Pink Sugar Cupcake Soap

Today I am busy soaping for a Christmas order.  I have the privilege of knowing such a wonderfully sweet lady at the VA (Veterans Administration), her name is Jackie.  She has been my nurse for 3 years now.  She wanted some various soaps for her family for Christmas.  And the thing I love about Jackie is she embraces the cupcake soaps. 

I have gotten so many mixed response from people when they first encounter a cupcake soap.  They don't see past the shape and form.  I keep letting potential customers know all you have to do is cut the cupcake in half vertically and have two soap halves.  But I guess they still can't get past the shape.  There is an explosion of cupcake soaps everywhere on the internet.  And I feel if you have not tried at least one, not only are you missing out on a fun soap, but it really does work very well in your hand. 


FYI for those who do not know, you place the outside of the cupcake in your palm, and the flat cut side is what you use against the skin.  There is nothing hard with this shape.  What is hard is getting people (mostly those who don't fair well to new things) to try them.  My online customers understand this fad, and they love buying them.

In fact it does feel better to hold than a bulky bar of soap.  Since we soap makers do make all kinds of shapes and sizes.  Cupcake soaps are not any different to use.

I am posting all my new soaps as I go along.  I just unmolded the Pink Sugar Cupcake soap.  Here is a few photo's while still in the box and curing ( I took this photo right after they were made).  Cupcake liners are still on during photo.

The colors will be a very rich dark brown with pink staying this color.

Just another view.  These turned out pretty nice I just can't wait for the dark brown to finally get here!! 

I plan to use my resources here too and put them on facebook, on a local page for our town.  I would like to introduce the soap to the folks in my community.  I think the young ladies will like them, and hopefully I can get some feedback as to what scents they like so that I can get a feel for the potential customers in my town. 

With making handmade soap it is an on going part (of our job), to educate people about how much handmade soap is so much better than the soap they buy or the body wash they buy in the store.  If you buy a "body wash" due to the smell or scent alone, then your driven by a scent you like.  The manufactureres cannot possibly do as many scents as your local soap maker can and will do.  And with the opportunity to make bath and body products you might be surprised that you can get just about any scent that you love and not settle for what is already out there. 

Now I was a big Bath and Body Works lover too.  But I got tired of paying their prices.  Sure they can run some really good sales, but when items don't move out as quickly you will see specials going on.  Or they will discontinue a certain scent.  Much to your surprise we soap makers can still get the duplication of oils and continue where they left off.   So you don't have to give up a scent you love.  

The only thing I do not like about Bath and Body Works is a lack of soap choice, they sell only glycerin soap.  I am not a glycerin soap user and will always lean towards Cold Process hand made soap.  But that is my opinion.  I can make glycerin soap but find no challenge in it, for me.  I see other soap makers and this is their soap making method and they make beautiful soap, but I personally don't do this type of soap.  Not bashing anyone who makes soap, we all have our own way of doing things.   

So now back to why I wrote this little blog, first is to say Thank You to Jackie and she is such a sweet loving spirit.  I am so glad I know her, she makes me smile.  She is the type of person to me, like someone I've always known.  We all get this from certain people so I am sure you can relate to this comment. 

And for those ladies who got to this blog (from our local facebook community page), if you have any questions please email me I can answer any questions you may have.  I will be doing many craft fairs in 2013 and I will have my new website up and running by the Spring of 2013.  There is so many fun things coming besides soap.  Feel free to follow my blog by subscribing.  I can do special orders, wedding favors, baby shower favors, fun soaps for kids, etc...

Well it is time to move to the next soaping adventure.  Just wanted to give a little talk about Cupcake soaps.  Until next time....

New Fragrances to drool over :)

Hi Everyone,

I am just killing some time while I wait on laundry (most women know how that is) LOL.  So I thought I would just make a post during my waiting time.

I would have to say by now after years of making soap that I come to realize I am such a fragrance oil junkie that I really think I could fall into that category of being addicted.  I hope there is never some kind of support group out there because I must admit I will not attend.  What would they call it?  FOAL?  Fragrance Oil Addicted Looser's?  Maybe: For Our Addicted Life?  Who knows but I certainly hope this never happens.

