Spring soaps

We are busy making new soaps with a Spring theme in pastel florals, and some hearts and corsets in Valentine red . I fancy making up some gift baskets with Easter just around the corner, and I think we are all pretty desperate for some Spring and Sunshine in our lives after such a long Winter! I find myself craving the smell of Hyacinths and Freesias and Lemongrass this week :) there will be some new Plain Special bar designs, and also the bath truffles that Joy from Dragonfly Dawn is making to add to our boxes!

Forgotten Flowers!

I totally forgot to post about these new chrysanthemums . I think these are most likely a soap you would perhaps prefer to look at rather than use, but then I'm all about that anyway most of the time! :) These go in a cello bag with chiffon ribbon and a handmade tag, I havent found a box the right size yet, and anyway they look fine in the bags as you can see the petals more clearly. I suddenly had quite a few sales last evening, which was weird as I was just sitting here browsing away and buying my sisters pressy (* I will post about what I bought her after Christmas), and my Paypal balance kept going up instead of down. It was weird but in a good way obviously.
So I have a lot to do this morning, and yet my van's battery is flat and I am stuck till Mark gets home to 'bump' me! I have to walk to feed the horses-its only just over a mile luckily, and I cant get to the studio till this afternoon. grrrrrr, I am raring to go!

Baby Soaps

I had the idea when making baby soaps for my cousins' babies and we were looking at designs that would be cute. Murielle and Barney caught my eye and they are so sort of roundy and smooth I just love them. Murielle the Cow is furious because three people have already ordered a Barney of their own, and she hasnt had any followers of her own, but I rather think she is 'sitting pretty' and have told her so- I said 'good things come to those who wait' - its a good job I didn't name her Patience the Cow! Anyway they are delicious and I love them both :)

Oh! Yeehah! What have I done?!

Well I have been wishing for a while that I needn't make my soaps in the kitchen and spare room as we have very little space and my fella is a keen cook who doesn't appreciate any loss of space :)
so we have rather a battle of wills at times. Anyway today I aquired a workshop/office down at the farm where I run my grooming business, in fact its just nearby - so I am delighted today and looking forward to moving the whole operation to the farm. Of course I must get some photos and post them here as soon as I can so you can see , although it will be higgledy piggledy to begin with till I get used to my surroundings :) .

Wedding Favours

I seem to be getting more orders for wedding favours and I am pleased to think of my soaps gracing someones table on their big day-what an honour that is! Now that I am not offering my soaps wholesale to anyone else, I am left with more free time to concentrate on wedding orders and other pleasurable projects, so I am pleased that I chose this route. Some of the soaps seem to be geared right towards weddings and bridal showers. One lady chose some as bridesmaid gifts and for her 'hen party' - which I think is a classy idea. The most popular ones this month have been the royal crown soaps in Rose and in Vanilla which I have posted pics of. I am trying to despatch the favours early in plenty of time for their deadlines!

Gourmet Chocolate Soaps

http://www.soapychica.co.uk/gourmet_chocolate_soaps

This week I have given myself two days off from my salon, so I can catch up on the things of life. I have spent some of that time updating my website with the soaps that I have made recently and taking pictures. Of course its cloudy overhead this week so they are not the best ever pictures. I have tried top divide the shop into sections to make it easier to find the right soap. I have placed the chocolated truffles and chocolate fragranced soaps all together in a gourmet chocolate soaps section. I have many more items to add to that page, its just I haven't got the pictures ready yet. It is a trial to invite guests to a website, as I remember from the early days of setting up the Mutley Makeovers site, but with an allocated budget of £0 I will simply work hard myself and hope for the best :)

Gifts for Teachers

I have been busy re stocking my little online shops last month-it seems silly but I am kind of getting ready for Christmas in my mind as far as soap making goes. It was all a bit of a shock last year and I was overwhelmed rather by the orders I had. I am sorting out getting my labels printed for me, and things like that which make life easier. I am also starting to put together my packaging in a more organised and attractive way. I have also been thinking that teacher gifts may be a possible market towards the end of term, hopefully all those hard working teachers will be getting something nice from their grateful students :) I will be making some more of my ornate square soaps next week hopefully and I am really looking forward to that... That one there is Honey Galore a great favourite of mine!

Very creamy soap!

I have made this week a new soap, in a Choc Fudge Cappucino 'flavour' . I am calling it Choccacina which incidentally is a pet name I also use for my horse :) . The thing is, this soap is the most creamy, lotiony soap that I have ever made and I am really not sure why! I look at the recipe and I think "why this one"? I nearly wrote off this soap as a disaster too when I first unmoulded it I didnt really take to it. The chocolate chips seemed to look funny. Anyway I tried a small bar in the bath-just to see how bad it was, and instead it was beautiful!! I love it, and am keeping most of this batch, but will list some in my etsy shop sometime this week, together with a few more new soaps as yet untested. I will take pics of the Choccacina once the sun is up to post on this blog. It really doesn't look much though..., you have been warned! :)

Pear Soap

This is one of those soaps that I makes me wish people had 'smelly-vision' over the internet! One has to experience it to believe how realistic the pear fragrance is-not like pear-drop sweets, but more like a fresh and ripe pear, which is one of my favourite fruits. The colour is a greeny gold achieved with the use of mica, and the natural colouring of the clays and butters in the soap also shows through. Each soap is unique as they are all individually hand poured with a slight swirl. I have a box of these soaps all wrapped and packed and it is making my spare room smell amazing ;)

Photographing white soaps !

This is a constant challenge! Is it just me, or are some colours of soap more difficult to take pictures of than others? All my white ones come out funny, and they always have! I will keep trying, but am I destined to be disappointed? For instance my angel wings, and my pretty corsets in white and cream look so much better in real life than in any of my pictures. I so use the macro, and I try to use a good natural light and I am almost satisfied with most of the other pictures, its just the white ones!
I must and shall do research into this!
Here are the naughty ones in question.

Almond Coffee

When I was pouring this soap, the whole house smelt like a coffee shop. The fragrance is almond milk but I coloured the soap with coffee which means there is a goodish coffee smell about the soap. I made three colours of soap and then poured them all together to make the soap a little bit swirly. There is Rhassoul clay in there, which is one of my favourite soap ingredients, shea butter and avocado butter and a little copper mica. The finished soap reminds me of an appaloosa pony!
I am planning to make another couple of soaps next week with this plain mould, and then hopefully by the second week in June my new moulds will have arrived from America and I can get busy with those!

Front Page of Etsy!

I woke up this morning to see one of my soaps on the front page of Etsy. It has never happened to me before and naturally I am cockahoop! In real terms in will probably only be there for an hour or so, but it has generated me hundreds of 'views' to my item so its got to be a positive!