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
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