End of the Month Round Up

Good Morning!!!

So, I have been purchasing new fragrances to expand my perfume line and my body butter line. TheChemistryStore.com has some new Crystal Clear fragrance oils. The one that I purchased is Succulent Strawberry. This new oil is called crystal clear because it is not supposed to turn your product pink or cloudy. I soaped it in CP and didn't gel it.  This is a night pic of it.

As you can see no discoloration whatsoever. Yay! Now, I have a Coffee Shoppe: Strawberry Chocolate soap that I like to make. Usually I use it in MP but since I know that this fragrance oil is going to behave I am going to use it in my CP soap and pair it with a body butter. Yay!!

Crafters Choice has a Banana Creme fragrance oil that is just to die for!! When you smell it you can literally taste the 'Nilla Wafers and Banana pudding at the back of your throat!!! Unfortunately, it discolors wickedly!! No pics please. :(

One money saving tip I have for you Facebook users is to get hooked up in an Overstock or Crafter's page where like minded people are selling off extra product (f.o.s, e.o.s, butters and containers). Sometimes they will purchase an item thinking that they need that much or will like it and then don't. Most of the time you can get it for a song!!! Vendor Stuff for Sale on Facebook is where I have been purchasing the bulk of my oils since December. *Psst! I am still trying to score some Dragon's Blood.*

I will announce my dates for the Rosewood Market Sidewalk Market on Friday. Look for butters, body oils, bath salts and some soaps. There is already another soap vendor out there and I don't want to step on any toes.

Right now I am having a shelf clearing sale. Brown Bag sale for $20 - $30. E-mail me at thechandlersrose12@gmail.com to purchase your bag. Or you can PM on Facebook. Make sure that you include your e-mail address, physical address, your county tax and a contact phone number. March will see the end of the Pirates of the Caribbean inspired soaps. So, I will post a rather lengthy blog about the soaps, the inspiration for them and some customer feedback. These soaps are from my Soap of the Month Club line and are not apart of my regular soap line-up on my website.

Until next time my friends ...

Pics and Notes

Hello! Okay, so I have been churning out ... nothing. For the past month and a half I have been looking at restructuring my business and focusing on what I really love doing, which is fragrance crafting. I did promise pics so here you go.

This is my Bloody Mary, Not So Bloody Mary and now named Orange You Glad? soap. I had envisioned a blood red base with a middle to light green for the celery look. Yeah, didn't happen. I was warned that tomato juice will turn the soap brown so I added some red oxide to hopefully achieve my sought after red. Nope! I forgot that orange essential oil turns anything Orange, so when you have Sweet Orange and Blood Orange as part of your mix and then add Lemon (slightly yellow) and Lemongrass E.O.s you get a bright orange color.

Now adding to the mystery is why my Green didn't come out for the celery portion. Don't know. I used Fresh Bamboo F. O. and added Lime color to the M&P. It came out turquoise. I will leave this mystery for Scooby and the Gang to figure out. What I do know is that is smells wonderful, has a nice lather and a neighbor is swearing that it is clearing up her bad skin. Tomato juice is acidic so that could be partially why her skin is beginning to clear and tone is evening out.. Add to that all of the citrus e. o.s and you have a strong astringent and bleaching agent. I am not going to delve too deeply into this one because it is selling well, hasn't turned nor has it broken anyone out. I am happy.

This is my revamped design for my Coffee Shoppe: Chocolate Almond Biscotti soap. The other design had people wanting to bite the bar of soap. Can't have that! So I decided to mix the Chocolate and Almond Biscotti F. O.s together rather than layering them.

I chose to take the photos in the early morning with the shadows from the blinds because I love the concept of a shadowy pic of a coffee soap. This is still my favorite soap, hands down.

I am still learning how to take attractive pics of my soaps. Coffee beans seemed to be a no-brainer for this pic.

This past Christmas season my Coffee Shoppe: Chocolate Almond Biscotti was my best seller for my soaps. Kentish Rain for Men was my best selling for shower gels.

Last month I sent 7 fellow soapers some of my personal blends for them to test out for me. What I wanted to know was: how they liked the fragrances overall, which one worked best in which medium (soap, lotion etc.) and which they thought would be a best seller for them. Each one received 2 fragrances. Most got the same ones. Overwhelmingly the Patchouli based Midnight Wishes was the favorite. That surprised me. See, I first made it last year around this time and I didn't like it at all. Then, approaching Autumn, I decided to clear my shelves of some of my massage oils and body oils and rediscovered the fragrance. 6 months later the oils melded and turned into a delicate heady perfume. I fell in love.

Unfortunately, it doesn't sell well here in Columbia, SC. So I sent that one along with 2 others to soapers in the Southeast region to see how they liked them. I even had 2 takers in Texas. Two fellow soapers approached me about selling some of my fragrances. My thoughts are this, just because it is not doing well for me doesn't mean that it won't do well for someone else. So, over the next 2 weeks I will be pouring over all of my retired (sold for about 4 years but am now tired of smelling) fragrances and some that just don't sell well for me. These will be up for grabs soon. I will post which fragrances I want to get rid of soon. Thanks for reading and I will have more to show soon.