What soapy thing have you done today?
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My very first market day is over. Sales were a little disappointing but, according to other vendors, it was a pretty slow day. I did cover the cost of my table and a little more. John (my husband) is proud of me for putting myself out there and I'm happy I did.
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Congratulations Misschief!! You really got things up and running quickly and thoroughly! I'm sorry it was a slow for sales, but perhaps it made for a good practice run and you got some experience.
It may have seemed quick, lenarenee, but it really wasn't. It just seemed to come together all at once. Fellow vendors were VERY encouraging and now I know what I need and what I don't. I'm really thankful for everyone here on SMF, including you, for all the hints and tips. I'm glad you started your thread about (possibly) selling. If I can be an encouragement, I would say DO IT! What do you have to lose?
rebatching is also a great time to add essential oil scents as they won't get reacted out as much as in cp process.. same for luxury butters like cocoa and shea jojoba etc.... just try to keep under 10% as a general rule
A
amd
@Misschief I am so glad you invested in the TWH recipe. I was, honestly, on the fence about sharing that I bought the recipe. It seems crazy to pay for a recipe, but once I tried it, it went so flawlessly that it was worth the cost to support someone else's research and time. The recipe itself is just lovely to use as well. I am so excited for your soapy endeavors, and so so happy to hear that your hubby is on board. Best wishes to you, my dear!
My soapy life has not been stellar. I had another show on Saturday, it went well even though it was a low attendance event. It was so stinking hot. I don't think I have ever drank that much water in my life. The event was well advertised - I have several cousins who live in that area and they told me they have been hearing about it for months. The organizer also did "artist" spotlights on their FB and website, so I had alot of traffic from people who had seen the spotlights. My best show to-date, but still not where I'd like to be for sales. My expectations may be unrealistic. Ah well. I brought my son (16yo) to the show, he did a great job helping me setup and entering sales into Square Register for me so that I could focus on talking to people. I was able to pay him for helping me, and we got to spend some good time together so it was a win-win for both of us. Anyways, 3 shows in 7 days plus conference week at work has me completely wiped, so I'm not sure I'll get soap made (it didn't happen last week either). I have 4 batches of soap coming off the cure rack that need to get photographed, packaged and listed online. I have a few orders I need to get mailed. I also need to masterbatch oils to get soaps made and our kitchen has been so stinking hot (90 deg weather and 100 year old house without central air) I haven't gotten up the moxy to get it done. Today is cool weather so maybe tonight after the boys have left I will get that done.
Soaps that I would like to do this week:
Soap challenge entry - although I have no inspiration for this. I'm not a Sci-Fi kind of girl!
Charcoal & Tea Tree - still on the to do list
August's Soap of the Month - I think I figured out a scent and design combo that should be fun. Going to try to do a garden themed soap using CC's Dirt FO and Tomato Vine.
A few test batches of FO that @cmzaha sent me. Her sample bar of Lily of the Valley is at a month cure and no longer smells like cat pee (no offense meant, but when I first received it, that was my impression. It cured out really nicely though, so now I'm excited to try it.)
and I'm rambling... again... sorry.
I have the same problem in my kitchen in the summer. I have a south wall of glass upstairs and guess where my kitchen is. On the view side
It is actually a big open room with living room, eating area and kitchen. But HOT in the summer with afternoon sun straight on the glass. Even with roll downs outside it is hot and no air conditioning. Ever tried to air condition and open house with single pane glass. Does not happen. Can you still smell the LOV? I really don't think I can still smell it and I am getting ready to order the one you sent me.
Eucalyptus smells like cat pee to me. I hope your Dirt and Tomato Vine goes over well. If so I can send you a bottle of Tomato Vine if you end up liking it. No one liked mine and I tried that same combination although a different dirt fo
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I've been dragging my feet on this after realizing how uncomfortable I am revealing myself to others. I have a good idea of my "brand"...what I want it to portray, and what my soap means to me and it's unique in this area - perhaps too unique. It also means revealing what my soap 'isn't'....which opens me up to criticism. I found myself trying to find a way to seriously downplay the fact that I love lard soaps....anticipating negative reactions. Then there's the organic crowd, the all natural crowd...
I also can't even get a proper logo designed, I don't have the skills, I can't get the labels to line up and I don't like my "uni-label" (everything printed on a single sheet and wrapped like a cigar band) I keep waffling on the packaging as I read more and more about single use plastic and imaging those 500 sheets of shrink wrap laying in a garbage dump. I don't want to put them there, but I love the look of shrink wrap.
I have 200 bars of well cured wrapped soap with no homes, no logo. It's summer now so I have no free time to work on it.
It's really ridiculous. I'm seriously considering going "pop-up". Make a sign for my car that says "Fragrant handmade soap inside; ask me about it!"
and then keep a small stash in a box I can easily haul in and out of the car.
Zany_in_CO
Saponifier
Hee hee I actually did something like that... one of my first sales... I had a sporty Subaru Hatchback. Put soaps, a jug of water and some paper towels in the back and drove to a garage sale in an upscale neighborhood. It was the weekend before Mother's Day. I brazenly approached a couple of ladies leaving the garage sale and asked if they would like to try my handmade soaps. They did. So I popped the trunk and let them try my soaps. As they were paying for their bars other people wandered over and bought a few bars too. It was so much fun! Never did get up the chutzpah to do it again, though.
You don't need a logo per se. I don't have one. I'm still waiting for my son (and a customer who said he'd make me a logo for free) to create one for me; he's a graphic designer who's in the process of developing his own business after 15 years working for someone else. I've found a graphic on iStockphoto that I love and I've made it work for me. It's on my business cards, it's on my signage. My labels only have my business name, Mission Meadows Soapery. The only consistent thing between everything is the font.