I recently participated in the Black Friday (2013) Sales and Specials of some great suppliers.  I have to admit that I did partake in some awesome deals.  So please take a look at the photos I provide and you might be able to see some great fragrances:

I bought from a company called Aztec.  I have bought fragrances from them over the years.  I've gotten some great close out  fragrances too that are either not made anymore or is listed as hard to find.  But I bought 23 new fragrances that I always wanted to try.  I guess it takes a good sale to motivate me.  But I accomplished my goals.  I really can't wait to soap these and do a one pound test batch and see how they perform.  I have found several in this batch I will definitely go back and order bigger bottles.  Anything "OAK" is awesome, so is any Moss scents I have bought.  I mean really awesome.

 Lets begin the review...

I have been wanting to expand my fragrances to gear towards more Unisex and also for the Men.

I tend to be more creative when it comes to women's scents and offering a "pretty soap", but sometimes I have a soaping block when it comes to a man's design.  Wonder why?  Who knows but I will attempt to find out my problem as I go through these scents and make up test batches to see how they perform.  I never trust what the suppliers list when it comes to how a fragrance performs since we all have our own recipes on our soap, and this is a major factor too.  But a general idea is very good to know.  I am very interested in the:

Kentucky Bourbon how awesome is this?  I mean from the bottle it's a wonderful scent so I hope it does well.  I think Men will like this scent.  Won't know until it's offered for sale?

I am a lover of Sandalwood and Patchouli earthy scents.  So I ordered the 

Sandalwood (cost revised) to see how this will soap.  Just a nice Unisex scent.  I am pretty picky about my Sandalwood so I am not sure how I will like this one.  Out of the bottle smell it's not exactly what I am looking for but then again it might turn out to be a nice scent.  

Autumn Leaves out of the bottle smells nice not sure if I would say it's in your face "autumn" scent but again I will have to soap this to find out?

Leather is an OMG scent.  Love it from the bottle so I am certain this will do well in soap.

Bamboo a nice clean scent with green notes.  This one will be very nice.  Happy with it so far.

Cool Water (type)  I've never smelled the "real" Cool Water but if it is like my sample sizes I am in love!!  It is a wonderful scent.  Happy Dance!!

Fresh Cut Grass well I did buy this fragrance from another supplier a while back and right out of the bottle it is kind of not so grassy, but I made soap and man this was a good one.  I still have some of this fragrance from the other supplier and will offer it closer to Spring I am debating to just go ahead and make some since now that it is winter, people might be longing for some Clean Spring scents.  But the Fresh Cut Grass from Aztec well the two scents don't compare that much, so I will have to wait and see.  I do know the fragrance from the other supplier once the scent cured it was amazing so maybe this one from Aztec will do the same. Time will tell??

Aloe & Green Clover another  clean fresh scent with a little of the green notes to it.  I have another Aloe scent called Juniper Aloe that is Amazing and I will keep that one in stock truly A M A Z I N G!!

Oak for Men a BBW (type) out of the bottle a very nice scent very clean.  I will be curious to get this one made.

Harvest well it has a pronounced scent of cinnamon in it.  To say it smells like an Autumn scent I am not sure on this one.  It smells nice and I only bought one bottle to try.  I am very very picky about my "fall" scents and they have to be amazing for me to keep them in stock for that time of year.  I will see how this one performs and go from there?

Frankincense & Myrrh a great to have scent for any time not just Christmas time.  It has a light clean scent and I made soy wax tarts with it earlier this year and I was impressed.

Sea Minerals WOW a very nice clean and ozone scent.  I love water scents too.  I think they are so refreshing and clean so this one I will certainly be curious to soap.

 Tobacco is a scent I've always wanted to try.  I am so grateful for the Black Friday sale and I was able to buy a few bottles of this.  It is a wonderful scent believe it or not.  Kind of woodsy earthy but very smooth.  I would recommend this scent any day.

Japanese Cherry Blossom is my all time favorite that Bath & Body works has ever done.  I have bought this from another supplier and it was amazing.  But from Aztec out of the bottle smell it's not so pronounced as my previous fragrance.  So I am a little iffy on this.  But please remember out of the bottle scents can really change drastically when soaped.  So maybe it will be a very nice one I will just have to wait and see.  Okay I have to admit something I am actually opening the bottles as I describe them and I got this one on my nose. So I am breathing in the Japanese Cherry Blossom as I speak, it does smell great.  SO please note I am changing my mind here this one might do just as well as the other one.

