New Products...

I've spent the past few months playing with new recipes and new products, and have some new products to show for it... I've got a cocoa and shea butter based body butter, which is really great. I've had a couple of requests for new products. A hairdresser friend has asked for a hair clay to replace a discontinued product she really likes... I always enjoy the research into new products, and then purchasing the raw materials, and starting to work on something new. I've almost got it right- it has to be the right balance of hold, without being too hard to work with... I'm taking some samples to her next week to try on clients. I also had a woman ask for a facial exfoliator. For now I've come up with a dry combination of ground organic chick pea, organic oatmeal, and pink clay. This can be mixed with water, or a facial cleanser... she purchased one last week at a farmer's market in Niagara-on-the-Lake. I should see her again in the next few weeks, and will find out how she likes it.

I have to ramp up soap production, for the fall and Christmas season. I may make more guest soaps in packages for sale this time around...

Tonight I've just made 2 batches - one is Japanese Peppermint essential oil fragrance, and the other is one of my favourites - Star Anise essential oil... this one I made black with mica...

I will make a determined effort to post more often..!

New Soaps...

I finally spent some quality time in my workshop (OK - basement) to make more soap for stock...

My wife had the great idea of me displaying the soap in 'log' form, from now on, and cutting just a few at a time to pre-wrap for customers... this is great for several reasons... it's easier to load/unload soap logs... soap tends to shrink for up to 6 months after it's made, and wrappers get loose, requiring that I cut the tape, tighten the label, and retape it... nice busy work at craft shows, but the labels tend to get scuffed by other soaps, and can look tired after a while...

I've started making cards to accompany the soaps on my table at shows - the only negative I see in doing this, is if the customer purchases several soaps, then can't remember which card goes with which soap... is this a big deal..? We'll see... so far I like the idea of having a little more free time not having to wrap every soap made...

The new batches are the ever-popular Chai Soap, and a new fragrance which smells like a combination of coffee and a chocolate biscotti... not sure what to name it - but the idea for the tagline is based on women's regretful comments about just rubbing their dessert on their thighs... - using my soap is a regret-free way to indulge..!

Swirl Woes...

So, with all this talk of swirls in a Yahoo group I'm in, it got me kind of excited...

I set myself up tonight to make a 'mega batch' (40 lbs) which I would then break down into 
smaller batches to fragrance and colour...

My plan with 15 lbs of it, was to use one of my favourite FO's - Lavender Bergamot...

I was GOING to leave 5 lbs natural, and colour 5 lbs light purple, and the other 5 lbs green, and then swirl them together in my plastic downspout tubes, and have something to actually show you guys...

Well, if the darned soap didn't SEIZE on me the second I added fragrance to it..! I had 
already coloured the two, so I quickly added the FO to the remaining 2, and watched them seize as well... I've never had this FO seize on me before - I've used it many times...

So now I have three buckets of differently coloured lavender bergamot soap... maybe I'll 
just sell it in lumps, like Lush does... pretend that I wanted it that way...'

The second part of the batch was 10 lbs of Jasmine, with finely-ground organic oatmeal in 
it. I coloured 1/2 a light green, and my son and I poured into tubes at the same time, to 
get a mix of colours, then I went back with a thin dowel to 'swirl'... no problem with that 
one...

The third part I made into Cedarwood Amber - great fragrance - lighter than sandalwood, which I find gives many a headache... no colour or additives in this one... by this time I 
was fried, and burned in many places from wrasslin' with the first batch...

The last batch I FO'd with Nag Champa. Light, wonderful fragrance... no colour in that one, 
either... 

Every measuring cup, mixing spoon, bucket, spatula I own is a mess, piled up in my laundry tub. I'm not going to deal with it tonight...

Maybe I'm just not meant to 'swirl'... perhaps I'll leave it to the more talented soapmakers...

I'll post some pics soon...

Gord

Short Weekend...

The custom tubes I wanted to make are finally done, due to calling upon a friend with a great table saw. I glued caps on the ends, and sanded the edges a bit. Then I was ready to go.
I started my first batch 11 PM. I was having a good time watching a movie with my wife, so started after that. This batch would remain a natural colour, for the outside of the pink grapefruit. When soap is ready to be poured, it thickens up like pudding, and you add your fragrance and mix well, while it is still pourable. This batch was going to start it's curing right in the bucket I made it in, as it would be hand moulded the next day.

