Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Wedding soap preview!

Ok, so I have been a BUSY BUSY bee working these past FIVE (YES, FIVE!) days on my wedding soaps! My internet presence has been lacking lately (I guess that's a good thing since I'm on my computer 14+ hrs. a day) I feel like this has become a full-time job! I wake up, run, shower, then get into the kitchen and start cooking soaps until the wee hours of the morning! Here is a small preview (of course I'm not going to show the finished product, I don't want people to see them before the wedding! And if you think you know what it is, keep it to yourself!).

I started working on these last Wed. Below are parts 1 and 2:


I cannot show step 3 because this is when the magic happened... Below is step 4, the final step (and step 4 took me 4 days to complete! Oye, it was the most time consuming part) and voila! They are finished!!! (BTW: That's my new loaf mold in the pic. that came last week! I L-O-V-E it! It's 12" x 3" x 3.5" and it's going to make for some fun future soap projects!)


Below is another fun little soap I've been working on for the past 3 or 4 days. This one is an 8" x 8" square (shown below) that I made and it needs to be cut down into smaller pieces (which I'll do tomorrow because the STUPID Fed Ex guy who I mentioned in my last post left my supply box in the office! GRRR). Once I cut this block down, I'm going to offer these for sale on my etsy page! Did I mention it's plumeria scented? YUM.


Okie dokie, I'm gonna hit some hay now. It was a long and laborious day of soap-making and I am exhausted. ;)

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Today was like Christmas!!!

Well, almost...

I knew my soap supplies from Brambleberry were coming today via Fed Ex, so I was SUUUUPER excited all day!!! :-D I even got up and did my run earlier than I usually do so I would be able to wash up and get started with my soaping when I was done. EEEEEEEE It's just like Christmas!!!

So 3 pm came, then 4, then 5... I kept looking out the front door like a kid looking for Santa Claus and wondering, "where is the Fed Ex guy with my boxes?!? I want my boxes!" I figured he forgot about me, so I went downstairs to the office to see if he left them there and they hadn't seen him yet. GRRR! I was starting to get so frustrated! FINALLY at 5:55 he knocked on the door, left the boxes, and ran away. It was like he KNEW I was waiting for him ALL day long and he was embarrassed and didn't want to face me. By the time my boxes finally came, I lost my motivation to work on my soaps today because I was frustrated... THANKS A LOT Mr. Fed Ex guy!

These supplies today are for my wedding favors I will be making. They are going to take me DAYS to complete, possibly even a week or more so I was really hoping to get started on them today because there are multiple steps that must be completed, then the pieces need to be cut... OYE!

Anyway, Guess I'll get started on them tomorrow! I'll post some pics as I'm working on them so you can get a sneak peek of what I'm working on. I won't post the finished products though because I want them to be a surprise for the wedding guests! Since there will most likely be extras because of the way I'm making them, I will be offering them for sale on my milehighbodycare etsy page after May 23!

By the way: All large soaps are STILL 50% off on BOTH of my etsy pages! Don't let these deals get away! The links are: carecreations and milehighbodycare. Once my carecreations page closes, I'm going to offer another special on my milehighbodycare page... Stay tuned!

Please support me by becoming a fan on facebook and invite all of your friends to become fans too!

And because pictures are fun to look at, here is a picture from Nov. 13, 2009. This was my FIRST attempt at two toned soap! They were apple scented. :-)

Ciao!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Welcome to my blog - first post!!!

I suppose I should give you a little background on my soap making... Body products are things I have ALWAYS loved to buy and use, whether it is body spray, lotion, soap, shampoo, foot scrub... I think you get the picture. ;) Too many products today contain harmful chemicals in them because they are cheap to use and I wanted to try to find more "natural" body products without parabens, sulfates, urea, etc. (All those EVIL things that cause cancer and other bodily harm) Those "natural" products on the market today can get quite costly, so I decided to find a less expensive alternative...

Anyway, I am the kind of person who gets the idea to do something and then after a week or two I stop because I get bored. I guess that makes me fickle... I decided sometime last summer that I wanted to try my hands at soap making! I started researching it and realized that the costs of buying all of the tools and equipment necessary was going to cost a pretty penny. So I refrained from buying any of the tools and after about a week, the desire had subsided and the idea of soap making became a distant memory.

About a month after that initial idea to make soap, I decided I wanted to do it "for real" this time. This was in November of 2009. So I went out and bought all of the supplies I needed, bought some soap base from my FAVORITE website, Brambleberry and about a week later began my newfound hobby! I had so much fun melting the base, adding fragrance, and color to my soaps! They looked so "professional" and made my apartment smell amazing! Every day it smelled like something completely different. Needless to say, I had a newfound love of bar soap that I had never had before. (Side note: you can see most of the stuff I've made on my Flickr page, and if you like it please become a fan on facebook!)

From November until now, I've tried my hands at many different items: soap, lip balm, bath salts, and even lotion! Honestly, the lip balm I think turned out a little "sandy" and the lotion turned out a little greasy, but nonetheless it was still fun cooking these things up in my kitchen and I know with a little time and practice, I can come up with the "perfect" recipe. :)

After making my soaps for a few months, I signed up on etsy to sell them! (because who DOESN'T want handmade soaps?!?) (Side note: here is my original shop, carecreation and my current shop, milehighbodycare where ALL large soaps are currently 50% off) Needless to say, I didn't market my soaps well enough and ended up only making 4 sales since January of 2010. I started wondering: 'why wasn't I successful at selling my soaps?' and I came to the conclusion that my soaps were very plain and I didn't have the best marketing strategy. So once all of my current listings expire (which should be in the next few days), I'm going to take a little time off, regroup, and approach soap making in a different way. I've found some REALLY cool ideas in a book I bought at Hobby Lobby, my local craft store and I'm dying to try them out!

I'm going to be making soap favors for my wedding next month and I am using one of the ideas out of this book I bought. They are going to be way more work than I have been used to, but if I make them right they are going to turn out AMAZING. After these soapy wedding favors are done, I'm going to attack the etsy world by storm with a new marketing strategy and brand new, fancy soaps!

I WILL NOT FAIL the second time around. Failure is NOT an option. I can't wait for you to see the new stuff I will be offering in the next few weeks!

Thank you for stopping by and if you made it all the way to the end, you are a real trooper!

P.S. I apologize for this blog post getting so long, as you will come to see and know me, you will realize I am a REAL "chatty Cathy." hehe ;-D