Oud Wood is hard to describe slightly very slightly on the earthy side, woodsy of course.  I would say this one too I will be excited to make into soap.  I've heard of this scent for a while now and I am so glad I did take the plunge to buy 2 bottles.  Just clean and manly.

Water Moss this leans towards another clean scent.  I really like this one too.  So again I will be excited to soap this fragrance.  I am just so glad I kept the men in mind when I bought new fragrances.  So I hope to offer a great variety of scents for the men.

Stress Relief definitely a spa scent for sure.  Just clean and uplifting.  This one will make a wonderful Unisex scent.  I have several "spa" type of scents so this one will be a nice scent to offer.

Bedtime Bath (J&J type) I have never tried this scent and I think it's lovely.  Refreshing and hypnotic in it's own right so yes this one is exciting to make soap with.

Brown Sugar & Fig  another (B&B Works type) which is spectacular and I now wonder why I waited so long to try this one.  I mean just about every soap makers has done this scent over the past few years.  And they are right its amazing.  So again I can't wait to try this one out.

Cucumber Melon is another one of those scents everyone has done.  I think it's a clean and refreshing scent and a main staple for many soap makers.  I have to admit due to the past few years so many soap makers have done this scent I just kind of stayed away.  It seemed a little redundant if you will.  But for me it's all new and I have not used this one.  I know what the Bath and Body Works scent smells like and yes it's definitely a great one.  Again this one is new to me so I hope to do well with this one.

Warm Vanilla Sugar is another of my ultimate favorites from Bath and Body Works.  I love love love this scent.  I've done this scent in Soy Wax Tarts but never in soap.  This one is a dead on dupe and I am very excited to try this.  Such a comfort scent in my opinion.

Oak Moss  O M G this one is heavenly.  Take my word on this one.  Happy Dance to the infinite power.
I am soaping this one today not to delay this one is to stay!!  Goofy okay I know but I love this scent and consider this a Unisex scent.  I received a sample from another supplier and I fell in love with this scent.  So I just now compared the two scents to see the difference and I would have to say the one I purchased from Aztec is super duper Golly Gee Good.  I think I will use the one from Aztec and just keep the other one until I find a way to use it, maybe in Soy Wax Tarts, but again not to say that this sample is not good it's just not as rich as the Aztec brand.

Cactus & Sea Salt is another type of Water scent in my opinion this too is like a nice ozone scent.  I think this is a very nice scent to try and I am glad I decided to buy this one too.  Water scents to me are refreshing and clean and airy if that makes sense?

These next sample bottles were not on a holiday sale I just made the purchase due to one particular fragrance oil I have found I cannot live without.  So while on the website I decided to go ahead and buy a few samples to try out.


Bergamot Tobacco a little more on the citrus line of scents I cannot detect the tobacco but I am willing to admit I would have to soap this one to figure it all out on if it is a keep or not?  No bad thoughts so far just a curious thought as to how well it will do and the final smell will be.

Bella is another one of those scents that soap makers have done a lot of in the past.  So I have to admit this is a nice sweet lightly scented oil and I hope that the scent will eventually come out in the soap and not stay on the light side.  But again we cannot do anything about this on how strong a fragrance will be only time will tell.  Crossing my fingers!  But again this is a nice nice scent.

Gaia O M G  A M A Z I N G  what does Gaia mean?  Earth or literally D I R T.  This is a dead on scent of dirt if I ever smelled it.  Now I am sure most people will say why in the heck would you want a soap to smell like dirt.  Simple it's amazing for one.  And I have a few years of Greenhouse work behind me and it just reminds me when I would stand at this table and dump a big bag of potting soil into the work table and fill my pots or flats with dirt.  It's really a soothing scent if you can believe that.  It's like working the dirt in your garden and any gardener knows this smell.  It's earthy and it's also one I chose for the Men's line.  It's stated is makes a nice hunting soap for men.  As any aromatherapy scent can bring you back to a time just from the smell, this Gaia does it  for me since I love working in the dirt and I loved my time spent at the greenhouse it was a wonderful job, no pressures, and just a relaxing job that I had.  Not to say it wasn't back breaking work it is sorry to say, but if you love plants and gardening this scent if wonderful.

