SoapDiva

I pay 15%, at first I thought it was high, but considering SHE has to pimp my stuff to make money on it, its a good deal IMO. Also, she has sent a lot of business my way in the form of additional gift bags etc.

http://quicken.intuit.com/small-business-finance/ I use quicken for my personal banking, there IS a business version, but I havent gotten into it heavily yet. Maybe ask your accountant, that way you simply send him a disk, vs a pile of papers.

Whoops, sorry. :embarasse

Silly question here, but can you do this with cp as well? I would imagine so eh? Not much difference in the process.

Holy cow, thats low. I have a feeling someone I know is considering going into the B&B line, she makes candles, and has so far brought out a "room spray", which I also carry. She's offered to take my line to candle parties, provided I "make it worth her while". She's also been asking questions about my supplier. :undecided I gave it to her, but I'm changing things up, so I'm using a new one anyway.

Thanks so much for your responses, I just found it odd that my supplier didnt stock OO except in Pomace, so I thought maybe there was a reson for this. Costco has more buying power than she does, and that must be why, we can get OO much cheaper there than she could get in.

*sigh* I just made more. A Castile. 95% Olive, 2% castor and 3% beeswax. I scented with 1 oz of Lilac on 46 oz of oil. I spent most of the day scrounging through the oils that I do have, and trying to match recipies. I'm not confident enough to try and make up one on my own. Damn, I'm realizing just how useless my million 15 ml bottles of FO are. My husband called me a junkie tonight!

My local supplier carries Olive Pomace for use in soapmaking. Can one simply use EVOO or even just regular olive oil in soapmaking? I'm confused here. It's a silly question, I just don't want to waste a batch and have it do strange things on me. I SHOULD be able to use just about any oil, correct? Main reason I ask is that I can get regular olive oil much cheaper at Costco (13 bucks for 2L) vs 8 bucks a liter of Olive Pomace at my supplier. Seems silly to me. From the research I did on my own, OP seems to be a lower grade of oil, one that isn't considered to be high on the ranking of consumable oils (not that I'm planning on eating the soap). Is there something special about Pomace?

The suspence? I soaped my FIRST batch of soap last night and I SOO want to cut into it, use it and dance around the room all giddy like.... The recipe is as follows: Palm - 7 oz Olive - 26 oz Coconut oil - 7 oz Cocoa butter - 3 oz French Vanilla FO - 1 oz Almond FO 1/8 oz ** Cinnamon FO - 1/2 oz ** I was PLANNING on making a French Vanilla & Almond blend, but I underestimated how much Almond FO I had on hand, so I figured I'd make a spicy vanilla with a hint of almond bar. LMAO! I made this last night at 11pm, I think I've peeked at it 20 times by now. Bad me. I can't help it. Then, allllll night I was dreaming about making soap. I knew I'd get the bug after my first batch, and now I've got it BAD! I'm sad now though cause I don't have enough supplies to make more NOW of the same batch. This just means I can make some castile soap then.....he he. Up till now I've just been making B&B stuff so I haven't been buying large bottles of FO. I've got a whack of 15 ml bottles, looks like I'll be making some baby batches!

Geeze I hate gossip! I finally talked to her last night. She told me that she has trouble with fragrances, and dosent wear perfume (which, I wonder then why she chose THAT scent - Chinese Osmanthus) because of it. She said that she felt a burning/tingling on the tops of her thighs and had to wash it off. She also said that she had tried it everywhere else, and had been using it a lot, but hadn't put it on her thighs. I told her that I thought it was best to discontinue use of it, and I would exchange her a Goats Milk Butter. She said she wants to keep it though as she likes the scent and will only use it on her hands. I will give her the GM butter anyway. She said she was convinced that it was just the sensitivity coming through. About the heart palpitation thing. She said it was a woman in town that is heavy into MK stuff and the woman said that she had been having trouble over the SUMMER (she bought my butter in November) as well and that she wasn't sure what had caused the HP. So, I think it was a timming thing. She wouldn't tell me WHO it was, which makes me think it was BS. I told her to tell her to see a doctor immediately and discontinue use. Again, I think it was just talk.

Thanks so much everyone for your replies. I havent been able to reach her yet as she is apparently out of town. Do I have insurance? Yes and no. My insurance carrier knows that I have a home based business. They will not cover me for the "goods" but will carry for liability. No one can buy from me, from home. But I can leave the house and sell someone something. The only reason I can get that much is that they were already covering me before I started this business. I'm in Canada and I talked to my local supplier after I had been turned down by every company I called. According to her (who has been a soaper/bb maker for 20 years) no one will cover me. Our laws state that if I were to be sued, the other person would have to prove that I went out of my way to hurt them. I've tried to verify this, but I get all different answers from insurance companies. I've talked to other soapers out there doing the circuit and they all tell me that they can't carry insurance either. Crazy. Or they were stonewalling me. The odd thing, is that I can get insurance to cover the car I take to shows, so that my product is covered there. (If there are any canadian soapers reading this, and you have insurance, please let me know who your carrier is)

Hi all, This is embarassing, :embarasse but I need to get some wisdom from you all. There is a lady in town that has been claiming that my body butter "burned" her. She also states that either herself or her "friend" had heart palpitations after using my product (I'm getting this 3/4/5th hand...). I don't know yet which product she used or any other information, I plan on calling her this afternoon and meeting with her so I can hear this from her first hand. I'm in a small town, so info like this is like the telephone game. It's also very hard to discern if the source of the information is reliable. The person I heard it from tends to be a bit wild and crazy with the truth most of the time. On one hand I have a hard time beleiving that my product hurt someone, one would think that I would have more simular complaints if I were doing something wrong. Oh geeze, I'm upset about this. I suspect that the "burning" was actually just very dry skin as she ONLY had that sensation on her thighs. She used the butter everywhere else with no problems. If it had been a "reaction" of the product, it would have been all over, same goes with an allergic one. As for her "friend", I need to get her information and talk to her as well because IMO she needs to see a doctor. I have a hard time thinking it was a product and more likely timing. If indeed this person exists. I know that before I started making my own butters, most creams would "sting" the backs of my hands - that was just life for me. Since then I haven't personally had that experience. I ALWAYS follow the FO/EO guidelines. Should I contact the maker of the FO to let them know? What about the company of the base that I used? What do/would you guys do in a situation like this? HELP! :embarasse

In the new year I am diving into the CP process, so, I'm torn about buying it. I love that people love it though, maybe I'll do the trial once I start making CP to ensure that I can actually MAKE soap. LOL!

Anyone use this? http://www.soapmaker.ca/index.htm I don't recall how I came across the software program, but it looks cool. I don't want to invest unless someone else has used this with success. I think it may help me track costs on bars, and the whole idea of being able to play with recipies before you make the bar to get a general idea of how they will turn out is appealing. Thoughts on the program if you've used it, even if you havent...pros...cons.....? Thanks.

Try mixing patchouli with cinnamon. I find that patch is calmed a little when blending it with other scents.