometimes buyers will land on your page and not know how to get back to the your shop.

I hope these tips help! I dislike long posts, so I will cut this short and return later with some more tips.

Have a great weekend!

Gardening Soap for my Garden Club

May 7th is our local garden club plant sale. The money collected from the sale is given to local schools to promote gardening skills through hands on gardening. If you are in the Webster Groves area, stop by! Every 1/2 a bar of soap will be given out to everyone shopping. I am donating 10 bars and the rest will be in my Etsy shop soon.

I think the packaging came out really cute, don't you?

Plant Sale

Spring Forward!

I don't know if it's because of all the dreary days St. Louis has had, or because of the upcoming snow storm forecast for tomorrow, but I am itching for Spring. I worked on my Spring line today and decided to play with some soap base. This soap was made with Tulip fragrance oil, but it smells more "green" to me, so I'm going to market it as a unisex (hate this term!) scent.

I colored the bars with teal mica and used clear soap for the middle. I love the contrast with the clear soap! I named the soap Spring Forward.My lip balm inventory is very low, so today I made several batches. Cola is a new scent and it smells just like Coke! I also made Cucumber Slices, Birthday Cake, Snickerdoodle, and Dark Chocolate.

I found these mugs at a local store, and immediately thought CANDLES! I made two of each: Blue = Clean Cotton, Yellow = Lemon Poppy Seed, and Pink = Peppermint Bark
All of these will be added to our new shop at Fusion, which is located in Chesterfield Mall (second floor, next to Sears), and to my Etsy shop.

Felted soaps!

I have always wanted to try felting soap, so awhile ago I took a stab at it. The process is not hard, but takes a bit of time. The soap looks HUGE before felting!
Here is the soap after a few minutes.
I love how the colors pop! I used some hot processed soap that I shaped into an egg shape. The surface of the soaps were too rough, so I felted them. I think they turned out beautifully!

Fusion by Show Me Handmade's Opening Feb 2rd!

With less than two weeks before our soft opening, we have been busy getting Fusion by Show Me Handmade ready. After many late, late, nights, it's all coming together! Above is a picture taken late Friday night. We are filling in the colors for the leaves, which is our logo.
The same logo, although smaller, is behind the cash wrap. The cash wrap, along with most of our displays came from another shop in the mall that had closed. We "obtained" all the displays, slat walls, and anything and everything else nailed down. I love the cash wrap and especially the stainless steel top!
Here we are using an overhead projector to line up the logo over the cash wrap. In the background, you can see the slat wall progression.
Not a great picture because of all the displays pushed together, but you can see the new wall colors.
Another view of the cash wrap and the slat walls to the right.
Finished logo....almost finished...!

We are still looking for partners for Fusion by Show Me Handmade! If interested, click Fusion By SMH.

Fusion by Show Me Handmade - Opening Soon in Chesterfield Mall

Just a sneak peek into our new shop! We are opening up a shop in Chesterfield Mall, located in St. Louis, MO. We just received our keys and will be very busy painting, painting, painting!
It's a huge shop! The above picture shows one of our partners, Becky, standing by some of our displays. The space is 3700 sq feet.
Here's a picture showing what the shop looks like standing at the front door. We will be hanging wood slat walls on the walls.
Here you can see the front door. The display window is behind the red curtain.
Many changes are coming and I will update pictures of our progress.
Grand opening is Feb 13/14!

I am always looking for creative ways to wrap my soap. I find it difficult to come up with wrapping that is attractive, but is also inexpensive and not time consuming. It's fun to get creative with a few soaps, but when you have to wrap lots of them, the creative part is finding a fast and cheap way to do it.
The soaps above are mine. These are round soaps that I made in a PVC pipe. They are made with beer and are geared more towards men. I wrapped the soaps with coffee filters and used a round sticker to cover where the filter gathered together.
I went browsing on Flickr and came up with some cute wrappings. Look how cute this is (above). Little bandanna's wrapped around block soap...adorable!
I love the way these soaps are wrapped. Each one comes inside a fabric bag. I like the wrapping around the bag too. I only wish I knew how to sew!
I have used these boxes, but have not wrapped my soaps. I like how each soap is wrapped in different wrapping paper. Clever!
This soap reminds me of my beer soaps. I love the color of the label and the wrapping texture!

**To find out more about these products, click on the picture.

I'm in a contest! I would love your Etsy Vote!

Time to Vote!

I've been entered into Etsy's contest!! Come see all the wonderful items for Teachers!
My Lemongrass Basil Soap Set is in the contest and I would love your vote!
*the soap has sold, but there is another one in my shop*

VOTE

I Was On The Front Page Friday!

I had so many wonderful Etsians tell me that my soap was on the front page. What an awesome coummunity Etsy is!

Fresh Cut Grass!

I had such a fun time making this soap! I was able to take some pictures along the way to show the process of making soap.
The first picture shows the beginning of melting the hard oils. I have Shea Butter and Palm Kernal Oil here.









Here's the Lye solution. It's cooling right now. What you don't see in the picture are the rubber gloves and safety goggles I am wearing.














You can see the oils are starting to melt here.















Hard oils are all melted. It doesn't take very long at all.
I have added the other oils to the pan. I have Olive Oil and Sunflower Oil here. JUST add the lye mixture to the oil mixture. You can see the change in the solution right away!












Starting to trace.


.














Ready to pour!















Here it is! All tucked away. I took this picture right before I put the lid on, covered with some newspapers and a thick blanket. I can't wait to cut it tonight!!

Cut and Sliced Lavender and Peppermint Cold Process Soap!

Cut and sliced and they smell wonderful!! Made with pure Lavender and Peppermint Essential Oils. My house smells divine!

An Awesome Etsy Seller - ImagineStudio

I was chatting with ImagineStudio the other day and admiring this picture. I couldn't take my eyes off of it! To my surprise, she offered to send me a 4x6 print of it!
I received it Saturday and I can't believe how beautiful it is in person! The colors and clarity are out of this world!! Her other work is amazing too, so be sure to stop in and be as amazed as I was!!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=10908456

Come visit ImagineStudio's shop...you won't be disappointed!

Second Batch of Soap....This Is Addicting!

Here's the batch all wrapped up! I have the soap log on top of some newspapers, since the granite can get cold, and the blanket on top.














Here's the "soap box" I made. It's a wooden box that held some matching Christmas ornaments. Makes a sturdy box. I just popped the lid on!
















Here's the soap! I lined the box with parchment paper and placed plastic wrap on top of the soap.

My First Batch Of Cold Process Soap!

I cranked out my first bath of Cold Process soap! I made my soap with olive oil, sunflower oil, palm kernal oil, and shea butter. It's scented with clean cotton...yum!
This picture is right after it was poured.










I pourerd the extra in my bumble bee mold




















This is how it looked after 20 hours.