Review of Flash Sale

Saturday was an amazing day for a flash sale! I stayed up late and started the sale at midnight, and I got my first order in by 2am! Great day!

I ended up pulling myself away from the computer for a few hours and spending some time with my family. A lunch out in town and an afternoon at the park was just what we needed!!
All in all, it was a fun, great day, and I want to thank everyone for participating. Not sure when I will have another sale like that... I enjoyed hosting the sale, so I know I will do another one, just not sure when.

Until next time, everyone! Happy Creating!

Friday Spotlight: Bacon Scented Hand Soaps

I love to browse in Target's dollar section for goodies, and you would not believe my excitement and glee when I stumbled across a bacon mold! I grabbed it, paid for it, and ran home to make some bacon soap!

These soaps are made with a vegan glycerin base and dyed a dark magenta. The soaps are scented with bacon fragrance oil, which smells like a big mouthful of bacon bits! Yum!!

These soaps come in sets of 6 and are perfect to use as hand soap, guest soaps, or travel soaps. These soaps would make a great gift for the bacon lover in your life.

Want to check out my bacon soaps? Click here!

Flash Sale!!

My summer break is drawing to a close... I've had such am amazing few months, and I thought it would be appropriate to end things with a bang. So, I'm announcing my first flash sale!

Mark your calendars! 

Go and join my facebook event! 

Make sure to head over to etsy!

WHEN: Saturday, July 27 (sale ends at 11:59pm!)

Use the coupon code "FLASH" and receive 40% off your entire order! Everything! No limits!

Are you as excited as me?!? Click here to head to my shop and plan your order!

Friday Spotlight: Blackberry Sage

This week's spotlight soap coincides with the ripening of the local blackberries here in East TN! My blackberry sage soap captures the scent of the berry perfectly and pairs it with the herbal sage for an amazing scent!

The soap is swirled on top with purple, green, black, and white for a dramatic look. The swirl is the peacock swirl, making each bar slightly different. The base is swirled with purple and green.

The scent is amazing! Blackberry sage is warm and inviting, with juicy notes of berry anchored with warm notes of sage.

Want to check out my blackberry sage soap? Click here!

New Supplies - Video Review

More Awesome Supplies!

I broke a promise to myself... I actually promised myself that I would not buy any more fragrance oil this summer. I've got scents of every shade running out of my ears... But then, two magical things happened, and I ordered new goodies! Wanna see?

Well, the first magical happening coincided with a trip to town and a browse down the $1 aisle... and I stumbled upon some new silicone ice cube trays. I'll admit: I think I squealed like a fan girl when I realized what they were...

Oh my!

That's right! Bacon, lightning bolts, sausages, bottles, and pickles!
I HAD to get them... but what in the world was I going to scent these new, crazy soaps?
After doing a little research, I placed an order with Nature's Garden for some new fragrance oils: Bacon, Dill Pickle, Root Beer, and Mountain Dew! My husband thought that I had lost my mind, but I am so excited to offer these funky new soaps with funky new scents!

My only problem, is that I have NO IDEA what to scent those sausage soaps!! Ha!

The second magical happening involved Aztec Candle and Soap Supply Company out of Knoxville. Knoxville is about 2 hours west of me, and I have been dying to give their products a shot. Having a supplier so close is something that I have dreamed of. Well, last week, Aztec announced that they were holding a sale for the 4th of July holiday... All of their fragrance oils were $1 for 1 ounce! WOW!!

So, here's my haul:

Whoa, right? I've already used two of my new FOs (Gardenia and Cantaloupe/Lily), and I hope to use another one today! So far, the fragrances have performed perfectly! No acceleration or discoloration... They were a soaper's dream! Some of the other new fragrances that I picked up are Toasted Marshmallow, Bourbon, Tobacco, a Chamomile/Lavender blend, and Cactus and sea salt!

What a haul!

Friday Spotlight: Cup O' Coffee Soap

This week, let's take a look at the soap that will definetly wake you up in the shower: my Cup O' Coffee Soap!

Cup O' Coffee Soap

This soap is vegan friendly with an olive oil base, so it is mild and moisturizing. The soap is colored a dark brown, just like that cup of java that you sipped on this morning. The soap is topped off with a creamy swirl and sprinkled with real coffee beans for a mild exfoliate.

The scent is called "coffee house", and it is a real, true coffee scent. Just plain, black coffee! Delish!

I was lucky enough that this soap was featured in a recent treasury alongside other awesome coffee products! Wow! Thanks!

Make sure to give my soap, and this amazing treasury, a look over at Etsy.com!