Rowan is different kind of on the sweet side.  I believe this one too will make a great Unisex scent.  I am not posting any descriptions from the suppliers at this time just my first impression.  As I go along and make my test batches of soap I will include the fragrance oil description and photo's of the soap I made.  For now I am just giving first impressions of what my new samples smell like and just some general thoughts of my choices.  But Rowan is a nice scent.  I am still on the fence on this one.  I mean most of my choices I've listed above I see myself ordering a larger bottle but Rowan I will have to wait and see not sure if it will be on the list or not.  I do like it but I need to smell it in the soap to make a decision.

Suede is the bottle that is up front in the photo as you can see this one has about 1/4" of fragrance oil in the bottle.  There were no leaks at all the supplier just forgot to fill the bottle up.  You would think they would have noticed this, but as you can see they did not give it another thought.  The plus side is I emailed the company my pictures of this and she is sending me a new bottle out as we speak.  I do like this scent not my top ten but it will in my opinion be a great one for men.  I will have to decide if it does well if I will keep it around, but yes from the smell in the bottle I do like this.  Haven't seen too many soap makers use this fragrance so I am excited to see how this one does in my shop.

Patchouli Passion  I love Patchouli I know this is an strong earthy scent and most people either love it or hate it there is no in between on this scent.  I am going out on a limb here and just say that the Patchouli does not show up strong at all.  I am getting somewhat of a citrus scent in it, maybe hence the "passion" in the name. So if your a Patchouli hater this one won't be a problem.  This is certainly a mix of scents and as I said I really don't detect patchouli that much.  Have to wait to soap this one to see what it does?

Autumn Embers  This one is not a sweet Autumn scent that I like, it's more of a piney scent and I think this one will be a great choice as a Christmas scent and a men's scent.  I would definitely buy this one as a Christmas scent next year.  It's clean with pine but not a bold pine.  Men might appreciate this one more I think my husband would like this one.

Ancient Incense   O M G   I think this one is earthy but not on the strong side and a little on the incense side if that makes any sense.  I do believe this one after I soap it and it retains that wonderful scent I will buy a larger bottle.  I really like this one.  I think of course this one is also a Unisex scent.  But I do feel Men will love this one.

Barn Wood this is a wonderful rich aroma it's kind of woodsy sweet.  I am sure the description for this is not going to say that, but to me its a rich fresh and slightly woodsy scent.  I did order an 8 oz bottle of this since I always wanted to try this one.  It's Unisex in my opinion and I like to have a variety of these scents to offer. So if this one does well it will last me a while and I can offer this one throughout the year.  I don't have a photo of this bottle to show.

Well this is my review for now.  I think I made some wonderful choices.  I can't wait to do another sale when the time comes from Aztec since I had to really limit the amount I could buy.  They gave us a 50 bottle limit. So I had to keep within that limit.  They have some others that  I want to try and hopefully I will get to.  I've heard  they have a 4th of July sale which I know is a long way off from now, but I can purchase my Fall and Winter scents then and at Christmas do another Spring and Summer buy.  Sounds good to me.

Again just to mention I will do the one pound batches of soap and see how these do.  I will offer my bars on my website as I go along and also post another review on these fragrances. I think I've found some amazing scents that are exciting to offer my customers.  So with saying this I need to stop and go wash off my nose.

I have so many scents on the tip of my nose I am smelling some good stuff here.  Combined with all the scents I've smelled I would have to say the air around here is a nice aroma. I hope this helps if you are reading this post and decide to try any of these scents.  I hope you stay tuned for the follow post on the test batches.  Again ask any questions you may have.

Have a great day!!  Thanks for stopping by!!
Debby

Making Soap Balls for Loaf Soap

Wow  I stumbled across an interesting thing or discovery recently.  I always try to do at least one trial run on a new fragrance that I am interested in using.  My never ending quest to find new and interesting fragrances. 
I ordered a one ounce size of this fragrance oil.  I made a one pound batch of soap.  I poured the soap into my little individual bar soap mold.  Everything went smoothly could not have asked for a better soap batch.
Love the scent will purchase more closer to spring time.

I placed the soap bars in my container lined with wax paper for the cure time.  I wanted to see if this particular fragrance would change the color in the soap.  About 2 1/2 weeks later no change was found.  I will say too for anyone who recognizes this individual soap bar mold, just know I never have luck with my bars coming out clean.  I always find that soap will stick and cause dents, dimples, whatever the word is.  So I don't care for this mold for this reason.  I did use some Sodium Lactate since I thought it would help with a harder bar.  The mold is okay to use if I am doing a trial run.  

