LovelyLathers

I can't believe you were just notified of it! Mine was one of the cards that was breached. I got the email last week about it . The only ones who were breached were people who ordered in the past 4 weeks (this was from the letter I got last week.. I received a letter from my CC holder the next day saying they had been notified of the breach and a new card was on it's way to me and the breached one canceled. The next day I got the new card. It seems that TKB knew about the breach way before they notified us by email which does not make me very happy. They should have let us know right away!

I bought it and I have only made the soap frosting with it. It did harden up for the frosting on CP cupcakes and stays nice but with a rubbery feel to it. Very difficult to work with as it gets hard too fast, there's only time to frost 1 or 2 at a time. No way can you use it in a decorator bag. I had to keep zapping it in the micro to soften it. I will not use it again, I'll stick with the whipped soap from now on. I want to try it for a scrub but not had the chance yet. There are a lot of good reviews on facebook about it, I am looking forward to playing around with it more.

I am making my "Dirty Hunters" Soap. Smells like dirt and is made with venison tallow. Also have to do some peppermint and vanilla soaps. I am behind on lip balms so I guess I better do some of them. I hate this job the most! Have to render some beef tallow also,

I have a shop, it's been open 19 months. It's 20 x 15 with a backroom 12 x 15 where everything is made. Mine is all done with antique and bakers rack displays. Yes there are lots of decisions to make when you first start but it can be fun if you don't let the stress get to you.

I am not comfortable with the agreement either. The wording is not very good. Doesn't look like it was done by a lawyer or a financial expert. It does say the currency is close to American dollars, what ever that means. It certainly looks like a scam to me. No way would I use it.

They are also way overpriced in many of their items. I had very poor customer service from them also.

Everything you make has to have 100%. You must have the amount you want for the end result in oz, lbs, grams then divide each ingredient by the percent, so say you have 5 ingredients and say you want 10 ozs of final product. Each ingredient is 10% then you need 2 ozs of each product to reach 100%. Another example is

25 % coconut oil

25% palm oil

25% shea butter

25% oatmeal

====

100%

converted to oz for a final amount of 100 ozs would be

25 oz of coconut

25 ozs palm

25oz shea

25 oz oatmeal

===

100 oz or 100%

I hope that helps

If you do a search of "rebatch" (with quotes) you will find lots of info on rebatching and different ways it is done. I use one of the roasting bag for the micro. It depends one how old the soap is as to how much liquid to add. You do have to shred it.

Congrats!! Nice to hear you did so well. Great in picking up a wholesale account too.

Rose is a great seller for me as is Lilac, Sweet Pea and Sweet Violets. Jasmine and Honeysuckle are ok sellers for me. I can not give away Magnolia. Blends do better than straight FO's Sandalwood Rose, Country Garden, Rosewood, Green Tea and Rose, Amazing Grace and Aqua Type (pier one dup)

Sorry to hear of so many bad shows and sales this weekend. Day 2 of mine was better than yesterday in sales with a smaller crowd. The crowd estimation was about 8,000 to 9,000 today. Sold lots of men's and florals today as well as fall scents. The weather was great again, a little chilly and windy at times. 'I hope everyone has a better show next weekend.

Your display is beautiful! Sorry you did not have a great show, it surely was not due to the display. Looks clean, organized, products are very nice. I know it is disappointing and frustrating when it is just not a show for your products. Your bath bombs look great, love the display you did for them.

I did one of my biggest festivals of the year today was day 1. It was fantastic weather, 73 and bright sunshine. There were about 15,000 people

at it. I did great! Sold out of a few soaps, sold lots of gift baskets in fall scents. Pumpkin, Apple, Cranberry, and Lavender were the scents that sold like crazy . Did well with Frankincense and Myrrh, Cinnamon, Patchouli and anything Sandalwood. Music was great, food was great, people were in great buying moods. I am the craft chairmen of this festival for 14 years and love every minute of it.

Hope everyone had a great day also.

Thanks for the link and the pic! Looks like you used a narrow ended funnel. I am going to try it.

Very nice! I have that on my list to do. Was it hard? Looks like it would be fun.

Have you tried using the stick blender just to mix the oils and lye for a minute to get them stirred good and then use a whisk to get to a light trace? It works good for me. I find beef tallow and olive oil take longer to trace. I use castor in all my recipes at 5% so I soap cooler it helps. Here's a link for properties of oils and how they trace.

http://www.soapnuts.com/indexoils.html

I think you just made your first batch not even a month ago, am I right? You are making CP? It is not ready to use and judge what the final outcome will be. You really have to let it cure a good 4 weeks, I usually let mine sit 6 weeks. There will be a big difference in the mildness. It takes time to find the right recipe. Try doing a few in the recipe section that people have really liked. Keep formulating until you get the right recipe for you. It took me a year to get mine the way I like it. I hate to think how many bars I made in that time.

I had my best Farmers Market yet! I am so happy. Best sellers were the soaps that have not been selling well at all. Glad to get rid of some of those.

Next weekend is my biggest festival of the year, which I am chairperson of. Last year we had a lot of rain so hopefully this year the weather and sales will be great.

Very nice! I love pumpkin puree in my soaps, I am sure you will too.

Very pretty! Matches the scent very nicely

Shower gels were my slowest seller. I discontinued them. I sell a fair amount of lotion, mostly in the 4oz size. I stopped carrying the 8 oz size. I also sell them in a 1 oz size and those sell good also. I found the unscented ones sold better than any one scent.

The glycerin maybe what is stopping it from drying out and why it is clumping. Glycerin attracts moisture..

You can not remove it. Make more of the product to make up the for the extra preservative, mix them together.

I agree with ProudMarineMom. There is a difference and it does make a difference in the final product. Dendritic salt does not clump and holds the FO scent better. Household salt clumps fast and doesn't hold as much moisture.

I personally would not add chocolate to any leave on product. I would be afraid it would stain the skin, be messy or sticky. I would not buy or use anything that had chocolate in it I chocolate fo if I want something chocolate and Call it white chocolate. FYI Vitamin E is not a preservative. I have no idea how you would preserve something that had chocolate in it.