Some of these messages don't come thru to me at my email. Some do...some dont'. So sorry for the delay in return.
Thank you so much your kind comments.
I am actually
really proud of these flowers. Hearing 'oooohhhhs' from our customers in the store is wonderful but when I hear it from a group of my peers who understand what it might take to make them, well, it's different and thank you.
Chrissy, I've developed molds for them and they are put together petal by petal. The oz weight still kills me and although they are delicate looking you can pick them up and handle them.
I was carving a watermelon into a Rose for a dinner party I was having (like they do in Thailand) and then stumbled somehow to a youtube on carving soap. That was actually my inspiration....
It didn't go very well.... just when you have something that looks decent you cut too deep and a whole petal breaks off. BUT...I couldn't leave it alone so here we are.
CareBear, you remove the soap from the mold still warm. You take it out in under 2mins and shape the petals, the 'soaping' part goes very ,very quickly. Building the flower is what takes the time, but the Pansy which has to be my favourite takes under 5 mins to make. So here's the thing, because we all power produce in big batches of everything to maximize our time and inventory you think why would I spend that time making one flower when I can make a batch of 20 regular bars much quicker.
And please, this is not a solicitation to buy molds, I'm sharing what I have experienced in my store and am passing the information along. What I hear most often is "How can I make this my 'career' and quit my day job?"
Well, I've done it... and so can you.
It's all about marketing and projecting your presence in the marketplace.
Two things, no 3:
1. I sell these in the store for $18.95 each regardless of which flower it is. They buy for a special gift, to give to the Wedding party, Birthday, etc. This is a different market you are supplying, not the 'soap' buyer/user, it's the 'Gift' buyer. And they need to feel good about the amount of money they have spent on a 'gift' for that special person.
The Magnolia, Pansy, Iris, Rose, Wild Rose (the light weights) offset the time/cost of the Peony and the Dhalia which take longer to make and take more soap 3-4 oz.
My corsage boxes are .32, organza ribbon .05/yd, fragrance, colour.
Soap, I pay 1.50/lb. and you can for example make 32 Pansies easily out of a lb of mp, so 4.5 cents per flower. Very big return on investment both time and ingredients. Add in the cost of packaging/ribbon and I'm still under what a bar of cp costs me to make.
The Calla Lilies I sell from $7 - $10 depending on size and most customers take multiples. They are packaged in clear single stem rose boxes, same price as the corsage boxes. They are very profitable as well and satisfy the buyer that has many people to buy for...say wedding favours for each place setting.
2.They are fun to make, really fun, no two flowers are ever the same.
3.They stop people dead in their tracks at the tables.
(BUT, put a sign up. No one believes they are soap.)
Even if they do not buy one, you've registered something really
special that they talk about.
We have people come in and say, "we 'heard' about the
soap flowers"
There are markets that will buy this sort of 'specialty item' where they may not buy say bars of soap. Realtors need gifts for new home buyers, Spa's (this is right up their alley,and would most likely take bars along with them), High end giftware stores. I'm not suggesting you drop what you're doing but you can expand your market with a specialty item like this and increase your sales tremendously.
This is getting long, so I'll stop here.
Thank you all for your kind comments, they are truly appreciated.
Lorie