Here is what I discovered.  I was half way through the cure time.  The soap actually was still somewhat pliable and not on it's way being rock hard.  So as I said earlier I was not happy with this soap in terms of not being in perfect condition coming out of the mold.  I decided to make some soap balls for a batch of soap I made that day.

Most people will make up their soap and after they unmold the batch will start making their soap balls.  Or at least I find or have read most do.  The soap is sticky and it is really a battle to get a nice soap ball.  Most of the time it will take another rolling session in your hands to get the little ripples or bumps out.  

Here is my suggestion:

* Make your colored soap balls in advance.  You know better than anyone the nature of your soap making. If you do quiet a bit of soap design with adding soap balls, take the time to do this in advance.  

*  The first photo is of the soap as it came out of the mold.  As you can see the edges at least for me do not come out clean.  If you are thinking of getting one of these molds you might ask around with other soap makers what they think of the mold.  Maybe this mold and I are not compatible?  You might have better luck?

 * I used a little Ginger grater since I only had a few bars to grate.  

*As you can see above I made a soap ball.  Please notice too that my hand is completely clean.  Normally I use gloves when making soap balls, but I really wanted to feel the difference with partially cured soap.  I really think this is the way to go.  Don't get in a hurry plan out your design and enjoy the process.

 * This is what I got from my soap bars all these soap balls.  The soap was a delight to work with.

* This is the soap that I made incorporating the soap balls.  Doesn't look like much here and not very interesting in my opinion.

* This is how my soap turned out below.  Perfect soap balls and was extremely easy to cut in my soap cutter.  Many people I have come across make their soap balls quickly after they unmold their soap.  They also will place their soap balls in a baggie to keep them from starting to get hard.  As we all know you cannot cut hard soap very well. I have come to realize that anything is possible if your willing to experiment and see what other options are out there.  

Conclusion as I stated before, plan out your needs.  Make colored soaps in advance.   Leave the soap in bar form while it is curing.   I would say anytime after one week, or for me much longer you can still accomplish your goal.  The process will be much easier for you and you won't have to handle the soap more than one time.  My soap in this photo is in it's curing stage so I have not  cleaned up the soap bars as of yet.  (Edges are not even and clean).


If you try this method please let me know if it worked for you.  As I said I stumbled across this by chance and I think it merits sharing with others.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post.  I hope it was helpful in anyway.

God Bless 
Debby

Recent random soap

I admire so many bloggers who can keep up with daily entries on their blogs.  Time runs away from me so quickly.  I guess I have not learned to be more focused.   All in due time.  What I have done was to make soap during my absence.  So I will share a few photo's of them.


My goal when making my Carrot & Goat Milk Soap was to be like everyone else.  I really really really wanted to make my soap in that single beautiful orange color.  Simple and clean .  I love that look and for me I tend to have a very hard time just making soap with one single color.  I looked at my options still holding firm this was going to be one color and my thoughts twisted and here is what became of my one single color soap:

My after thought?  I can live with it now.  It turned out displaying my orange but the white represents the Goat Milk in the soap.  Best of both worlds I suppose.  I love working with Goat Milk and this soap I left unscented.  My bar soap is a large bar in size and most people who use handmade soap will know to cut

the bars in half for easy use.  I always cut my bars in half and this way I can change out my bars or scents quiet often.

My next soap I made is called Chai Tea.  It has a light scent.  This was such a delight to make everything went so smoothly.  I do know where I mess up if you will.  I added some gold glitter to the top and it now looks like I sprinkled yellow on top.  You can see the edges are showing a yellow color.  I have used gold glitter so many times and never have had this effect.  I think soap makers can easily pick apart all that is disturbing to them.  But in reality maybe others do like the look?  I did add some real loose tea on top.  Which if your reading this and unfamiliar with additives on top of soap, all of the dazzling effect wash off the soap so it's just eye candy if you will.  

In making the Chai Tea soap bars I had decided to make some in the form of a cup of Chai Tea:

You can see the loose tea on top.  I used the small plastic 3 oz cup for my mold.  They popped out with no problem at all.  They did cure and I used new cups to put the soap into.  I had never used this process before but do recommend anyone if your curious yes try this method.  To use just cut in half.

