What soapy thing have you done today?

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I cannot sell fancy soap no matter how many times I have tried. So I make all bars the same shape and size and make nice swirls. Even at Christmas I cannot sell lumps of Coal or my cute Sleigh soaps that I like to make and always end up giving away the sleighs and lumps of coal. I find simple and consistent is the best if selling in outdoor markets. Our website was another matter, we could sell my daughters fancy melt and pour soaps but she does not make them anymore

That's interesting. I thought I was the only one who admires the fancy soaps but not interested in buying one.

What is your top-selling fragrance? Not trying to steal trade secrets, just interested.
 
I keep my soap pretty simple as well. I do multi colored swirls but not much else. Don't even make high tops. I do have some imbed molds but I think I'm just going to utilize those for decorative tops on my cupcake soaps. I don't do a lot of those either but I have customers asking for them at my holiday markets so once they are gone they are gone till the next season.
 
I cannot sell fancy soap no matter how many times I have tried. So I make all bars the same shape and size and make nice swirls. Even at Christmas I cannot sell lumps of Coal or my cute Sleigh soaps that I like to make and always end up giving away the sleighs and lumps of coal. I find simple and consistent is the best if selling in outdoor markets. Our website was another matter, we could sell my daughters fancy melt and pour soaps but she does not make them anymore

Map you don’t have a website anymore?
If I buy something and find I like it I want to be able to buy the same thing again and again. So I think your approach is a good one:
 
I have not done much of late, Claire had influenza last week so I was home all week being nursemaid and entertainment director. I did get one soap done for my soap of the month club, I used Kentish Rain and Cool Water type together (I didn't have enough to do one or the other), I split the swirl layer into 2 colors and split those in half to add the white shreds then did an ITP swirl. It was a fun experiment with swirling with soap shreds.
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Home today because of a blizzard, so will be masterbatching oils and doing a desk day... along with annoying the kids :D
 
I made lip balm today for the first time. I wanted to practice before doing it with granddaughter. It's going to be a super simple project for us to do together. It took me all of 10 minutes, I think. But I didn't use enough flavor, so I am glad I did a test batch. I tried to do a mini-batch, and still ended up with 2 tubes and 2 pots. One pot is only 1/3rd full, so it wasn't too much for a first batch, but my goodness a little goes a long way!
 
Earlene: Good for you! What took ya so long?! :D I don't know if this helps or not, but I make 4 dozen at a time for my wholesale customer + 2 for my records. My recipe for 50 tubes is 284 grams. So, for one dozen, use 71 grams. I use MMS recommendations for the amount of mls of flavor oil to add per batch.
 
I took the day off today to do some researching and planning. Then, this afternoon, I made soap. I made another batch of "poop" and made my challenge soap for a challenge on the Ravelry soap making group. A few people there requested a challenge so we mods obliged.
 
I made lotion today. YAY One project down and umpteen to go. The last of my orders arrived today, -- the herbs for balms and oil infusions for soapies that I hope, hope, hope to get to tomorrow.
 
I cut the rebatch I did the other day into bars. Rather gooey; this is now a science experiment. They are yellow and not very pretty. I now have a checklist of what not to do for my next batch, which I will do when my scents arrive.
Soapmaking is a learning process. At least my ugly soap makes lather!
Sometimes the ugliest are the best soaps! I have certainly made some ugly soaps. In fact shredded up a batch of rebatch that was hideous and used it in a new batch It was an improvement but not fantastic. I just could not waste 4 oz of Patchouli EO. So we all make ugly soapies at times :eek:
 
I used my new steamer on a few soaps today (yesterday) for the first time. I guess there is a bit of a learning curve as to how to do this without burning one's fingers or spilling boiling water over the soaps! I actually ended up just washing most of them off with water and letting them air dry. I don't have any more soap with me that I can use for practice, so I will have to try again when I get back home.
 
