Fresh soap on the curing rack...

L - R
Bamboo Grapefruit, Sea Glass, Smiley Face

These three batches were just made about 10 days ago, and used in my recent photo shoot for Zaarly. This photo was taken just after the pour, and then they were put to bed for saponification. From top to bottom: Smiley Face and Sea Glass (both contain whole cream!) and Bamboo Grapefruit (with coconut milk). They all smell wonderful!

After cutting; at this stage of curing, Smiley Face (far right) has unfortunately changed from the bright yellow you see above to a rather dark caramel color. This can happen due to vanilla content in the fragrance oils used, and is not unusual or bad at all. I wanted this to be original, so I did a scent blend of Baby Bee Buttermilk, and Honeydew Pear. The soap still smells just as sweet and happy as before, so the name is staying despite the color morph! These bars will be fully cured and available in mid August.

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Balancing the Possibilities

Many soapers like myself aren't living the dream of operating a full time soap business. We have other types of work and careers that must remain top priority to pay the bills and keep our families going. Those of us who are taking a shot at soaping as a side business have to squeeze out the extra time for it in rather creative ways. We can't be profitable if we aren't working at it several hours a week. I'd venture to say many of us are in that same boat. I've done alot of thinking this weekend about moving forward in a new marketplace this season, and had another wonderful opportunity offered out of the blue. Lots of exciting things are happening, but this also brings with it a degree of fear and anxiety for me. I have a wonderfully supportive husband, but why do I immediately worry about failing? I swear I have a dozen batches of soap curing right now and lots more already packaged and waiting, but still I fear I "won't have enough"! When I...

Lots of experiments

Today I got the chance to indulge in soaping for most of the day. I did four batches today, using a technique I've never tried before, courtesy of a great Youtube tutorial from SophiasNaturals . She demonstrates an interesting form of thermal transfer that I haven't seen, immediately mixing the lye water into the hard oils until melted. The liquid oils are added after. I used this method for all my soaping today and it seemed to work well. I didn't need to use the stick blender very much at all, which helped me tremendously as I often tend to overmix. I wanted to attempt the "Holly Swirl", which is basically an in the pot swirl done twice. Sorta.. I had a lot of half bottles of fragrances, so I did some custom scent blending, too. It was a day of experimenting. Top: Small batch trying Sweet Cakes "Aria" . I used a some ruby mica for a cute little swirl. It smells so good right now. Middle: This wa...

Gearing up for Market Season

Eucalyptus Spearmint It's finally feeling like spring...in typical Kansas/Missouri fashion, it was 80 degrees on Saturday and dropped to 35 by Sunday night! Nevertheless, the farmers market season is fast approaching - only two more weeks. These babies are curing as we speak and smell out of this world. I've still got to paint my metal display pieces and I should be good to go. I have so many ideas in my head I can't seem to narrow them down to try in real life. Last year was my first experience in the market venue and, while I got lots of compliments on my set up, I'd really like to increase my sales this year. I've heard it said that you should design your market space just as you would in a store or boutique. To me, I think simplicity is the way to go in a market setting. My plan this year is to have one unwrapped bar of each scent displayed up front, and baskets with the packaged...

Sweet Scarlett Soap Co.

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