When a lovely fragrance comes along, I can’t resist testing it in a bar soap. Many times, the fragrance doesn’t pass the smell test — see what I did there? There are three main criteria I need to satisfy: Does the scent hold after a 4-6 week cure? Does it accelerate my soap batter, making it difficult to pour into the mold? Does it discolor over the length of the cure? These are really the biggies. Cost sometimes plays a
We are past the 2024 election and I had no idea how stressed I was leading up to it. I woke up Wednesday so relieved that it was over. On to the next thing…Thanksgiving. I asked my neuroatypical son what we should have for Thanksgiving dinner. He said, “It’s not about the food, it’s about giving thanks for what we have and spending time with those we love.” I don’t think I could have put it any better than that.
I’ve had many customers and prospective customers ask if my products are “all natural.” My response is, “As natural as I can make them!” There is no legal definition for “natural,” even though most of us would believe that naturally occurring without human intervention would be a decent interpretation. I do prefer my ingredients to be virgin, organic, unrefined, except that there are reasons for me to use a refined and deodorized shea butter. The big reason for that is
I find myself apologizing every time I begin a new blog post –– mostly, because I just don’t post one very often. I’m sorry…again! Inside my head, I’m really not a slacker, there are just so many items on the to-do list. I know that’s not just me 🙂 I’m going to try updating at least a little each week about what’s going on. If you are not signed up for the newsletter, or in the Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/3034018693491669/), please do
I really should do better at updating. Been working on Christmas product line, if you can believe it. Have a few new fragrances to share, and will probably be retiring a few, too. If you’re signed up to receive my newsletter, you’ll get the discount code when I get it published 😊
Haven’t posted to the blog in a while, and figured it better to update here than send out unwanted emails. I tend to use that for sales and discount codes. If you’ve heard that there is a supply chain issue, I can assure you that is correct. There are ingredients I’ve used in the past, but cannot get now, so having to reformulate some products. At least one ingredient has more than tripled in price in the past year. Citric
With the flowers just beginning to show off their colors, and the trees sprouting brand new leaves, I always want to spend more time outside. Here in Texas, the day can warm up pretty darn fast, so the best time to enjoy the outdoors is morning. Spring anew brings forth hope and joy. The year passes quickly (even though 2020 seemed to last forever!), but I hope you pause in the busy-ness of life and take a moment to revel
I’ve got lots of products still in the curing stages and I’ve got to clear some space. Do you know what that means? I’m putting some soaps on sale (thru Oct 15), and also issuing a 20% off coupon (good thru Oct 31) for those items not on sale! So…go shopping!
If I let myself get too distracted by all that I think I need to do, I sometimes talk myself out of getting started. You know, “If I can’t get this task finished today, why even start. I’ll try again tomorrow.” I suppose the most difficult thing about being self-employed is staying motivated or disciplined about time management. I’ve just come off of a lovely weekend where I met with other soapers and bath and body product creators, and it
Every time I looked at my website, which wasn’t very often, I was dissatisfied with the overall appearance of just about everything. I didn’t like the photos I had taken. The professionally produced photos were awesome, but I had refined so much of my product line that I had been updating with phone photos. Not all of them are bad, but nearly all of them were hastily shot, not much staging at all. And I couldn’t put my finger on