Goal Check-In

You want to set a goal that is big enough that in the process of achieving it you become someone worth becoming.
-- Jim Rohn

How are you doing on your 2009 goals? We're just entering March which means that you're 17% of the way through the year. Are you 17% to your goal yet? Are you making daily, small incremental amounts of effort to ensure that you are making real progress? This is the year for change, challenge and innovation. Opportunity is everywhere. We just need to be relentless in our efforts so we're ready to swing for the fences when that perfect opportunity arises.

Many of you posted goals here, here and here. If you've fallen off the wagon, take a moment to re-read your goals and recommit yourself to excellence in 2009. Just think about how thrilled and happy you'll be when December 31st rolls around and you're 10 pounds lighter, have 5 more wholesale accounts or have strengthened your family relationships.

Moms Like Me 'likes' our Citrus Soap

Thanks for the soapy shout out! Moms Like Me, a networking site for Moms in Brevard County, showcased our Citrus Soap Project as well as our soapmaking kits. Check out the full article here.

Want to make these citrusy soaps for spring? See the full tutorial on the Soap Queen Blog

Soap Wish Interview, Day One

Sheila and her husband own the up and coming soap company called Soap Wish. They currently sell their soaps on Etsy and you won't believe your eyes when you see what they make.

Sheila was kind enough to send us a soapy goody bag (you shouldn't have, Sheila, but we're SO glad you did). The whole office was abuzz with anticipation and we opened the soapy surprise! See her wares for yourself on the Soap Wish Etsy Site and her Soap Wish Blog where Sheila shares her thoughts on soap, life, love and laughter.

Generous Sheila was kind enough to let us drill her with questions in hopes of finding out everything we could about her new business. Sit back, relax and enjoy the interview...

Anne-Marie: The question we always like to ask - What got you into soapmaking and how long have you been making your fabulous soaps?

Soap Wish: First of all, thank you for the compliment!! My husband and son were away for most of the summer last year and I started looking around for something to do. I started with hot process primarily because I have the patience of a gnat. By the time the guys got home I was hooked. My husband is extraordinarily creative and when we discovered melt and pour (which requires even less patience) he got hooked on making all sorts of designs out of soap.

Anne-Marie: Is this a full time or part time business for you (or just a fun hobby)?

Soap Wish: We’d like it to grow into a full time business in the future, but for now we’re doing it part-time while we continue to learn the craft.

Anne-Marie: I love your Etsy site! Do you have any other outlets for selling? Farmers Markets, craft shows, etc?

Soap Wish: Thank you again! We’ve done a few small craft shows and we’ve also sold quite a bit through word of mouth. We love to have people come back to us or send their friends, it really makes our day.

Anne-Marie: Your soaps are so creative and detailed. How do you have the time to put so much detail into all of your soaps? What type of things do you outsource?

Soap Wish: I wrote this description of creativity in our house awhile ago and it pretty much sums it up:

Me: "Look at the pretty colors I layered"
The Man: "I finally finished my scale model of the Taj Mahal made out of 4 toothpicks and two pieces of tape"
The Boy: "Do you think it's okay the dog ate my experiment? You know- the one I had growing in the sink?"

Now, who do you think makes the intricate soap designs? As for outsourcing, I’m pretty much focused on exploiting my husband’s talent at this point.


Anne-Marie: Your chocolate soaps look so realistic (and delicious). How much practice did it take to perfect these tiny pieces of art?

Soap Wish: We tried quite a few different techniques before we hit on one that gave us the look we wanted. The next step was getting it to the point where we could count on the same result each time. Let’s just say there was some waste involved.

Anne-Marie: Your chocolate soap is so convincing that one would think you’ve actually made chocolate before. Where did you get your inspiration for your fabulous chocolate creations?

Soap Wish: There is a really great bakery not far from us that carries fabulous chocolates as well as baked goods. We (okay, I) love stopping in there to look at all the great things they come up with. One day we decided to see what we could do using soap instead of chocolate. We had never made chocolate before, but now that we’ve made chocolate soap we’d really like to try making the real thing one day. Of course, that’s the day I start on the road to weighing 1,000 pounds…not enough willpower.

