BLSoaps

Be tactful about how you go about it though. YES, you deserve to get your money, but as you said, you've never had problems with her till now. Which I took to mean she's a good repeat account, and one you don't want to lose. Contact HER before trying any official route like reporting her, or any kind of claims company. It's almost a guarantee that you'll lose her as a customer if you do.

Then I'd reconsider, and tell her, that you'll need full funds upfront before sending products down the road as a result of this. But overall, be tactful about it.

FYI, most companies that allow payment after delivery usually have late fees after 30 days. If you don't have policies like this in place, you should get them included asap. Just a good way to CYA. It's unfortunate that they're needed parts of policy and doing business nowadays, but it is.

Now back off to my dungeon. I have my own pile of orders to fill, and my break is over...

As long as you're very careful about what you click (sneaky special offers and such), read all the fine print, Vista Print is very easy to work with, and usually the cheapest. As long as you read everything before clicking on anything (a habit that everyone should develop, and one I know I'm more lax in than I should be), you won't run into problems with them. I've ordered from them numerous times with wonderful results.

I ended up talking to my webpeople (who our email goes through), and he said the main reason HE stopped using Outlook was because of random errors like this. It'd work beautifully, then suddenly weird things like this would happen.

He suggested switching to Thunderbird, which I had DH set up for me last night, and so far it's working nicely. Still learning all the features of it. There are things I prefer about each program, but for me, functioning and functioning regularly and consistently is more important than some of the features I still prefer about Outlook.

Thanks for the help though!!!

This is the error message I get. Gibberish to me.... My hubby says it sounds like its something with our email server that outlook downloads from, so I'm going to call my web people.

Task 'mail.soapersworkshop.com (2) - Sending and Receiving' reported error (0x800CCC65) : 'Your outgoing (SMTP) e-mail server has reported an internal error. If you continue to receive this message, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP). The server responded: 503 valid RCPT command must precede DATA'

I'm getting ready to kill it. I've done everything I know of to 'fix' it, but nothing is working.

Basic problem, my emails are all coming in just fine. But my outbox isn't sending anything out. I keep getting error messages. I've tried removing my accounts and reloading them, but it hasn't made a difference. If anyone has had any experience with this and has been able to fix it, please contact me.

lindsay_goodwin@yahoo.com - yahoo IM if you have it would probably be fastest

PM, or go through this thread. I'll keep working on it, and keep checking back here. What bad timing.... grrrr.... so if anyone is waiting to hear back from me, my outbox is probably holding it hostage.

Thanks Robin! I just got off the phone with USPS (only took 20 minutes....grrrrr), and the guy said they were the same. Yay!

Does anyone know if these are the SAME Flat Rate Boxes we use for our US shipping? I haven't seen any different boxes on the USPS website that are different, so I'm assuming they are, but I need to ship a box to South Africa (as well as get quotes for some other countries), and I need to be sure they're using the same boxes. I figured I'd get a faster response from you guys than trying to maneuver through the USPS's automated phone system and then being on hold forever with them before actually talking to a person. My own carrier didn't know unfortunately.

Thanks everyone!

A chisel and hammer work really well on the blocks. I order mine in 25 lbs slabs from Soapers Choice. I keep it in the box to start with, and scoop out the broken off pieces into a big 3.5 gallon bucket. Then when I need it, they're in pretty easy to use chunks. This is a great project to do while watching TV, or a movie you know by heart.

TIP: Lay an old sheet under you on the floor. If you're like me, you'll still have tiny (or sometimes larger ones) pieces go flying. The sheet will save your carpet.

Everyone here made some awesome points. The one thing that jumped out at me as potentially terrifying was your 17 day guarantee. I would reword that. If you have several large wholesale orders come in at the same time, can you still do it? If you have one monstrously huge wholesale order come in (several thousand), can you still get it done in 17 days? If you don't, what happens? Is their entire order free? That's what your guarantee sounds like.

Also, if your suppliers are out of wax, or FO, or any other ingredient you need, what are you going to do? That can play absolute havoc on your time line.

I'd recommend trying something like this...

"Most of our orders are filled within 2 weeks or less (honestly, the 17 days is a little odd... how did you come up with that specific number?). Larger orders, or orders placed during busy times (such as holidays) may take longer. If your order is expected to take longer than 2 weeks, we will contact you with an approximate delivery date within 48 hours of your order.