Fast forward 12 hours, the soap has started setting. I weighed out 10 oz portions, then pressed it into the moulds to evenly cover the entire surface.

Now it was time to make the interior of the soap - this part would be coloured pink - the fragrance I used was 'Pink Grapefruit and Rosemary' - amazing fragrance. This batch would also have tiny pieces if white soap in it, to look like pulp, or seeds. This batch was going to be 75% of the capacity of the mould - about 25 lbs. Same recipe base was used, just bigger proportions. This batch was coloured with red iron oxide. I usually don't colour my soaps, so started with just a little, and added a bit at a time, until I was close to the colour I wanted. Then close to 'trace' which is when the soap is ready to pour, I added the fragrance, and 130 oz of soap shreds, and continued stirring until they were well incorporated.

I dipped a measuring cup into the soap, and poured it into each mould cavity - I had to clear off a desk to do this, as there were 24 of these moulds to fill. Pouring went well, and I had a couple of other moulds on hand in case I had more soap than I thought, which was the case. So now I'll have a few standard tubes of soap, and a silicone tray for sample size soaps. I covered the tubes and moulds with plastic food wrap. and a blanket, and let them sit overnight, finishing at 9:30 Saturday night. Each batch of soap takes me about 4 hours, from start to pouring into moulds.

Sunday afternoon I removed the blanket and wrap, and moved them into my bakery rack to continue to cure. I'll check tonight, they may be ready to be removed from the tubes and cut, to continue the curing process. I'll post some photos tonight.

No Room in the Inn...

I spent my whole day today throwing things out, and cleaning up...

It was a bittersweet experience...

I'm also a photographer, and enjoyed the many years I made my own black & white prints. I packed up my enlarger a couple of years ago, and just this weekend, put aside all of my chemicals for disposal, developing trays will be gifted using my local freecycle, and all of the bits and pieces of my darkroom got packed up, to make room for my soap products. A large utility shelf unit was brought into the basement, and finally I have a decent place for my large mixing buckets, which were usually on my desk, or on the floor... then I took it one step further, and culled my files. Old negatives, photography product brochures (tons of them)!, photo lab info - all got recycled. It's made a considerable amount of free space in my file cabinet, but also I feel a little freer, trusting that if I need more product brochures, I'll be able to find them. I'm still taking photography jobs, but I'm scanning negatives and retouching photos on the computer, and emailing them to a lab, instead of enlarging them myself. If I get desperate to 'darkroom', perhaps Toronto Image Works still has their rental darkrooms available... I can get my 'fix' that way.

I'm a bit of a pack rat by nature - I love my stuff... my wife is the opposite - she operates very minimally, happy with less clutter... she avoids my side of the basement, except when she's out of scotch tape, or needs to use my computer... she's even challenged me to throw out my high school year books... I'm resisting, but I think it will happen inevitably...

I know how being organized is useful - when I'm ready to make a batch of soap, often my buckets are dirty (from the last batch) and I have to take them into the tub to wash them... then I go to weigh out my oils - oops, batteries in the scale are dead, but I can't get to the desk to find more, which my kids have already probably taken, and it goes on, and on, making simple tasks frustrating...

We'll see this this next batch of soap goes, I'm halfway there to making new molds - I'm using 3" ABS pipe, cut into 12" lengths, and then cut in half, to make half-round soaps... it's a new soap idea, having yet only a rich life in my head - it's time to make it happen.

First Thoughts...

My name is Gord, and I've been making hand made, cold-process soap for about four years now. I'm quite happy with the range of products, and the labeling I've got worked out. November and December were busy months, with craft shows, so now it's time to build up my stock levels again, and look for ways to expand my market. I love doing craft shows - my extroverted nature thrives on the spontaneous interaction with folks, but I feel there are ways to sell my product other than craft shows.

This blog will serve as a journal of this process, and will hopefully help me keep the momentum up as I move forward.