The Final Patchouli Orange Vanilla Soap!

The soap turned out great! The brown swirl will darken over the next few days due to the vanilla content.

I love the ground vanilla beans in the dark swirl  and on top! What do you think?

Spring Has Arrived

We are still experiencing snow in ice in the MidWest , but in my soap kitchen, Spring has arrived!

 This green and yellow soap is made with 3 different pear fragrances. The scent is light and fresh and perfect for Spring!












The swirl was to be light and airy, but as soon as I poured the fragrance oil in, the soap thickened up
and I jammed the soap into the mold. Not a bad
outcome!

 I made this soap just yesterday. When I added the coloring, I thought this soap would be bright neon pink! The soap IS very pink, but not as bright as the batter looked!
I scented this soap with fresh strawberry and iced pineapple fragrance oil







I think it came out perfect!

I will be listing the Pear soap soon, along with Cucumber Mint. Cucumber Mint which was made with real pureed organic cucumber!

Learning how to take pictures

I have wanted a new camera for several years now, and I finally received a new one for my Birthday! It has many bells and whistles, which is fun, but it means I have to learn how to use all the bells and whistles!
I tried my hand at taking pictures off the auto setting.

We went to the Americana Music Awards in Nashville last month. I took this picture inside. I obviously need more time on the camera!

This is a better picture!

I plan to use this camera for product pictures and videos for YouTube. Here are some pictures I have taken using the camera.

I love how clear the pictures are. Now I just need to work on lighting and staging!
I have been quite busy lately. I am placing my product in another St. Louis retail shop, and between filling this shop, and keeping my other retail locations stocked, along with my Etsy shop, I can't seem to catch up!
I made quite a few hot process soap batches so I could stock up on soap. When everything slows down, I will get back to making my favorite cold process soaps!

The top green soap is Eucalyptus Mint and the bottom soap is French Blend (lavender, tea tree, and clove). They don't look as pretty, but they sure smell good!

A mistake I was willing to make

Last month I had a couple contact me regarding a soap they would love to have. They asked me to make a blend of lemongrass and patchouli soap. The shop was slow, so I thought, "why not?". The contact was made on Facebook and the couple said they wanted quite a few bars, and a friend of theirs even piped in and said they wanted a few bars too.
So, I happly made the soap. I let them know they were made and I would post the listing in a week or so. The soaps were made using the hot process method, so they were available much sooner than my other soaps.
Two weeks later I posted the link to the soap. It has been two weeks now and they have not ordered the soap.
So why did the mistake (of making the soap before payment) turn out well?  The blend is amazing, and because I used the hot process method, I was able to superfat the soap with lots of extra cocoa butter! The soap smells amazing and I am going to add this blend to my soap line.
Now, I did make a mistake by making a product that was not paid for, which you should never do. But....I knew ahead of time that I may not sell the soap to the person who requested the soap, but I was willing to take the chance.
Sellers are often asked to make a product on Etsy. It happens all the time and most sellers are happy to purchase the materials, make the product, and then list the items for sale. But what if the buyer doesn't come back to purchase? Can you sell the item to someone else?
I always make sure I have the buyers money before I even start making the item.
I guess I don't always follow my own advice, but I do have a nice batch of lemongrass patchouli soap now!

Elemental Swirl

I participated on Amy Warden's soap challenge this week using the Elemental swirl I think they turned out great!
The top part is outer space and the bottom represents the earth. The soap bottom is scented with a citrus blend, and the top is scented with Watermelon.

Thanks for looking!

No Video of Beer Soap

I am trying to upload the video of cutting the beer soap, but I have not had any success. I usually load my videos onto YouTube when the soap is ready for purchase, so I will wait until then.

Schlafly Beer Soap

I haven't made a soap for men in such a long time! I have been planning this soap for about a week and today it is finally finished.

I started out with a coffee stout beer from Schlafly, and since I only had about 11 ounces, I added some strong coffee to make up the rest of the liquid needed.

 My soft oils are olive oil and castor. My hard oils are coconut, palm, shea butter, cocoa butter, and palm kernel.

My scent is essentials oils of patchouli, sandalwood, tea tree, clove, and grapefruit. It smells yummy!

 I used pringles cans for the molds. I usually use PVC pipes, but I couldn't find the lids. :(

 I lined the cans with freezer paper so they are easier to take out.

I put my goggles on and got to work!

 First I added some bentonite clay, which make great shaving soap!

 I then added my essential oils.

 It didn't take long for the soap to trace, which is what I wanted...nice and thick!

 Here are the cans full. I had some left overs so I used a heart shaped mold and this mustache mold. The soap was too thick to pour in this small mold, so I only made 3.

 Soap needs a nice warm place to saponify (turn into soap). I usually use the oven, but these won't fit. I placed the bucket of tubes inside a box and covered the box with several blankets.

I will take the soap out of the box tomorrow evening and check to see if they are ready to cut. Stay tuned!

Chatting about my new soap cutter!

I have been working on downloading videos on my blog, but they never seem to appear. I decided to try one more time and it worked....at least so far! :/

I finally purchased what soap makers affectionately call "the tank". It's a professional soap cutter and each and every soap slice is the same height, width, and most importantly, the same weight!

In this video I am cutting my carrot cake soap, which is one of my most popular soaps. It discolors to a dark brown (vanilla scents tend to darken to a dark chocolate brown) so I left some unscented soap out of the batch and colored it a bright orange.

This soap will be available soon at: https://www.abreathoffrenchair.etsy.com

Making Spring Soap

I made some soap for the Spring a few days ago and thought I would share how I did it! 

 

 The first video is where I mix my oils, lye, essential oils, and color.

I made the embed duck soaps, and balls, about a month ago. I think they look really cute!
Now you know how messy soap making is!
I'll post the cut soap and remolded duck soaps next.

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.

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

Etsy's New Coupon Code!

 I decided to try Etsy's new coupon code tonight. I've been waiting for a few days for this to become active in my shop. I'm just having a sale tonight to check it out and see how everything runs. So far so good and I've made a few sales!

Sale ends tonight (11/20) at 10PM (CT).
This is just a test to see how the coupon works, so I'll have another very soon.

Coupon code: 112010

Needle Felting Soap Bars

Felting handmade soap is fun, but needle felting handmade soap is even more fun! The wool used is very soft merino wool. I like the softness of the wool, but it's difficult to work with. You have to work carefully so the wool does not bunch up and create "folds". Each soap takes about 20 min to felt just the background.

I wrapped the stem of the flower around the back of the handmade soap bar to hide some folds I had. I think they turned out well! I have a few more bars finished and now I just need to decide what design to use.
Square soap is harder to felt, due to the corners, but you just have to be extra careful to wrap the corners and wait until the sides are firm before working on the corners.
I'm looking forward to creating needle felting soap for the holidays. I know, it's too early to think about Halloween and Christmas, but it's not too early in the handmade world.

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 - 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'm back!

I'm so sorry I've been missing in action! Life became very busy around the holiday's and I'm just coming up to the surface and taking a much needed breath.
There is so much to talk about! First, I want to share my new SOAP KITCHEN! Dh's friend put this awesome kitchen in for us. He built the wall you can see on the right, added 3 outlets, added lighting, counter, shelves, and the awesome sink! The shelves in the background were added when we built our house 8 years ago. Brad gave us the sink (3 sinks!), the counter top, and the wood to make the shelves under the counter.
Since taking these pictures, I have added a microwave, which is tucked into the back corner of the counter. I still need to add more shelves above the sink and add more shelves to the back shelves. It feels great to have everything I need in one space!