Setting delivery times is important, but adding guarantees, well, that's asking for trouble in my opinion. If I were an unscrupulous vendor, I'd be tempted to order tons from you in the hopes you wouldn't be able to fill it in time, and then make you stick to your guarantee. It's just asking for trouble in my opinion.

There also was one line in your opening paragraph that I had to read 3 times to catch the intended flow of the sentence. "We are a small business that makes handmade candles, soap, lotion and so much more *** that was started, and to this day continues to be ran straight out of our kitchen." I lost the flow of the sentence where I stuck in the ***. It may be that I read it before I was fully awake this morning (I had a late night), but I've done enough writing over the years that I just don't think it flows the way it should. I also agree that stating you're making everything in your kitchen, well, even though most of us are, it's not really a selling point in vendor's eyes. Just state you're a small business and leave it at that.

I know I always get upset when some of the people on this forum jump all over others for moving into business too fast (before all proper testing is done), but I just want to ask for clarification on this one line. You wrote, "It also list my other ten products which I just added, lol, after working this past week to formulate and test them all." Please tell me that I misread this. I read that a week ago, you had never made these products, and that now you're selling them. Because you stated that you formulated them, I'm assuming you aren't using bases from another company, but making them yourself from scratch. I know the list of products contain things that really aren't very complicated, but a week isn't enough time to truly formulate, test, and come up with finalized formulations. Even though some of these products aren't hard to make (like lotion bars), testing different oil combos, etc, that's what makes for a great final product. If I had stayed with my original formulations, instead of testing new blends, new formulas, I wouldn't have the client base that I do. If you're moving into wholesale, you want your formulas perfected, not just good. You're approaching a client base that you will most likely never interact with, and form any kind of personal relationship with. If they don't like it, they won't give you another chance. If they don't keep buying, then your wholesale contracts are more likely to drop you. And the chances of ever getting back in with them down the road are slim to none.

If I read that statement wrong, I apologize profusely. If I didn't, and you truly are planning on selling products that you developed only last week, then I beg you to please create some kind of testing group (friends and family are great for this!), and get some honest feedback besides your own about the product. So much needs to be covered, the actual product, the packaging, the labels.... Just make sure you're ready to move into wholesale before you actually do. It's a wonderful goal, but it's also something you need to be ready for. Good luck! I hope it goes well!!!

Onlinelabels.com has a 1.8 x 1.8 (square corners) that's pretty accurate. I've used them, and really like them. My biggest issue with them is my printer doesn't always pull it through exactly straight. When it doesn't, I lose a whole sheet of labels, which really ticks me off.

However, for the LONGEST time, I just used full sized label sheets (I always found the clear didn't have nearly as much of an issue with pulling up at the edges as the white ones), and just cut them. I have a 12 inch scrapbooking paper cutter that I use for this. It works great! I'm just making lip balms in significantly larger quantities, and I was hoping to use these labels to help me cut down on labor. I've also had them professionally printed for me, and I think I may end up going back to this. I was happier with those results.

The only time I've had any kind of particles not dissolve in my lye was when I used my ye mixing container after it had been washed in the dishwasher (as opposed to handwashing and air drying. The dishwasher had kicked up some food particles and it didn't rinse clean. The particles were small enough that I didn't see them upon a quick inspection of the container, but it sure was obvious when I added the water and lye. Luckily, I only had this happen twice before I caught on to what was happening. I now just make sure I handwash them, and I haven't had a problem since. Just tossing out a slightly out of the box theory on what the floaties could be.

PS - I always always make my soap (everything actually) with distilled water. I'd never dream of using my tap water. It's incredibly hard here. You know how when you pour hot water into a clear glass container it will sometimes be clouding for a moment and then clear up? Our COLD water does that, and both take forever to clear up. It's nasty. I boiled some water last week to make the kids some mac-n-cheese. I actually dumped the water, which had these nasty white floaties in (like the stuff you scrape off from hard water stains), scrubbed the pot, and started over with water from my stash of distilled water. I'd never seen it that bad, but there was NO WAY I was going to eat anything that came out of that water. Definitely a good testament for using distilled water in soap. Those mineral deposits can really do weird things to soap.

I have used unrefined shea that was a green tinge. Worked great. I will only use unrefined shea as that has all the healing properties and nutrients in it. I love the smell of unrefined shea. I think unrefined shea is like liver, you either love it or hate it. :laugh2:

I'm one of those who just can't get past the smell. I had to use some unrefined in a special request lotion base, and ordered from Abanga Karite. First, just the smell out of the jar practically knocked me off my feet. But I worked through it, simply tried not to breathe too deeply. As it was slowly melting on the stove with the other oils, I went to work at my computer.