Yes- these are (in fact) soaps and NOT chocolates; jaw dropping cute!

Want to hear more about Soap Wish? Check back in Monday for another round of Q & A with Sheila.

Soap Splurge

I just bought some awesome soap (well, at least it looks awesome from the photos!) from Alchemic Muse (above) and some yummy bath bombs and soap from Mooka (below). I'm excited for postal delivery next week.

Rebatch - Double Boiler Method

What you need:

Rebatching Soap Base (make it yourself or buy a premade base)
Fragrance or Essential Oil
Mold (the less detail, the better)
Optional: Herbs
Colorant (liquid works best)

Double Boiler
Grater
Large Bowl
Spoon

Step One: Grate down the soap. katwOman recommended a SaladMaster so if you have one of these, you could try that as well. The key is to have small pieces of the soap. They mix in and soften up nicely (compared to trying to melt down an entire block).

Step Two: With the water in the double boiler burbling gently, place approximately 1 Tablespoon of liquid (water, tea, beer, wine) and the grated soap in the top pan of the double boiler.

Step Three: Stirring occasionally (every few minutes) for approximately 20 minutes, wait for the soap to soften into a gelatinous mass. Once it gets to a gloppy, thick oatmeal phases and looks sort of translucent, you know you're ready. You can add more liquid but the more water or liquid you add, the softer the soap and more difficult to pop out of the molds.

Step Four: Stir in fragrance and color. I like to use approximately 1/2 ounce of fragrance or essential oil per pound of soap. Labcolors work best to color rebatch soap because they are easy to incorporate in.

Step Five: Use a large spoon and glop the soap into any plain mold and gently tap the mold on the counter to get rid of any air pockets. The more detailed the mold, the more difficult it is to get the soap to easily release. You can freeze the soap if you're in a hurry but it's best to just wait it out if you can stand it. If you don't like a more natural "back" of the soap bar, you can use saran wrap (below, right) to smooth out the backs of the soap.


That's it - you're done. You've completed a soap project in under one hour that can be totally natural and has a rustic and country chic look.

Boost Your Business with Education

Are you waffling on attending the 2009 Handcrafted Soap Guild's Annual Conference? Investing in yourself and your business is the best place to put your money right now. Lay the foundation for a successful business, learn from others and network with other soapers from all over the nation at The Handcrafted Soap Guild's conference.

With speakers like Erin Brokovich, Donna Maria Coles Johnson, Kelly Bloom, Kevin Dunn and Linda Stevens, there will be more than enough quality information to keep you energized, focused and absolutely delighted. (My posts from last year about the 2008 Conference are here, here, here and here.)

I'll be there, teaching an Advanced Lotion Class and would love to see you there. I've allocated a % of the Bramble Berry budget for the last 12 years to Continuing Education and strongly feel that it's a good use of business funds, year after year.

Early Bird discounts end Saturday so sign up now. I hope to see you there.

Rebatch soap - Plastic Baggie Technique

Rebatching Soap - What is it and why would I do it? - Rebatching is another form of cold process soapmaking. You can either make cold process soap from scratch or buy a premade base, grate it up, place it over a heat source, either in a double boiler or in a freezer baggie as shown below, with a little liquid (water, beer, milk, teas all work well). This mixture "melts" down into a mushy mess that you add colorant and fragrance too. The reason people normally rebatch is to preserve the delicate scent or the healing properties of some essential oils.


Rebatching Soap (make it yourself or buy a premade base)
Fragrance or Essential Oil
Mold (the less detail, the better)
Optional: Herbs
Colorant (liquid works best)

Freezer Bags (must must must be heat safe)
Grater
Large Bowl
Spoon

Step One: Grate the soap. I've tried a variety of things (food processor, meat grinder, deli meat slicer) and all of the cutters have gummed up on me and not worked after a few ounces worth of soap grinding. If you have any great tips, please post them here and save us some time and arm soreage.


Step Two: Bring a large pot of water to boil. Fill a freezer bag (heat safe) with the grated soap and approximately 1/2 to 1 ounce of liquid. Submerge the freezer bag of soap in the boiling water. Be sure to use a large enough pot that the freezer baggie will not be squished up against the side of the pot. You don't want to accidentally melt the plastic baggie.