I used my new steamer on a few soaps today (yesterday) for the first time. I guess there is a bit of a learning curve as to how to do this without burning one's fingers or spilling boiling water over the soaps! I actually ended up just washing most of them off with water and letting them air dry. I don't have any more soap with me that I can use for practice, so I will have to try again when I get back home.
I never had much luck with steaming my soaps, it took to long and to much trouble. I finally gave up worrying about ash and letting it add to the coloration on top of the soap. Fortunately I do not get to much ash, but I have a few few scents that always ash such as Lavender 40/42
 
Sometimes the ugliest are the best soaps! I have certainly made some ugly soaps. In fact shredded up a batch of rebatch that was hideous and used it in a new batch It was an improvement but not fantastic. I just could not waste 4 oz of Patchouli EO. So we all make ugly soapies at times :eek:

It's only a week old but it's pretty good soap, latherwise. It's firmed up but still has a slightly gooey center.
 
I did find lower cost insurance rates (about $140 savings) for the same coverage.

Monday I was home for a snow day, so once I unglued myself from the couch, I started to masterbatch some oils. Discovered I don't have enough lard. [insert panicked phone call to my pig farming friend who fortunately has been stashing lard for me, she arranged for one of the ladies that renders it to pick it up and I will have freshly rendered lard tonight] So instead of masterbatching complete oil recipes, I weighed out coconut oil and shea butter into gallon baggies so when I do have time to masterbatch I should only have to weigh out my liquid oils. (The ladies weigh and pre-bag my lard in bags for me, so I just have to verify the weight, and I already have my cocoa butter done.) I also dropped $200 on some new display items (Chris isn't moving very fast on building my new displays and I have a show next weekend).

Today I made an appointment with the lady opening the spa for a tour and to work out the consignment agreement. In addition to her orders for salt bars, she also wants to carry my regular bars for 25% commission. She's really pushing on me for liquid soap, but I am just not ready. I'm not comfortable with the process, I've only made it twice, so I haven't done any long-term testing on it. Liquid soap is still a "no" and she will have to accept that.

Tonight I am locking myself in my office to work on all the emails, budget work, and show apps that I have been procrastinating on. Possibly doing a test run on the new show setup as most of the things I ordered on Monday have arrived.
 
I made Easter egg soap, it is a little behind schedule but the kids in our family all will love it and I have already told my family it won't be fully cured at Easter and they are okay with still giving them to the kids and then waiting a week to use. I hope they turn out okay. Honestly I have never done anything quite like it and went a little over board with th number of colors, I used 14 different colors in 5 pounds of soap. Anyway I will take pictures in a few days when I unmold. I am thinking it will either be super cute or a total disaster. Lol.
 
I bought some sticker labels and spray on acrylic sealant coating stuff to try out on a couple of labels for lip balm. There weren't any that said 'waterproof' and I'd kind of like to avoid spray cans, but That's all there was that looked like it would work. I also plan to use the sticker labels on a few soaps I still have to label. I had a few plain Brown soap boxes with the cut-out and decided address-type labels would be a good way to go with them. That's on my agenda for the morning so I can include some soap in 2 packages I am mailing to family tomorrow.
 
I mailed two packages to my granddaughter & 2 great-granddaughters (& dad) this morning. A few bars of soap were included for the family, but not my hidden heart soap because I prefer a longer cure before sending that on. I ended up calling my granddaughter to make sure I mailed to the correct address, even though I was sure it was right, but panicked a bit when first the postal worker said they couldn't verify the address, and then when I came back here (other granddaughter's home) in checking past messages, got confused I may have sent it to the wrong address. So I called to verify as I could have had the packages intercepted and re-direct them if need-be. No, I was right and the address on the boxes is correct.

It's annoying when the USPS can't find an address in their database, but the postal workers in NY have no trouble delivering the the apartment where they live and I can find the building on Google Earth. So I am happy that those two boxes are sent. Now I can stop going overboard buying baby clothes. (hmmmm, is that going to happen?)

Second granddaughter has chosen the song and plans to create a concept drawing for our music-inspired soap challenge. We listened to several songs on our way to and from the post office, this morning, but she went with the first song she thought of yesterday when we first discussed the project. It'll be fun.
 
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