As for lard, don't apologize. I'm not. I made a brochure that has several short "articles" about my soap, including one that says (paraphrased) "I use animal fats and I'm not apologizing". It outlines my reasons for using animal fats and I will not apologize for it. I'm keeping it out of the landfill, making something useful... and it's quite natural, really. These days "natural" is almost synonymous with "vegetarian"; I tend to disagree. We're animals, too. I'm more than happy to send you a pdf of my brochure if you'd like to read it. (And feel free to use whatever I've written.) Be proud of your product.
If you know that your product is a quality product, you have nothing to apologize for. You're confident in your product, be confident in yourself, my dear. Trust me, it isn't necessarily easy. I've never been one to put myself out there either (at my 10 year high school reunion, I had a teacher who remembered me as the kid who sat near the back of the class and never said a word all year... that's how shy I was). I know, though, that my soap is a good product. I, like you, have been making it long enough to know that my recipes are good. You may not have confidence in YOU but you have confidence in your product. And honestly? Your first market will be your hardest, only because you don't know what to expect.
As for labels, what program are you using? Message me and I can give you some pointers. (I work in the print industry.)
SoapAddict415
Well-Known Member
@amd I like your soap of the month idea. I've been wanting to revive my FB business page (& my business) but I wasn't sure where to start. A soap of the month sounds like a good idea. I've been working on a scrub bar idea that's inspired by Clyde Yoshida of Vibrant Soap. I think that's where I'll start. Thanks for the idea!
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amd
Goes to show, different strokes for different folks: my daughter and I love eucalyptus. LOV is light, but it's morphed out nice. I unwrapped the slice you sent me and put it on my cure rack so it would breathe (and taped the wrapper to the wall behind it so I would remember what it was and when it would be ready, ha). I happened to notice the date this weekend, so I mentioned to my daughter that the cat pee soap was ready. She didn't think it was the same soap. We aren't big on florals (very few make it to the personal stash collection), but this one cured to a nice clean floral. I would recommend it to people who don't like florals. People who do like florals might not like it as much. That's my takeaway of it, at least. I bought a big bottle of the Tomato Vine FO because I had a 50% off coupon, and a couple of ideas to use it with, one being the dirt FO, and the other being a strawberry FO. There is a m&p company that makes a tomato vine & strawberry soap that I think is to die for. I'll keep ya posted on my experiments with it.Can you still smell the LOV? I really don't think I can still smell it and I am getting ready to order the one you sent me.
I do my soap of the month as a subscription, so people pre-pay for 6 months. It's not a huge money maker for me, but it does give me some freedom to make what I want and try new things. Most of my customers who sign up for it, like it because it's the perfect amount of soap for a month and they don't have to remember to shop for new soap, lol.
I started tying a ribbon/bow and tag on my bar soap and then placing them in a cardboard decorative box with a layer of shredded brown paper beneath them. I used to shrink wrap but the last batch of bags i bought didnt perform well.
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TrishNZ
Well-Known Member
Shrink wrapping some new soaps for market tomorrow. Iced Pineapple Orange from soapsupplies.net and Vanilla Cedarwood from California Candle. I am really liking the VC, but have not quite decided if I smell the cedarwood in it. It is really an interesting fragrance. Also wrapping DB salt bars that are a year old and a batch of Rose Bouquet.
Lin19687
Well-Known Member
I have outside work to do but later I am hoping to nail down my wrappings.
I want to be naked... no not like that, people would die if they had to see that !
But thinking of Jute with tag on it like @msunnerstood , but Rustic, not pretty Or just naked and put in the tag when it is bagged up for sale. I have the tags, just don't want extra waste from my product.
Shrink wrap for the BB's for sure, which I am not thrilled about but I have 1000' of tube shrink.
I want to be naked... no not like that, people would die if they had to see that !
But thinking of Jute with tag on it like @msunnerstood , but Rustic, not pretty
Or just naked and put in the tag when it is bagged up for sale. I have the tags, just don't want extra waste from my product.Shrink wrap for the BB's for sure, which I am not thrilled about but I have 1000' of tube shrink.
I have outside work to do but later I am hoping to nail down my wrappings.
I want to be naked... no not like that, people would die if they had to see that !
But thinking of Jute with tag on it like @msunnerstood , but Rustic, not pretty
Shrink wrap for the BB's for sure, which I am not thrilled about but I have 1000' of tube shrink.
This is how mine look nekkid. Maybe burlap type ribbon for more of a rustic look?I have outside work to do but later I am hoping to nail down my wrappings.
I want to be naked... no not like that, people would die if they had to see that !
But thinking of Jute with tag on it like @msunnerstood , but Rustic, not pretty
Shrink wrap for the BB's for sure, which I am not thrilled about but I have 1000' of tube shrink.
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I like nekkid, too, but I don't think it's a good idea out and about due to dust, pollens, and various fingers manhandling the soaps. So I prefer to wrap in shrink wrap, then I usually add ribbons like msunderstood shows in the above photo. Sometimes I wrap in fabric instead, then add a ribbon. It really depends on circumstances at the time of the packaging.
I don't sell, but I still don't want my soaps to get dusty and so forth before I give them away as gifts, so I do want them to look nice. I have purchased roles of ribbons at some very good prices, from various places and love pulling out the box to see what I have that will complement a particular color scheme in my soaps.
I don't sell, but I still don't want my soaps to get dusty and so forth before I give them away as gifts, so I do want them to look nice. I have purchased roles of ribbons at some very good prices, from various places and love pulling out the box to see what I have that will complement a particular color scheme in my soaps.
I wrap in shrink bands. I tried the naked thing when I first started and couldn't stand peoples hands and noses all over my product. Plus they didn't travel well, they rubbed and scuffed against each other. It's certainly a personal preference. I know my customers appreciate them being mostly covered.
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