Ta-da! Soaping for Christmas! Christmas Coal...lightly colored with black oxide and fragranced with Peppermint. Is Santa gonna be good to you this year?
Any fragrance that uses vanilla in it will cause soap to turn varying shades brown. It's pretty much impossible to prevent. A soaper just needs to know it's going to happen and be prepared for it. This is my first version of Happy Birthday soap. Why Happy Birthday? Because it smells like buttercream frosting! Yum.E! Plus I plan to have it available with special packaging for those who want to give a special gift. I say it's my first version because I plan to tweak the look a bit. I don't know about you but I love me some extra frosting...So I got to work on getting the "white frosting" part thicker! =o) The following photos were taken over the span of about a week. The first photo is fresh cut. You can see how the outer part of the soap log already turned brown. But the parts not exposed to air hadn't. Watch as the days go by how brown it gets. Fascinating, no? Look for this soap to be off the curing racks and
ready for purchase mid-October! I've done a lot of research and trial on my lotion recipe. I feel I've come up with a product that is both a great product but yet reasonably priced.
The good news is that my lotion has been a tremendous hit! *Happy Dance!* I have people sample it when they visit my booth at the markets and fairs. Typically they'll purchase at least one bottle. The bad news is that I have almost sold completely out of lotion! Yikes! I have a few bottles left of Smoky Patchouli left and two bottles of Strawberry Passion. That's it. I will be purchasing more ingredients and will rebuild stock ASAP. As I've been building and learning about my own cottage industry business, I've already learned a great deal about inventory management. =o/ Apparently I've got more to learn! Thanks for your patience! This is Myrt. I was taking new photos for the website and caught him behaving for once. Laying about quietly and not getting into something. Thought I'd capture it for posterity's sake. Ever wonder how I get those great photographs for my website and Facebook page? I picked up this nifty little light box for a song off Craigslist last year. It folds flat for easy storage and came with two external side lights. The trick to great photography is diffused light. So shining the light through the nylon fabric will soften the direct and remove any glare. I use it on my stove top for several reasons. One is that I can use the light from the range hood for sufficient top lighting. Another reason is that the stove has two plug ins nearby for the external lights and lastly it's at a decent height for me to work from. Not to mention that it seems that I don't cook as often as I used to so the stove is generally clean. =o/ The white background is simply a piece of freezer paper, shiny side down. I could change it up with other papers if I wanted to. However, I think the white showcases the products much better. Afterall, I'm photographing the soap. Not the background. Hopefully I'm SELLING the soap because of the photography. But I don't only photograph the soaps, I use it for my glassy stuffs too. If you've ever tried photographing glass you'll know that the glare of the light will kill any chance of getting a decent shot. That diffused light will bring out the glorious colors and patterns. So you don't have to wonder any more....Now you know how it's done. "Life isn't about finding yourself...it's about creating yourself."
George Bernard Shaw |
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By Stacey Neuhaus
The non-sensical ramblings of an Obsessive Compulsive Crafter/Beatle-Manic/Theatre Junkie/Country Hick Archives
June 2015
Stuff,
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