I had a busy day with soap making and I had some Aquolina's Pink Sugar soap that I had shredded up.  I wanted to add some character to my next soap batch.  All of my Pink Sugar soap in the past was always so dark as it will do when the colors changes due to the fragrance oil.  Here I was able to keep the soap from getting that rich dark brown most of us come to know:

What I love about this soap is how the shreds make the whole soap pop.  I could not have even guessed it would turn out this way.  The brown areas which actually should have been so very dark brown, stayed more on the dark side of tan.  I did use that gold glitter again, and this last photo will show the yellow type color coming through.  It really isn't that sharp in color as captured on the photo.  It doesn't look bad  to see the soap in person, but maybe I am just taking this gold glitter too hard.  

Lastly I want to show my last soap of the day.  I am not happy with this one at all.  I had bought some new colorants and when I purchased it I had long forgot what the description had stated.  The colorant stated it would either stay this beautiful blue or could change to a purple.  So I got the purple.  That was my fault and I try not to mess up, but with color morphing you have no control.  I also had a pink color which again morphed into a peach color.  I have two colors in life I do not like whatsoever.  They are peach and mauve.

So when my soap took on the peach color I knew I would have this dislike for the soap but the scent that I used is so pretty and feminine that I am still to this day trying to like this soap.  I am going to remake the scent I used into another soap so I am not sure if anyone else will like the colors?  Take a look:

Enough said.

I will say that even though I am not happy with this outcome.  I do want to stress that the fragrance is 

AM A Z I N G!!!  Sometimes the ugly duck turns into a beautiful swan.

Well I hope you enjoyed this little post of what I have been up to lately.  I just got in a shipment of more supplies and happily so.  I ran out of some of my most important ingredients.  Now I have to figure out my new adventure. 

Candle Making.....

I did a little playing around the other day.  I had gotten more of my soy wax in from my supplier.  I decided to try out one of my soap molds to make some candles with.  The wicks I had ordered along with my wax was very short.  Which surprised me since I didn't think it would be that short. 

I took a gamble and decided to use them and here is a photo of my wax cake slices still in the mold. 

Somewhat looks like a blob but after removing and cleaning them up, they did turn out to look like a cake slice.  I layered the scents from the bottom up I used:

Pink Sugar, Pink Grapefruit, Serendipity, and Got Milk for the topping.  Then I added some little embeds which are Serendipity, Black Raspberry Vanilla, and Lemon Sugar Candied Violets. 

Here is some other photo's after the clean up:



I would like to also say that these scents I picked are not in your face strong.  They are just a perfect blend of soft, sweet, perfumey, that tends to lean towards girly girl.  I did scent my wax to the maximum amount allowed, but again some fragrances are light no matter what you do.  I think they are fun and would make a nice piece to display for that perfect shabby chic look.  The wicks as I mentioned above they came out to be exactly 1/4 inch on the candle so no trimming is needed.  Next time I will take a closer look at those wicks before I order them.  I thought mine would come 6" long so it was a surprise to me.  Live and learn??

I did make a few jar candles. I made 4 and I am burning or testing one and figured out that I might have been better off to use two wicks in the jars too.  It is burning a 2" circle straight down leaving about 1/2" around the edges.  Which for me it won't matter since I have one of those coffee warmer type of burner, which I use to place a candle jar on when I don't want to use a flame.  So I can put my jar on this to get all the wax used up.  Some people would not have one of these so their choice could be to spoon out an amount and just place in a tart burner. 

The scents I used in this jar candle are:
Cashmere, Serendipity, Got Milk, and have embeds of Pink Grapefruit, Black Raspberry Vanilla, and Lemon Sugar Candied Violets.  It just makes a nice sweet scent.  I didn't really plan on using these jars for candles but they are what I had on hand so I went with it.  I think these scents would be nice in a bathroom or a bedroom.  Here is a few photos of the candle in progress:

The Photo above is after the candles were made I had not cleaned up the sides yet.  Still in it's rough form.

So this was my project the other day.  I am not sure if I will continue to make any candles or not.  I do like working with wax.  My thing is I would rather make my own tarts and such and use scents that I want opposed to going out and buying a premade candle or tarts.  That is just me.  The procedure is time consuming and it takes awhile to get through a wax project but for me this is how it's always been.  I make things that I want.  I've never been the type to just go out and buy if I can make it myself.  I tend to take the hard road sometimes.  Which for me is just fine.

I hope you liked this little blog on my candle making.  I did make 50 tarts the other day but these are going into a shop downtown so I didn't see the need to bring them into the blog.

