It’s coming, this Monday 7th December at 9am.
Sure, some of the packaging won’t be ready (Sydney, just how far away are you? And why do things take so long to arrive from you?) but it’ll all be up on the website awaiting your orders.
Until then I have a mountain of work…advertising to organise, press releases to write up, a market to do and of course the final products to make.
And that's because I got an enormous parcel in the mail today. It’s my super dooper, flash as anything bath bomb maker.
That’s right, all it makes is bath bombs. But oh the bath bombs I’ll be making. They will be perfectly round, all exactly the same size and all the same weight, fizzing in your baths and making your skin as smooth as silk. Laden with jojoba oil and shea butter they’ll be far too decadent for the kids…but you’ll let them have them anyway as it’ll keep them quiet for a while…and we all know how wonderful that is.
So tomorrow, as well as visiting printers I’ll be bath bombing to my hearts content, getting ready for markets this month as they are always a runaway success.
Business wise things are ramping up. The launch date of the product line has been decided and it will be 7th December 2009. Freaking me right out!
As things are made and ready I’ll be adding them to the web shop and I have a feeling it’ll all be happening the week before launch.
The woman above – is my style icon. She’s so amazingly chic and fresh. I have no idea how old she is but her daughter is about 18 yrs old which makes me like her even more.
Christmas shopping – is there anything better? Spending money on stuff I HAVE to have makes me so happy.
This picture – it makes me want to get married right now.
People art – this art installation has apparently been annoying people. But I can’t see what they wouldn’t like about it.
Soap making – making soap makes me happy. And that makes me happy!
Bella Sara – is back on the what’s hot list for Little J.
Shoe shopping – which sounds like I’m betraying all women but you’d hate it too if you had feet like mine. What I need to do is pretend I’m a drag queen and go shop there because I’m sure a shop like that will have my size.
Children making a mess – it’s been pretty rampant this week but really I should just put this on the list for every week.
The heat – is blah! No other descriptive words needed.
Problem is I don’t really have chapped lips. Mine are usually great so it’s hard to tell if it’s doing a good job or not. Luckily Big B is a fan of lip balm. He works out doors so uses it a lot.
Look at my pots. Aren’t they fabulous? Big 25ml lip balm pots that will hold heaps of product. This lip balm contains Shea Butter, Cocoa Butter, Beeswax, Macadamia Oil and Rice Bran Oil. Tomorrow I’ll try another one and add some extracts, more yummy butters and oils and a dab of Vitamin E to really up the lux factor. Then comes the hard part, trying out different flavours to get one I like.
I know, it’s a tough job but someone has to do it.
I can’t wait to launch my products out there. I’ve got a banging coffee and salt scrub that I’m just in love with. It took a LOT of trial and error but the final product is awesome, loaded with coffee, salt and glycerine to wake up the skin and hydrate it with moisture.
Tomorrow is also going to be spent discussing packaging and finalising my prices.
Slightly disappointing day today. My gorgeous Strawberry soap has almost no scent, which would have been fine if I wanted it to be plain but I actually was hoping it would smell of sweet divine strawberries.
It’s very disappointing because I was thrilled with how it turned out, just not so happy with the lack of smell. After a bit of research I discovered that brand of strawberry fragrance oil is very fleeting in soap. So Strawberry soap is off the list and I won’t be making it again. I will still make strawberry bath bombs and bubble bars because the scent was such a resounding success at markets and because I still have 400mls of the stuff left.
The Unscented soap of course smells as it should…just like soap. I’m looking forward to trying it out for myself.
I’d have got more done today but my brother came over and made me redesign his business pamphlet and letterhead for him, then spent the rest of the day watching YouTube with me.
As you do.
To make sure I was staying on task and not letting things slide I went through all my 100 Days Action Plan posts and wrote down the things I mentioned I was going to do or wanted to do and didn’t finish. There’s 31 things on the list, which shows I’ve been letting things go a bit and if I don’t sort it out now I may not finish my plan properly.
Today was a weird day. I got very little sleep last night and have spent most of the day in a bit of a daze. I am very pleased though with how my textures are going on my Lavish Collection soaps. I’m learning to read the soap and am beginning to know when to pour to get the smoothest texture and when to texture the top to get the finish that I want.
This is a perfect example of how my soaps are turning out at the moment. Pictured are the Strawberry and Unscented soaps and I’m very happy with them. The Strawberry soap has a layer of white and a layer of pink and I’m interested to see how the two look together. I’ll be judging whether the layers need a sharper separation or more of a mix-up, or if they are perfect just as they are. The Unscented? All white and just gorgeous.
I’m desperate to get a good nights sleep tonight. I’m eager to finish the designing of my Delight Collection labels and spend the day labelling soap, and make a dent on my list of unfinished tasks.
Image by • Eliane •
Big B has put me on a financial diet. A few unexpected household and car expenses have sent us scurrying to regain back our savings. So a few soap making purchases I’ve wanted to make have been put on hold for a few weeks. Luckily it’s not a disaster of any sorts and won’t slow down my soap production. I’ve worked out two more wonderful sounding recipes for soaps, a delicious Strawberry soap and a luxurious unscented soap for people who want luxury but not a scent. I’ve also got loads of soap I could be selling at markets and will be doing as many as I can for the next month to earn some cash for the business.
I’m very happy with my Solid Body Bars and the packaging, the first now in my Etsy shop.
I’m happy with the name for it too…Dazzling Citrus. It used to be called Yuzu after the scent but I like this name better.
My labels for the Delight Collection are coming along nicely too. I was going to do another colourful label similar to the Lavish Collection but went in a totally different direction. It gives the two collections completely separate identities. They’ll be printed on Kraft paper and I’m putting a band of coloured paper underneath for each soap so they have their own colours to identify their scent.
The website is coming along great too, I’ve finished the nuts and bolts of it and all it needs now is to have the products put in and it’s ready to go live. Google Adwords is getting better, I’m getting a steady stream of viewers to the website, all I need is stock for them to buy. Tomorrow, if it’s not the coldest day on the planet like it has been all week, I’m back into the studio to make more soap.
A terrific day today. I spent most of it in my jammies reading. Although I did manage to get some work done as well. For starters I cut up the logs of soap I’d poured a day or two ago.
This is an Amber and Oakmoss clay soap log, just before I cut it. It has a wonderful silky smooth texture and I love the smell; a little bit dusty and quite masculine…err. It does smell nice, even though that description didn’t sound the best.
This is Red Clover soap. The fragrance oil caused the soap to harden faster than I was prepared for so the textured top isn’t as nice as the clay soap but I’ll remember that for next time. What I like most about this particular bar is the little white ‘flower’ there in the red layer. I saw it just after I cut it and thought it delightful.
Every time I cut new logs I always make sure to cut some smaller bars. These will go in the sampler gift boxes. I’m only cutting 8 samplers of each type as I’m not sure how many gift boxes I’ll actually sell but have a feeling the other gift boxes I make up will be more popular.
Today I also made the labels for my solid body bars. These are like big lip balms you rub on dry skin to give it an extra moisture boost. I’ve printed them out and will label the tins tonight but there wasn’t enough good sunlight to get a pic. Tomorrow, I’ll photograph them and add them to the Etsy shop.
