Soap Makers Help!

[Morgaine]

It goes to show, Morgaine, that when we try to rush, mistakes can happen. Both you and I learned that this week, didn't we? Didn't you say that both you and hubby were doing separate swaps this week? And, you only have 6 scents? I hope that you have enough of each!

Yeah, I should have enough soaps for this weekend. Next weekend I'll have over 300 bars that will be ready to go. I'm also going to have about 10 sampler packs ready this weekend. I have Black Raspberry Cream, Sun Ripe Raspberry, Irish Tweed, Grandma's Kitchen, Cucumber Melon, Almond, & OMH.

I just heard from the people at MiddleFaire and I am a confirmed vendor there. So that's three weekends. This will be a good test run before the big one in the spring. I've decided to not apply for the really big one in the fall. It's just too much of a gamble to me, I would be looking at $3,000 in booth fee and supplies and paying help, that's a lot of bars to have to sell to make that up.

I find the energy has a little too much of a candy note to me, kinda like Pez. I much prefer the Yuzu. Have you tied Annatto seed?​

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Quote:
I can understand why you chose not to do the other faire. You'd probably have to do close to 175 - 200 bars/day to make even a tiny profit, right? I think I recall that the bigger faire was 6 weekends, right? It's not impossible, but that would be tough to maintain over the long haul.

I can see where you'd say that about the energy. It does have a sweetness to it, but then so does the Yuzu. I like the Yuzu and it sells well, but I wish it held its scent a bit longer. Bang for the buck, the Lemon Verbena from Camden Grey is a great deal. It's strong and has been my best seller, hands down. Did I send you a sniffy of that?

I haven't yet tried Annatto seed. I know it's supposed to be toward the orange scale. Have you tried it? If so, how did it work for you?

 

[chiknwhisperer]

I 'll have to sniff that scent a little more and give you a better review of it. Right now I'm making a soap with fine pumice and I'm using Lime EO and Sandalwood FO with a little bit of Lavender EO. The house smells great! I am coloring it blue and swirling yellow. DH and I are Michigan football fans lol. I figure I shouldn't hve anything in the name that has to do with college football though. A lot of people around here are Notre Dame fans.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

That sounds cool, chiknwhisperer ! I can't wait to see the pix of that!

You know, the house smelling great is one of the benefits of soapmaking. Everyone who walks into my house comments on how good it smells. That's a good thing, because with all the soapmaking supplies all over the kitchen and dining room and with soap curing in the living room, it certainly doesn't look as good as it smells.

 

[Morgaine]

CW, That sounds like such an exotic combo! What do you think of the fine pumice? The stuff I got from Brambleberry was really fine, so fine you can't really feel it in the soap. It would make a great face scrub.

 

[Morgaine]

Shelly, how did you citrus mint soap turn out?

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Quote:
I just went outside and snapped a few pix. For the most part it turned out well. Next time I do a confetti soap, I'm going to use bigger pieces. I did a mix of swirls, squares, and shreds, It looks like a lot of the shreds and swirls disappeared. There were a ton of them! So, I wonder if they just need to be thicker.

Here's a picture:

The mint is overwhelming the citrus, so I may need to rename it.

 

[chiknwhisperer]

Quote:
My house is just as bad lol. There is soap stuff every where. Oils, wool, labels, everything hehe.

Morgaine, I think I got my pumice from Camden Grey. I like it and can certainly feel it. It gets everything off my hands and anything else I use it on

 

[Morgaine]

I love the one with the curl! How cute! The Green turned out well I think. Let the mint settle, it may mellow enough. I agree it could use more shreds though.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Thanks! There WERE a lot of shreds - about 20% of the bar was confetti. I know that's not high, but as you can see, there's not nearly 20% showing. Some bars have even less showing than this.

I got the curls idea from here:
http://www.soap-making-essentials.com/soap-curls.html

Notice how nice and thick those are!