Treat yourself and your cracked lips with a lip butter that taste of strawberries. You can make a strawberry sorbet lip butter at home using shea butter, castor oil, and strawberry sorbet flavor oil. It makes a fine product for you or your soap shop customers. Get the full recipe here:: Whipped Lip Butter – Strawberry Sorbet
Monthly Archives: April 2015
How Much Soap Should Fill a Mold?
When making soap it’s important to have a quality soap mold. It’s the best way to easily shape and cut your soap into cubes and bars. However, it can tricky to calculate the amount of soap you need to fill your soap mold without being too short and without overflowing it.
First, when you get your soap mold, measure the amount of space in your mold by cubic inches. Next, take that volume figure and multiply it by .40 to determine the amount of oils needed in the recipe. Enter that amount into a lye calculator and you’ll know how much soap you’ll need to fill up that mold efficiently. For a full article about filling up different sized and shaped soap molds, click here:: Calculating the Size/Amount of Soap to Fill a Soap Mold
Homemade Nourishing Nail Polish
Save some money and make your own colorful nail polish at home. Using skin-loving argan oil, you can make nail polish that is not only fashionable but can also strengthen the nails and care for your skin. It makes for a great personal nail polish, but you can also make batches for your soap shop customers. Get the full recipe here:: Nourishing Nail Polish Formula
Check Out This Rain-Activated Artwork
There is a unique take on street art happening in Seattle. The artist Peregrine Church has developed an art technique using stencils and superhydrophobic spray that allow him to create art that only appears when it rains. The spray’s compound allows the artwork to remain clear until water hits it, making it undetectable on sunny days. For a full article on Church and a video about his water-based works, click here:: This Invisible Art is Activated by Rain
Organize Your Soap Marketing Without Stress
Marketing your soap shop is nearly as important as making the soap itself. Keeping up with email newsletters, tweeting, posting on Facebook, and other means to promote your soap can pile up. It doesn’t have to be stressful though.
First, each day give yourself some down time. It will help you reassess your needs and calm yourself to create a plan for yourself. Set some blocks of time aside for each of your social media and marketing so you can address them every day without becoming consumed by it. It will help you attack from all sides without exhausting you. For more on organizing your marketing, please click here:: Getting My Day Organized – Marketing Calendar
Perk Up as You Wash Up with Café Latte Soap
You can make a great soap infused with coffee and milk that can eradicate unwanted scents from hands, exfoliate your skin, and perk you up during the morning shower. This Café Latte soap can be easily made at home using coffee grounds, goat’s milk, coconut oil, and sodium hydroxide. It makes a great soap for the bathroom sink or for the homes of your soap shop customers. Get the full recipe here:: Cafe Latte Goat’s Milk Soap Recipe
Organize Your Thread in a Spool Hoop
Sewers and embroiderers can help keep their thread organized and within reach by building an embroidery hoop. With an embroidery hoop, dowels, wood glue, and a clear space on the wall, you’ll have a great place to store your thread spools. For a full tutorial with pictures, click here:: DIY Embroidery Hoop Thread Rack
Basic Care for Silicone Soap Molds
Silicone molds are great to use to make soap. They’re durable, flexible, and make unmolding easy. In order to keep your molds in tip-top condition, however, you’ll need to learn how to clean them.
Silicone molds are fairly easy to take care of. Once soap is removed from the mold, use a sponge and dish washing liquid to remove any leftover soap, then spray the mold with rubbing alcohol, wait 20 minutes, then spray the mold with alcohol again. Wipe it all up with a paper towel and your mold will be ready for the next batch. For more on soap mold care, click here:: How to Care for Silicone & Wood Molds
Exfoliate and Smooth Skin with Salt & Coconut Oil
You can make an effective scrub at home using Epsom salts and nourishing coconut oil. The Epsom salts exfoliate your skin while the coconut oil helps it retain moisture. Add your favorite fragrance and you’ll have a great scrub that can also be used a product for your online soap shop. Get the full recipe here:: How to Make a Coconut Oil Salt Scrub
Want Extra Soap Sales? Try a Flea Market!
While selling soap online and in craft fairs will likely get you the best profit, you can also sell your handcrafted soaps in local flea markets. Despite the name, there are many flea markets that don’t sell junk or overstocked merchandise, but also some that have booths available to sell crafts and soaps to customers. For a full article on flea markets and crafts, click here:: The Insiders’ Guide to the World’s Best Flea Markets