Offer your craft shop customers a gift of the outdoors with a homemade spray infused with fir and rosemary scent. It is a great way to deodorize the living room and any area that needs freshening up. It also makes a great stocking stuffer for last-minute holiday shoppers. Get a full recipe here:: Rosemary & Fir Tree Room Spray Recipe
Monthly Archives: December 2014
How Use Twitter For Your Soap Business
Once you’ve got all of the products and knowledge to start your soap business, you’ll need to learn how to use social media to promote it. One of the many important social media sources is Twitter, especially for soap business owners looking to create an online presence. This tutorial teaches you how to set up and use a Twitter handle and why it’s an important business tool.
Read the full story here :: Bramble Business Series: How to Set Up & Use a Twitter Handle
Grab Those Last Minute Holiday Soap Shoppers!
Christmas is less than one week away, but it is still the prime time to get some last minute holiday sales before the end of the year. Many people have procrastinated and would love to purchase some of your soaps if the package can make it to their loved one in time. So what can you do?
You can consider expediting shipping orders for last-minute customers for an extra fee or offset the shipping fee if the customer purchases a certain number of your items. Be sure that you have the materials needed if you agree to either policy (Priority Mail boxes, tape, customs forms, etc.) and a nearby shipping station. You can turn into a lifesaver for procrastinators and win more business this way. For more information about last-minute shipping for shoppers, click here:: How to Lure (and Ship to) Last-Minute Holiday Shoppers
Rub In the Scent of Lavender Without the Greasy Hands
You can make a lavender-scented body butter at home that doesn’t create greasy hands or skin. In fact, the body butter can make a great gift for family, friends, or craft shop customers. For a full lavender body butter recipe that is anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal, click here:: Non-Greasy Lavender Body Butter Recipe
Add a Little Citrus to Your Soaps Using Orange Essential Oil
Orange essential oil can offer a bright color and fruity scent to your soaps and body butters. Clinical studies have also found that orange essential oils can reduce anxiety and improve the mood of its users. For more on orange essential oil and how it can enhance your soap products, click here:: Sunday Night Spotlight: Orange Essential Oil
Product Pricing Guide for Soap Business Owners
Whether you’re making your own soaps and buying the raw ingredients or reselling wholesale soaps, you’ll want to know how to have accurate product pricing for your soap business. Are you considering your labor and overhead? Small costs are everywhere, even paper towels, so you need to be sure to account for everything.
In this guide, you’ll learn why if you don’t understand your product expenses and price your soaps accordingly, you’ll become very frustrated. You’ll learn how to determine your distribution model, which describes how you plan on selling your product. Then you’ll learn how to calculate the cost of goods, which is either the raw ingredients, materials, and labor, or the cost of pre-made soaps.
The final step requires a bit more math, but it explains how to determine your pricing strategy. Essentially you add the product cost of goods to the profit you are expecting to make and that’s how you get the price!
Read the full story here :: Guest Post: Pricing Your Products
DIY Peppermint Bath Bomb
A peppermint bath bomb would make the perfect holiday gift this year, and is fun and easy to DIY at home! All you’ll need is Epsom salt, baking soda, citric acid, arrowroot powder, shea butter, cocoa butter, sweet almond oil, and peppermint fragrance oil. If you don’t like peppermint, you can swap it out for any other delicious scent!
Read the full story here :: Homemade Holiday Peppermint Bath Bomb Recipe
DIY Lump of Coal Soap Gag Gift
Do you know someone who made the naughty list this year? FIll their stocking with a lump of DIY coal soap as a gag gift, although they’ll probably enjoy this type of coal! It’s made with real charcoal and combines clear and white melt and pour soap base for natural color changes. You can sprinkle a pinch of 24K gold sparkle mica for extra effects, and add fragrance oil of your choice!
Read the full story here :: Santa’s Lump of Coal Soap Recipe
Advice For New Soap Businesses
Starting new soap businesses can seem overwhelming at first, but creator of Bellabrice Body Care gives her advice on how to do it. She says that her advice to soapers just starting out is to take your time, and learn about the soap business before you start.
She said watching YouTube videos on how to make soap helps, and once you understand the safety precautions, it’s a fun and rewarding craft. You should also know the different types of soaps such as cold process soap, hot process soap, liquid soap, and melt and pour soap.
For inspiration, she turns to Facebook, Pinterest, and soapmaking blogs, and says her confidence was boosted by following the Soap Queen blog, Soap Queen YouTube, and the many projects made by Anne-Marie. Her goal as a soap maker is to make beautiful products, give back to the community, and run a successful company.
Read the full story here :: Turning Gifts into a Business
How to Make Lotion Cubes
Adding the soothing, hydrating benefits of aloe lotion base to make a creamy yet firm bar can be a bit tricky, but this tutorial gives you easy “how to” steps to follow. The key is to heat the lotion before mixing it into the melt and pour, otherwise the lotion and melt and pour may separate. This recipe uses a delicious Cream Cheese Frosting Fragrance Oil, and uses an Emerald Green LabColor for a festive and cheery holiday look.
Read the full story here :: 12 Days of Christmas: Lotion Melt and Pour Cubes