Swirling Soap Series: Simple Swirl

This swirl is another simple swirl, but the end effect is gorgeous! We have talked about the nonpareil swirl, and this swirl is similar, with one slight difference: instead of using a comb to create our effect, we are going to use one chopstick.

Tea tree/Peppermint Soap

Before you begin...

Basics:

You will want to start off with a slow moving recipe (recipes with 70% olive oil or above work well for me) and a fragrance that does not accelerate trace. Mix your lye and oils together until you reach emulsification, which is where the oils and lye are mixed together, but not thickening. You will want your mix slightly runny. Once you reach emulsification, add your fragrance, then set aside a few ounces of soap into separate containers to color. When choosing the colors for your soap, remember that bright, contrasting colors work great! The addition of black, white, and brown can make a very dramatic effect. 

Tools:

For this swirl, all you will need is a chopstick and a paper towel to clean the chopstick off. You can retire your comb for now!

Diagonal Lines

Normal Soap Lines

So, we are going to start off with drawing our colored lines in the soap. Make sure to alternate your colors! You can go left to right, or you can draw diagonals, like I did in my example above. 

Once your lines are drawn, start at the top of your mold and insert your chopstick. Drag it down the mold until you reach the bottom. Clean off your chopstick, then insert it in the bottom of the mold about a half inch from your first line, then drag your stick to the top. Clean off your chopstick and start over, alternating lines from top -> bottom, then bottom -> top, until you have reached the other side of the mold.

You are finished! This swirl gives your soap a gorgeous feathery look, and can be done with as little as two colors. This is one of my favorite swirls, and it is my go-to swirl for many soaps.

I've been featured in PVB!

I am so excited to announce that my green apple bath bombs have been featured in the 

Promoting Valued Businesses Blog! Wow! 

My green apple bath bombs!

Make sure to go and check it out and look at all of the great businesses featured!

Friday Spotlight: Soap of the Month July 2013 - Simply Lavender Soap

July's soap of the month is one of my most popular soaps at craft shows: Lovely Lavender soap!

My Lavender soap is a vegan soap, made with olive oil, coconut oil, and castor oil. I make these bars using the hot process method, and decorate the bars with chunky swirls of cream and purple. The hot process method requires the soap to cook in a crock pot for a few hours, making the soap usable immediately, instead of curing for up to 6 weeks. 

Almost everyone loves the classic scent of Lavender! Lavender has been hailed for its aromatherapy properties, including helping people relax and may even help with sleep.

Throughout the month of July, catch my Lovely Lavender soap at a discounted price of $5!

Swirling Soap Series: French Curl Swirl

So, the second swirl in my series begins with the nonpareil swirl that we did two weeks ago. Head over to that post to catch up if you need to. This swirl starts off as a nonpareil swirl, then adds a little twist!

A few things to remember...

Basics:

You will want to start off with a slow moving recipe (recipes with 70% olive oil or above work well for me) and a fragrance that does not accelerate trace. Mix your lye and oils together until you reach emulsification, which is where the oils and lye are mixed together, but not thickening. You will want your mix slightly runny. Once you reach emulsification, add your fragrance, then set aside a few ounces of soap into separate containers to color. When choosing the colors for your soap, remember that bright, contrasting colors work great! The addition of black, white, and brown can make a very dramatic effect. 

Tools:

You will need a combing tool, which can easily be made at home. I made my combing tool using cardboard and chopsticks. I attached my chopsticks to my combing tool using a hot glue gun. It works great!  

Now, let's get started!

1. First, start by drizzling your colors left to right in your mold until you run out of color. Toward the end, make sure that all the colors you chose are showing on top.

2. Now, use your combing tool and drag downward on one fluid motion to create the nonpareil swirl. For the first tutorial, this is where we stopped. Today, we are going to take it one step further.

3. Using a chopstick (or similar tool), start at the upper left hand corner of your mold and draw a small to medium sized curl. Keep drawing curls in your soap until it looks similar to this:

Curls!

You're done with the french curl swirl! I made my french curl soap with Pomegranate Vanilla fragrance oil in shades of pink, magenta, and white and topped it off with a little glitter.

The french curl swirl

I'm featured!! Candle et Polish

Happy Monday morning, everyone!

I just wanted to share some excellent news that I stumbled upon this weekend while checking out my Etsy stats. I kept noticing that I was getting hits from a blog... And they kept coming... And they kept coming...

So, I finally decided to head over to this mysterious blog to see what was going on over there!

Candle et Polish feature!

I stumbled upon a French blog called Candle et Polish, a great little blog by Agnes, a customer of mine from a few weeks ago. Anges purchased some of my wax tarts, and she was featuring them alongside other candles and tarts! Wow! Thank you, Agnes!

I love my international customers... Did you know that I ship internationally?!?