Nasty nasty smell starts moving through our apartment. We have Oriental neighbors below us, and my first thought was it was them cooking some scary smelling food (smelled kind of like nasty fish to me). So I went and closed our patio door, which usually takes care of the smell.

But the smell just kept getting worse! So I headed back to my bedroom to grab a candle, anything to try to mask the smell. Well, this takes me past our kitchen, and it dawns on me that the smell is not the neighbors, but me, and that unrefined shea.

I still went and grabbed that candle, opened the place back up, and set the fans going. Anything to disperse that scent. I've only worked with Unrefined Shea one time, but that was more than enough to completely steer me away from it, benefits or no... LOL!

I'd never get rid of my stick blender, but I have been setting it down more often lately. I've got a few toughies that I'm much better off hand stirring than stick blending. But I also have quite a few that I'd go insane if I didn't have my stick blender.

Even WITH my stick blender, I still have to walk away from my castile, or I'll risk killing my motor. That takes FOREVER to trace...forever, forever, forever. Then I finally see hints of trace, add Lavender EO, and all hints of trace are gone again. Sigh...

I've also got a Pomegranate, and a Strawberry that take forever, forever, forever....

Baby Wipes

I mostly use it to clean up the flakes on the edges, quickly wipe them down. I don't use them to polish at all unless I get ash on the tops. I usually do swirly tops, and since I can't cover that, I sometimes get ash. I've found a little rubbing with baby wipes will take most of that off. And what's left is usually a little pearly instead.

You can kind of see the effect I'm talking about on this soap. The tops were almost completely white before I did some light rubbing with the baby wipes. It's a good activity to do while watching TV.

*** CAUTION ***

This post is not for the squeemish or light of heart or those who are offended easily! Contains Potential shock and faint *faint* factors!!!

You've been warned!!!!

First, I'm sorry you're having such problems with getting the molds you need. Unfortunately (or not so unfortunately depending on how you look at it ), my mind is in the gutter for your solution if you cannot find another supplier for the, ahem, specific type of mold you are looking for.

From what I could gather from the posts, these are silicone molds, the soft plastic type. I haven't used these types of molds, but it is my understanding that they can be made, and that people have made their own when they can't find what they're specifically looking for. Granted it's usually something quaint like fruit embeds....

If you're lucky enough to have a live model, hey, have fun with it! My husband would probably think I was absolutely nuts, but we'd probably have tons of fun, both during and after! Talk about an ego booster for them ("You'll be immortalized, honey!")!!!

Most likely, it'd probably be easiest to purchase a "pretend one", and use that to make the mold. Especially if you're wanting to create more than one mold. Don't know how long this stuff takes to set up, and don't know how long your model would want to stand still and happy...

Okay, I'm now dragging my mind out of the gutter. :whistle:

I've never heard of shea ever being green, but I tend to avoid the unrefined stuff as most of it makes me gag scent wise. Hemp Butter is green. I'd ask, make sure they didn't mislabel.

MMS (www.thesage.com) has a picture of Hemp Butter on their site. Go compare shade of green!

I think body butter is kind of a catch all phrase, and body frosting also can be interpreted in different ways. Most commercial 'body butters' are emulsified, and basically very thick creams. A lot of us natural makers, when referring to body butters, are talking about a blend of soft and hard oils, but no water.

I do the emulsified, mostly because the all oil ones are just too intense for my skin, and I even have dry skin, and live in the semi-desert.

If I were to 'distinguish' between body butter and body frosting, to me, body frosting sounds like it'd be whipped. Basically, take the body butter (emulsified or not), and whip it. So you can 'peak' it like you would with frosting a cake.

Body Butters (especially the emulsified ones) can easily be shipped during the summer. Anything whipped though is going to collapse in the heat. It's something to consider when figuring out what you're doing.

The whipped versions often feel like they're going on lighter than the body butters, but in actuality, it's mostly because you're not using as much. When you 'scoop' with your fingers, you tend to not pull out as much with the whipped stuff as you do with the butter.

I hope I'm making sense! I spent all day packing boxes, and then an hour in the pool with kids, and I'm exhausted.......

Have you been able to find these, Lindsay? They are so cute! Man, they have my brain just buzzing with ideas! If you find these, let me know!!!