Step Three: Once the soap has boiled in the large pan for approximately 20 minutes, the soap should be gelatinous and gloppy, sort of like mashed potatoes or thick soupy oatmeal. It will never "melt" and become water like.


Step Four: Using heat safe gloves (that soap is hot! wear gloves!), pull the soap out of the water. Knead it around to make sure the liquid is fully mixed into the soapy gloppy glory. Is it too thick? Add another 1 Tablespoon of liquid if needed and knead this into the soap. The key is to not use very much liquid. The more liquid you add to this process, the thinner the soap gets (true) but the longer it will take to dry and harden.


Step Five: The photo above shows the soap midway through the softening process. It's not perfect yet. Put that soap back into the boiling water.


Step Six: The photo above is perfect texture. It looks like thick Vaseline. It is now ready for the color and fragrance.


Step Seven: Add fragrance and color. Liquid color is ideal (mixing pigments into the gloppy soap is difficult). I use approximately .5 ounces of fragrance or essential oil per pound of soap. The colorant usage varies based on the color but start sparingly. You can always put more color in but taking it out is difficult. If the soap starts to harden up at any point because it is cooling, reseal the bag and toss it all back into the hot water. Make sure you wear heat safe gloves through this entire process. The soap is hot.


Step Eight: You can either spoon the soap into the molds or pour/push/squeeze the soap out of the baggie. Unless you are an experienced rebatch soaper, I would not recommend cutting off a corner of the bag to squeeze the soap out like frosting. It's tempting but if the soap starts to cool too quickly, the open hole will not allow you to remelt the soap in the boiling water.


Step Nine: Take the mold you are using, close your eyes and give it a good wack on the counter to settle the soap and get all the air bubbles to the surface of the bar. When the soap starts to cool, feel free to use your hands and fingers to smooth out any bumps on the surface.

Wait for 2 to 7 days before popping the soap out. The key is to wait for all the liquid to evaporate. Yes, you can become impatient and freeze the soap but make sure the soap is entirely frozen (overnight at least) before trying to pop the soap out and remember that plastic is more brittle after it is frozen so be gentle on your molds.

Check back in the next few days for a tutorial on how to do rebatching soap via the double boiler method. This is my favorite way to do rebatch and you can do larger batches with the double boiler method.

Rebatching Soap Tutorials x2!

This week, we'll be working with rebatching soap and doing step by step photographs and instructions to make your rebatching soap a super-duper success.

I'll be going over two methods - the double boiler method and the baggie method. They both have their positives and I'm looking forward to sharing the tutorials with you this week.

The Year of Redecorating

Supposedly, 2009 is the year of redecorating. With the economy prompting a rise in "staycations" and frugality, homeowners are getting into the DIY Trend and redoing their living spaces. You may remember my disastrous repainting project (click here to be reminded of the pink shell house)? Well, I repainted but just a little bit. Only enough to make the house bearable so now, I'm on the painting hunt again.

Some things I'm really liking:

Shiny Paints at Modern Masters



Vellum and Night Train from Benjamin Moore

Color blocking

Hopefully this DIY Home Project will prove more successful than my last couple of painting related home forays.

Billie's Soap and Spa Products

A few months ago, I had the great joy of talking to Billie (yes, the "Billie" of Billie's Soap and Spa Products) on the phone with some challenging but solvable soapy tech support questions. She was absolutely sweet as pie with a giving spirit and a passion for making absolutely luxurious, decadent and insanely complicated recipes in pursuit of the best soap.

After our conversation, she was kind enough to send me a few bars of her products with a sweet thank you note for our help. I am positive I came out with the better deal on this one. Some of the cool things about Billie's Soap and Spa Products line: 1. They source their products organically whenever possible for their cold process soaps and salves. 2. They source their ingredients as close to their home as possible, generally within a 400 mile radius to lower their ecological footprint.



They even have a pet line if you'd like to pamper your sweet little dog. I personally liked their hair shampoo bar. It's a solid bar of soft, sort of squishy soap that has good lathering and cleaning abilities. The bar left my hair shiny and soft with less conditioner than I normally use.

