Soap Makers Help!

[Morgaine]

I do
1 part beeswax
1 part butter (I use shea because it's what I have)
1 part oil (usually a combo of olive and almond)
with a little corn starch (about 1 tsp) to cut down on greasyness.

I'm not a huge fan of them, but do like them for my hands.

Bird Brain,That sounds like what my dragon's blood soap does. Ibet it smells good though!

Back yard buddies, what does winter solstice smell like> I'm curious. WE have to get power and water hooked up to shed, but it is there on the property

Can't wait to get he sniffies.

 

[MissPrissy]

I use beeswax, almond oil and olive oil mostly. Lanolin added is great for really dry skin.

 

[Morgaine]

Does anyone make massage oil? How much do you charge? I just made 10, 8 oz bottles of massage oil made with Almond oil, vit. E and Lavender eo. I was thinking $7 or $8 each? That's what it would cost them to get the alomond oil from the store. I have $2 worth of material in each bottle. WDYT?

I'm also making some eo perfumes and tonight I'll make my scrubs.

I'll also make 10 gift baskets to sell at the market tomorrow.

Hope everyone had a good turkey day. This was our first year to have a 'real' turkey. We bought some from our neighboor who raised them this year. Soo good!!

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Ooooh, Morgaine! "Real" turkey does sound good! I've never been so lucky! The gift baskets are a great idea. One of my favorite bath products is a natural (sisal, I think) wash cloth that I picked up at World Market. It wasn't expensive, $3 or thereabouts, but I've seen them at various bath places for upwards of $7.50 - $8 each. They also make them in hemp, which might be nice in a hippie basket with your patch soaps.

I'll stick a sample of the Winter Solstice in with your box. The soap initially discolors to a reddish color. I pulled some of the soap out before adding the fragrance to go for a red and white type theme. My son says that it looks like raw bacon.

Thanks for the lotion bar ideas, everyone. What sort of process is needed to make them? Are they ready once they solidify since there's no saponification process at work?

 

[Morgaine]

Ugg, I hate making gift baskets!!!

Well, not really, but it is one of those days were nothing goes right.

Shelly, you just melt everything together, add your fragrance and pour into the mold. They are ready to use as soon as they are solid.

I'll have to look into those, Right now I have some that have 5 bars of soap and then ones that have massage oil, shaiving soap, half sized bar, full sized bar, lotion and 2 perfumes.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Hmmmm. Just brain storming . . .

If you don't like making baskets, perhaps you could do a "Build Your Own Gift Basket" price. Stock a variety of different sized baskets and let them build them on their own. Mark up the cost of the basket then offer the other items at a bit of a discount, like you'd normally do if they bought more items. The upside to this is that they may linger longer at your booth sniffing and sampling and then can make it just the way they'd like for their recipient. I don't know if you have a World Market near you, but they do a whole business on baskets by stocking all kinds of small items and a good variety of baskets, boxes, bags, wrapping supplies, etc. to put them in. Out this way it does a HUGE business during the holidays because people love to design their own baskets. The upside to you is that you don't have to do the work plus it also eliminates people walking away from your baskets because they don't like one of the fragrances you've chosen or they want to do it for a guy and therefore wouldn't want, say, perfume in it.

 

[BirdBrain]

I like making gift baskets. This year I went to Walmart and bought plastic red bowls (4 for $1) and plan to fill them with crumpled white tissue paper. Add the soaps on top and wrap in clear celophane and tie it with a big red bow made from ribbon I bought from Costco. I will try to get a picture up of them when I get them done.

 

[Morgaine]

I think part of my problem was the shrink wrap I got at the dollor store. It sucked and was a PITA to work with. I ended up with a good day at the market, even though it was slow.

I made my sugar scrubs and I LOVE it!!!! I hope everyone who gets them for Christmas likes them too.

 

[MullersLaneFarm]

I've finally got busy after getting laid off last month.

Made up 6 batches of soap (total of 60#)

Stress Relief (with chamomile flowers and yellow swirl)
Sunflower (nice sunny yellow)
Lavender, Tea Tree and Lemongrass (green & yellow swirl)

Pachouli
Mother Earth (Patchouli, Cedar Wood, Sweet Orange, Balsam Peru)
Rose & Patchouli (pink swirl)

I don't like gift baskets ... Have made some up a few years in a row, even had 'make-your-own' available and have never sold a one.

Turkeys: Brined one of our own turkeys this year (we go to the in-laws for T-day, but this year we had our own the Saturday before). Oven Roasted it with all the trimmings. Mmmmmm, brining makes such a huge difference! I've never had turkey so moist!

Brining is easy to do: 1 cup Kosher salt to every gallon of water needed to cover the turkey. I also add a couple glugs of ACV for each gallon and picked a bunch of sage and tarragon to add to the brine along with peppercorns. Let the turkey soak 1 hour for each pound (I place the frozen bird in a large crock, with a lid). When I removed the turkey, I put it in an oven roasting bag and let it sit for a day. Before cooking, rinse the bird well, inside and out, and roast as normal.

 

[Morgaine]

Those all sound lovely Cyndi! Mother Earth especially.

Glad I'm not the only who doesn't enjoy making the gift baskets.