How would a scam be carried out by using a post office box for delivery of orders? If the person paid for the item, why would it matter.

I live in a small town and my only option when I moved here was to have a PO Box. I have ordered online for years and have never been denied shipment due to my address.

Just curious.....

Basically, if someone steals a credit card, they can easily go and set up a PO Box to accept deliveries. It's usually done under a false name, or under the name on the CC. BAsically, by not having it shipped to a physical address, it's easier for them to cover their tracks. I'm not saying that people who use PO Boxes are scammers. I've had to use them at times during moves. Mostly, I was pointing out that by stating that she will not ship TO PO Boxes, but then only listing a PO Box for her own contact info, that it was hypocritical.

Hey Sabrina,

I don't know if this is the same person wanting your freebies, but I just received this in my email this morning. I don't think she's going to like the response.

We are interested in sampling your candles and have question re; burn time, prices, etc. Can we get a sample of your candles/but a sample set? Also we are in the process of registering our business....can we still get some info. re: wholesale pricing please?

Please reply

Ev Crasto

4416-283-5129

Here's my take on requests like this....

One, I don't work with them until they have their registration. I'll pass on info, but no products, at least discounted products, until I have a copy (photocopy, or an e-mailed scanned copy) of their business license. Anyone can say they're registering. But until they are, I'll only give them information. Sharing my wholesale policies isn't difficult, complicated, or even a great big secret. I usually have it posted on my website (I'm waiting to work on most of that until after our move this weekend...I'm supposed to be packing....:embarasse ).

So I will send the wholesale info, which is 50% off my retail, and the details on my minimums, and all our other policies.

If they ask for samples, once I have a copy of their business license, they can purchase whatever 'samples' they want for 30% off the retail price. They get full sized products this way, which they can thoroughly test, and also plan displays around if need be. If they want stuff before they can/will provide a business license, then they pay full price, just like a regular retail customer, since they can't/won't prove they are anything more than that. I'm obviously polite about how I express all this to them, never make it sound like I'm accusing them of trying to scam me, but I protect myself in the meantime.

If you want to ask me any other questions about this on how you should proceed, PM me. I need to get myself off these boards and packing boxes (I hate packing).

It's the first girl who started the hell, she found me on a MSN search, wrote me, and published my email there.

I would contact a moderator of the forum and ask them to pull the thread. Reason - you never gave her permission to publish YOUR e-mail to her. I don't know if technically it is illegal, but it is definitely against all netique rules to take an e-mail and publish it elsewhere (kind of like taking info from this forum and posting it elsewhere).

And honestly, I would stop honoring requests. I understand some may be legitimate, but chances are, most of them won't be right now.

But your best bet to stop this is going to be pleading your case with the moderators on this group. If you don't state anywhere on your site that you offer freebies, then you don't have to honor this at all. Sorry you got hit. I never offer free samples unless they're purchasing. But that's also why I offer sample boxes. They can try smaller before making bigger purchases.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do...

Has anyone bought from LorAnn?

I of course have not used them in bath and body but when I use to make homemade chocolates they were great...

Since these are made for candy/chocolates, you'll need to read ingredients first. These were recommended when I first got into making things (ages ago...). I bought a whole bunch, and never could use them. They were alcohol and propylene glycol based. Won't mix into lip balms, they separate out. HOWEVER, some are oil based, you just have to read the ingredients very carefully. Out of the horde I bought, I think I was able to keep a couple. And I think it's because they were essential oils (it was the peppermint and spearmint that I could keep). I don't think I ever ended up using them, as I had the actual EOs on hand, and KNEW those worked.

So just double check the ingredients. They need to be 100% oil based.

The website has a very calm and soothing feel to it that I really like.

I know already I'm not up for 'editing' any text, not this weekend, but one of the things I noticed was how your soap pictures didn't line up. Basically, when you mix the landscape and portrait styles (camera held normal, and then turned on it's side), they make your lines uneven. This is a pet peeve issue for me....just ask my own web designer. Unfortunately, when I find it on other people's websites, to me, it screams home-made website. It's not super obvious on your website, I think mostly because the photos are smaller and have the whitish backgrounds.

There are two easy ways to fix this. One, redo photos, and make sure you keep the camera facing the same way for all of them. Two (this is what I did), use a photo editing program, and crop them all into squares. It doesn't matter then if it was taken with a portrait or landscape view. If that doesn't get your photos to line up, then go talk to your designer, cuz it means something is off in your layout design.

