It feels good to be making stuff again. Between work, school, and being down a spouse due to tax season, I haven’t made soap since last year. Possibly not since June of last year, according to my records. That is too long to not make time to do something I love.
My husband says he can tell when I don’t do something crafty. Apparently I turn all moody and stuff (not to the level of grump-a-soar-ous, but close.) More that I just spiral more and more into unhappiness. It sucks that I let things like stress and worry control me as much as they do. I’ve certainly gotten better at it, but still, this is kind of ridiculous.
To think that I could have been soaping and jamming to Beastie Boys before today. I’m taking it as a sign that “you’ve got to fight… for your right… to PAAAARRTTYYY!” just rang out.
So today I made time to make a batch of soap. I decided to make my goat milk Bella Bar, as it’s one of our most popular, and I had run out of stock. I finished inventory last weekend, so that means I got most of the shipments from re-stocking orders this week, and I get to play! I just stuck it in the fridge to prevent gel phase, so I have accomplished one of my goals!
I’ve been thinking about the lotion bars that I make.
Surprisingly, they’ve been much more popular then I had expected, which is usually the case. My intuition sucks. Or maybe I should say my premonition skills suck. I won’t say these annoy me as much as the bottle-cap candles I make, but maybe just a little.
A little background — I make small candles with leftover wax and wick and my husbands beer bottle-caps. They burn for about an hour and can be good for parties or emergency bags. I sell them for 25 cents each, and I was just trying to prevent waste.
They have been a hit. I had one lady order 50 of the damn things. 50! Parents thinks they are just the cutest, and kids beg their parents for them. It’s mind-boggling to me, it really is. Kinda like when you slave over some stupid potluck dish and three people try it, but throw together something out of a picture cookbook and people can’t get enough (also something I have experienced and find equally mind-boggling).
This is a picture of my current lotion bars. They’re about an inch across, and about 1/2 an inch tall. They’re scented with lavender and lemongrass.
My only thing is that they are lotion bars, that are designed to melt when they come in contact with your body heat for any length of time.
One of my biggest issues with owning a store is packaging.
I hate it. See below.
So basically I usually have a bowl of these on our table, and people can pick out the ones they want and they go into a bag with the ingredients label. However, this does not please me.
I want something that keeps them protected and doesn’t look crappy. The beeswax streaks on the bags, and the bags certainly are not going to protect these suckers when pockets or purses are involved.
Soooo, I decided I am going to upgrade said lotion bars. I have this adorable small silicone bee mold from Brambleberry (so glad I ordered two right when it came out. Sucker has been on back order ever since).
I spent hours (and I do mean hours) on my supplier websites before I found something that would fit the new size I want to use. PaperMart provided my answer, and I was able to order little screw top tins that fit the lotion bar pretty well. Not too much wiggle room around the edges of the bar, but not too little either.
I’m hoping that for maybe a buck or two more, the larger bar and the little tin will be worth it to the people who like them.
Add in some label design (second most hated business thing) and I think I have a product upgrade!
I just took this with my iPad and it is definitely not of high quality, so please don’t judge. Ignore the glitter – that experiment did not work out well.
The Crafty Imp 