Check out Billie's Etsy store here.

I want, I want! Vivienne Tam HP Mini

Thanks to The Coveted Blog I now know what I am absolutely begging Norman (the official gatekeeper and Chief Operating Officer of Bramble Berry) for this year - the mini teensy weensy HP Clutch Computer.

Given that I travel about 1/4th of my work year and lug a computer through airport after airport, to hotel to hotel, a small little powerhouse of a computer is just what I need to save my already-aching shoulders and back.

Norm, are you listening?

Top photo of Vivianne Tam Clutch originally uploaded by The Coveted.

TV Dinners Revisited for 2009

I'm not sure if I think this idea is super cool or super dorky. I'm leaning towards super cool. These TV Dinner Trays have silicone cut outs where the plate and the cup go to ensure no slippage as you traverse from kitchen to couch with your meal. $25 at Give Simple here.

Jovia Soap - The Checkboard Trifecta

Cathy Winsby is the owner of Jovia Handmade Soap out of Sicamous, British Columbia where she lives with her husband and two children. She creates soaps that "call to be touched and beg to be smelled". You simply must browse her Etsy page for soapy inspiration and if you're in the market for a present or a necessary treat for yourself. Not only do her soaps smell heavenly but her packaging is to die for. I squealed with excitement when I first opened my box o' soap from her a few weeks ago. Check out her blog as well, Jovia-life Blog. She's always entertaining!

Seriously, can you believe the checkboard cold process soap? It's as pretty in person as these photos. And yes, those soaps are the actual soaps we received. The soap looks crisp, colorful and absolutely fearlessly technical close up.

Didn't I tell you the packaging was adorable? The product inside it doesn't disappoint with copious foam and an easy rinseability in the shower.

Still can't get enough of Jovia? Brows her photos on Jovia Flickr read her tips and tutorials on Soap Making Essentials

Got Unused Dolls?

Not sure what to do with the dolls lying around from your daughter used to play with them? This is an edgy, sort of gross/sort of fun, soap project utilizing old plastic dolls. Perhaps it's a perfect transition for your teen to say good bye to her younger years and herald a new era. Or perhaps, it's just a creepy project I dreamed up as a second-date activity with my now-husband (true story. He didn't even bat an eye). Craft Lab (the HGTV show) asked me to design an edgy soap project to pitch to their producers. This is what I came up with:

What you need:

Dismembered plastic doll
1 pound (16 ounces) Bramble Berry melt and pour soap, clear
1 ounce Pearberry Fragrance Oil
Soap mold (or Tupperware or anything you find like an empty yogurt
container)
Rubbing Alcohol

1. Dismember your doll. They come apart surprisingly easy. And, once you get over the slightly creepy factor of dismembering a doll, it's also satisfying to say goodbye to your past and hello to your teen and adult years.

2. Cut the melt and pour blocks into 1 x 1" cubes.

3. Melt the soap in 30-second increments until the soap is fully melted. Stir if there are any big chunks.

4. Add .25 ounces to .50 ounces of fragrance or essential oil. Remember, if you use a yellow or orange colored fragrance, your soap base will look less clear and look more yellow/orange. That's why I suggested Pearberry. It stays completely clear.

5. Pour the soap base halfway up into your mold.

6. Spritz your dismembered doll part with rubbing alcohol.

7. Embed your doll head, limb or torso into the soap.

8. Pour the rest of the soap all the way up.

9. Do one final rubbing alcohol spritz to make sure there are no stray bubbles on the top of the soap.

Wait for the soap to harden, wrap with saran wrap, label and watch for the varied reactions your dismembered soap creations get.

On a personal note, I'm in San Diego for a long weekend for my brother-in-law's wedding. Hair and make up starts at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning (eek!). I'm hoping to have a bit of time to sneak away to post photos of our fun. My hubby and I are thinking we might go on a roller coaster later today. Neither of us have been on one in over a decade so if you listen hard around noon, you just might hear us screaming.

Handcrafted Soap on TV

Big congratulations to Elizabeth Hill from Handmade At Homestead for this wonderful TV spot. It ran throughout all of Louisiana this week. Check out Elizabeth's site here and her blog here.