Okay, I've dug a bit further....

Some of your soaps have scent descriptions, and others don't. I'd make sure you get them written up soon. And typically, more ad copy is better than less. As long as you don't just end up rambling. Most people are stuck in the mind frame of getting it written up quickly and concisely. Well, before the internet, and websites, all ad space cost money (billboards, magazine ads, etc), and that space was limited. So they had to be short and to the point. With websites, you need to factor in as many of the questions that your customer will have about your product. I think you've done well with including the ingredients. I've always felt strongly about including them. But think about what kinds of questions people ask you about your products. Then find a way to incorporate this into your text.

A lot of people say 'but people won't read through all that!', and you're right. Most of the people who visit your site won't read it all, and they won't order. It's a sad fact. But if you're converting 2% of your unique visitors into sales, you're doing awesome! Trust me, it's a lot harder than it sounds. So most of the people that come to your site, well, they're tire-kickers. They'll come, poke around, but really have no intention of buying anything. Those people will NOT read all your sales text. But they're not the people you're writing for. It's the people who are seriously looking. But if you don't answer all their questions IN your ad text, they may not buy because they're still unsure about you, or your product. The chances of them e-mailing you to ask their questions, well, it's unlikely as well. So longer ad-copy, answering some of these unspoken questions, the people who are truly interested in purchasing, they WILL read the entire copy, and then hopefully, they'll go on to actually purchase as well.

If you don't have anything in your gift set section, you should probably remove it until you can add something. Probably the same thing with your ingredient list. If you don't have a description yet, just leave it off for now. It makes it look incomplete. And even though it is (and websites are never ending), it's not really a good idea to advertise it! LOL!

FAQ - when talking about lye, you mispelled a word... "It is a necessary **component**"

I found it very hypocritical that you will not SHIP to a PO Box, however, you ONLY provide a PO Box for them to send mail/checks/money orders/etc to YOU. I'm guessing you don't want to ship to PO Boxes because of the higher possibility of scams. Well, sweetie, they're gonna think the same thing of you... Had I been a customer, and read through the pages like I just did (read the info page, and then the contact us page), I would have left without placing an order. At the best, it screams hypocritical, and the worst it sounds like a scam. Since we know it's not the latter, and you don't want to sound like the former, you'll need to figure out what to change. But I feel strongly, one of them needs to.

Okay, I ended up a lot more long winded than I ever intended. I'm slowly recovering from the flu, and my energy is slowly picking back up.

Good luck with the website! It's looking great so far!!!

I guess the main reason I've always hated the 2x / 4x ingredient cost for determining price is because it completely cuts out the labor factor. Bath Bombs is a prime example of WHY pricing shouldn't be calculated without factoring labor into the equation. It doesn't cost a lot ingredients wise to make bath bombs, but they're very labor intensive.

I never price out a single product without following this pricing guide. It pulls in everything, labor, overhead, packaging costs, etc. Then uses percentages to figure out your wholesale profit, and then your retail profit from that price. I spent quite a bit of time on this formula when I first got started, and it's saved me many times over. It's definitely more involved than x2,x3,x4, but you KNOW exactly what you're making on each product. And if one of your wholesale accounts comes and asks for a discount with a larger order, you can go through and easily calculate what you can offer (this just happened for me on some of my soaps. Went from ordering 50 bars or so of a single type of soap, to wanting 400 and 800)

The biggest thing to keep in mind with this formula is your batch sizes. It may not apply too much with bath bombs, but with some other products, especially soap, it typically takes the same amount of labor to pour 3 lbs of soap as it does to pour 30 lbs. You cut your labor costs significantly by making in larger batches. And when you cut your labor costs, you're able to offer better prices.

Anyway, I hope this helps.

http://www.soapersworkshop.com/store/index.php?page=Product%20Pricing%20Formula

By the sounds of it, you're describing the method I mentioned. Some people call it Room Temperature Soaping, but I interpret that as soaping once all the ingredients (melted oils and lye mixture) have come down to room temp.

I have not tried this method, but I do want to try it soon. I just need to get past my move (and this lovely bout of the flu). If you go to this blog, they discussed this method in the May 10th entry.

http://coloradoorganics.blogspot.com/

The Slide Show really helps you work through the steps. But from my understanding, it's supposed to cut down everything but tracing time when it comes to soap making. Even being able to remove from the mold, and cutting the bars. I hope this is what you were talking about, and that this helped some!