Well this is all I have for now.  Today I might be getting busy again and making soap.  There is a craft show coming up in March and I still can't decide if I want to do it or not.  But I can at least make some new soaps just in case. 

Thanks so much for stopping by I hope everyone is having a great 2013 so far. 

Until next time.....Hugs  Debby

Just a little Chat

Just thought I would get on here and just say to everyone Happy 2013!!  I hope to do better this year with blogging than in the past.  So many things to do and so little time as I say.  I have had a rough time lately with being sick.   I actually missed Christmas due to being sick.  My grand babies were sick too.  Several of us had the same thing going on and I swear I did not get that close to the kids to inherit what they had, well I did get it, but it must have jumped through fences and beyond to get to me.

But I am on the mend now and have so many things going through my head on things to make that I am spinning with ideas.  I am currently waiting on my soy wax to get here today.  I have some candle ideas I want to do.  Well lets just say soy wax tarts and candle loaves.  I have been thinking about doing this for a good while and now is the time. 

I had made a ton of soy wax tarts and put them on my artfire shop.  I had mentioned that they were skin safe, and I don't think anyone "got it".  So let me say I only buy skin safe fragrances since I am a soap maker.  I invested quiet a bit of time looking for just the right soy wax that is cosmetic grade.  I had made the tarts to be either melted as a regular tart or to warm a little chunk up in the microwave on low and use as a skin oil. 

Massage candles are very expensive to buy and my thought was I can offer the customer a soy tart that is skin safe so if they wanted to try out how a massage candle would be, then this was the opportunity to do so.  I have not sold one.  I guess people forgot that I mentioned these are just a soy wax tart only skin safe.  How hard is that?  Plus maybe not such a good idea to say this but people charge quiet a bit of money for their tarts.  I never reached that capacity to charge an arm and a leg.  I am one of those who believes that a fair price is welcomed by all.  I guess if you charge so much for a tart, then is has to be good huh?  Wrong, a bargain is still a bargain either way you slice it.  Doesn't mean you have to sacrafice quality.  You just need to be a better shopper than the next.

So my plan goes back to making massage candles and charging a higher price like everyone else, and just say if you did not jump on the boat earlier then you missed it.  The boat is gone and so are the tarts.  I am not sure why this did not go over very well?  I had a regular customer who asked for a sample and I sent her some, along with her order.  Yeah for my customer she is so sweet.  At least she "got it" and wanted to try them.

So now I plan to make some candles/ candle loaves from the soy wax.  Not a new idea but I would like to think I can do something very nice with the wax.  All I can do is present my products and see where they go.  So many others out there in the market place doing the same thing, and I hope we all have a great year this year.

I will post another blog as I make the candles/loaves.  I am just thinking here and waiting for the mailman/person/lady/ whomever they are these days...  My dogs always know when they are coming, so I have to wait for them to tell me so.   Frustrating as it is our mail is never at the same time.  We get it when we get it.  This is why I love it when we get our relief person and we get our mail earlier. 

So I don't plan to make any soap today, we have our grand daughter today.  And I don't soap around the grand kids.  I am just wondering how a 3 year old can be so fast?  I wish I had the energy the little ones do. 

I will dabble with the wax today and finish my embeds up for the candles.  I can go through wax so quickly so I have to stay focused on what I will be making.  I am trying to get my new website up and running too.  So the new soaps I make will be made for the new site.  I have so much to do and I hope to make a long list to stay focused.  Being a one person show is pretty hard, and I have yet to get my husband to try and learn to sew LOL. 

So with these thoughts just know I am going to go dabble as I call it with my wax that I have here, and make some new things today.  I am not a person who just does one item like candles and tarts.  I have too many things I make, and working with wax is just one of them.   I tell people all the time that I would not put anything up for sale unless it passed my approval.  My soy is heavily scented and this is the way I like them so with that in mind just know I may sell quiet a few things, but at the age of 51 pushing 52 I have been around the block a few times, and have had to refuel along the way.  So I know pretty much what I am doing. 

I will have other announcements to make here in the near future.  So stay tuned.  You never know what you will find.

Have a wonderful new year!!  Stay safe and warm and just pray Spring comes quicker than we hope for.  I am all about better weather.  I am tired of hibernating and dodging the cold. 

Thanks to all who stop by and read my blog, your a most welcomed guest. 
Hugs Debby

Three Sister's Soap Review