Pomegranate & Black Currant Blends

Pomegranate & Black Currant fragrance is a deep fruity fragrance with just a tinch of tartness. With Pomegranate being the fruit du jour of 2008, it's popping up in bath and body products more and more in 2009. This fragrance is tangy and sweet, all at the same time. Here are some blends to bring out either the tangy or sweetness in this fragrance. And if you have any other blends, I want to hear about them. The more ways we can find to make this fragrance unique and versatile through blending, the cheaper your products ultimately become.

1 part Pomegranate & Black Currant
1 part Sugared Walnut
1 part Cinnamon Sugar

1 part Pomegranate & Black Currant
1 part Smoky Patchouli
1 part Berry Wine

1 part Pomegranate & Black Currant
1 part Orange Essential Oil (or Energy fragrance)

1 part Pomegranate & Black Currant
1 part Pepperberry

1 part Pomegranate & Black Currant
1 part Peachy Keen

1 part Pomegranate & Black Currant
1 part Vanilla Select

How do we Scent Forecast?

Lately, the entire team at Bramble Berry has been super busy trying to figure out where the hot trends for the upcoming seasons are. Right now, we're planning for Fall of 2009 and Winter 2009/2010 but this post will discuss what's right in front of us: Spring 2009. Since we usually only add six to eight fragrances per year, it's important that we chose wisely and make sure we're both on-trend and on-quality. One of the ways we try to do this is by melding the current global macro trends with color trends and design a perfume that will feel right for the season, the global economy and match the hot colors.

Courtney, one of our Customer Service Reps extraordinaire, sat down and interviewed me about fragrance trends to get more information on this aspect of our business.

Q: What do you mean by macro trends and how exactly do you find a macro trend?

A: A macro trend is a generalized term that refers to forces in the market that you cannot manipulate – a trend that you need to ride out. It takes things into consideration like demographics (populations, life spans, family groups), economics (work patterns, management and of course, the hot topic on everyone’s minds, the financial markets), environment (transportation channels, raw resources), government (world events, politics, regulation), society (lifestyle, leisure, culture) and technology (innovations). As a business, you want to be watching out for big trends to come through – like for example, the cupcake craze or global warming – and try to find places to capitalize on it. As a consumer, you may not realize why you all of a sudden have a craving for cupcakes or expensive cups of coffee but you do.

It’s the same way with scents. Certain scent will be super popular for a few years based on trends. For example, after 9/11, the nesting instinct was strong and very warm, comforting scents like Vanilla, Crème Brulee, and Sticky Toffee Pudding scents became very popular for a few years.

Q: Okay, so how do you find a macro trend?

A: You read, watch and listen. I personally subscribe to and yes, read 38 magazines a month – everything from Lucky magazine to Martha Stewart (of course!) to The Economist. I get about 10 business and financial magazines and the rest of lifestyle oriented like National Geographic or Fitness. I also try to read many of the top fiction and non-fiction books every year so I end up finishing anywhere from 1 to 3 books per week.

Once I see a certain trend that seems to be being felt on a global or US level, I’ll try to encapsulate that trend in a phrase or a feeling. So for example, on an easier one, things are very chaotic in the US right now with the elections just finishing, the economy and the uncertainty about strategy for a variety of US policies. On a global level, that’s being felt too as the world appears to be going into an economic slowdown.

Q: So, what do you do next?

A: Next, I start keeping my eyes peeled for what the home show is doing in terms of hot colors for appliances. 15 years ago, you never saw stainless steel for example, and now we’re seeing bright colors entering the kitchen on coffee makers, cookware and food processors.

Then, I pay attention to the car color launches. Those start coming out right around the NY Fashion week so it’s always interesting to watch the two move together.

And finally, the fashion, the fashion, the fashion! What’s not to love about looking at collections to try to see what colors are popping!

Q: Interesting. How do you turn that into a scent?

A: We are so lucky at Bramble Berry that we get to work with some of the top perfumers in the business, the people that are behind some of the major department and celebrity perfume launches every year. Once I have some ideas in my head about melding macro trends with color trends, it turns into a collaboration with the perfumer taking those esoteric ideas and feelings and turning them into a fragrance that personifies what I’d like to convey.

Q: How long does this take?

A: It varies by fragrance but it can be as quick as a month all the way up to about six months. An example is our Salty Mariner fragrance. That took almost six months in development from customer suggestion, formulation and testing. For every one of the 240 or so fragrances Bramble Berry carries, we have literally tested 100 fragrances for each and every one that we have for sale. Sometimes, a fragrance will go back to the perfumers for more reformulation and it never quite reaches its pinnacle so it won’t get added to our line.

Q: Okay, so now that we’ve covered that, tell me about what you’re seeing for Spring 2009 which is almost upon us.

A: Well, I’m seeing three really big trends coming up right around the corner:

• The desire to make sense out of chaos
• The desire for upbeat, lively and playful
• The desire for a more sustainable lifestyle

Matching this up with colors, I’m seeing bright and cheerful colors like intense pink, bold turquoise and sunny yellow on some of accent colors for spring.

Patterns are also looking fairly ordered with straight lines and beautiful geometry. I’m especially noticing this in the home décor industries.

And the desire for a more simple, raw, sustainable lifestyle is typified by the hand died fabrics so more muted colors of linen, woven hemp and the like.

Individual notes that seem like they're going to play a role in fragrance launches over the next few months and throughout the entire year are notes like:

Exotic, luscious fruits & “super fruits”
pomegranate, acai berry, mangosteen, dragon fruit & gojiberry


Indigenous ingredients & spices
saffron, rooibus tea, fennel, thai lemongrass, south african marula

Authentic, regional fusions
lychee, cacao, kalahari melon, lotus blossom, champaca flower, passion flower

Balance inspired ingredients
white tea, rice milk, olive flower, chamomile, hibiscus, rosemary, thyme, aloe

Natural botanicals & extracts
jojoba, angelica, peppermint, patchouli, geranium, vetiver, bergamot, sea kelp

Expect to see Bramble Berry trying to come out with fragrances in the next year that work within the framework of these colors, notes and bigger macro trends. But the most important part is always the consumer. There's no point in adding a fragrance that smells like "Sustainable Lifestyle" if our customers won't like it so we're always very mindful of the end user when we're adding fragrances. You generally don't see us adding twenty or thirty fragrances at a time just because they're hot. A lot of thought, planning, and testing goes into any fragrance we add which is why we've continued to the bulk of our main fragrance line for over a decade.

Vera Bradley Cards?

I just purchased the cutest, non-functional stationary! My staff is going to think I'm nuts because as far as I can tell, you can't actually mail these cards in the mail. But, next time one of you gets a fun little prize box from me, you can get you'll get one of these super cute, hand stitched cards from Bebe and Alice.


Also, this adorable postcard/card set from Saratams touched my heart because of adorable Kylie and Nicolas so I picked up a set of these little "Brothers" cards. As a bittersweet punctuation point, the purchased helped to benefit the Cora Paige Playground.

I'm excited to get these handmade cards in the mail because I am down to the last of my card drawer and have lots of thank you cards and greetings to write. For once, the cards aren't letterpressed but they looked so fetching that I just didn't care.

Fragrances in the Big Leagues

Phew! It's been a busy day with tax prep, warehouse space leases and lots of fun planning like the work you see below. We've figured out what's going into our permanent line from the Limited Edition and that took a lot of numbers crunching.

All of these fragrance below are going permanent and making the leap from the Limited Editions to the Permanent Line.

Patchouli Dusk LE22
Cinnamon Sugar LE31
Fresh Zucchini Flower LE20
Orange Mocha LE30
Cream Cheese Frosting LE26
Sugar Plum Fairy LE07
Hello Sweet Thang!! LE24
Fresh Snow LE27
Kentish Rain LE17
Lychee Red Tea LE19
Smoky Patchouli LE23
Matcha Tea LE19
Moonlight Pomegranate LE21

To make room for these fragrances, we did have to discontinue just a few of our regular line - but not many! The discontinued fragrances are:

Ambergris, CybillaFO151
Sunset, Cybilla FO1974
Blue Bell IceCream, Cybilla FO187
Sensual, Cybilla FO167
Peach, Cybilla FO190
Romance, Cybilla FO196