mountainmadness

Anything citrus is really popular for me...

It looks nice... the only thing that I would suggest is to take a hole punch and punch one of the corners on the bag. It will give the soap the ability to breath a little bit since it will continue to evaporate water.

Jennifer

Peaks' coconut will discolor just a bit in CP. The scent does fade a bit but for me on both of batches I made for the CT swap, the scent has come back a bit more. I still wish it was stronger but you can at least detect it. Also, my soap was initially very soft and took some time to harden up. I'm not sure if it was the FO but it was my normal recipe that isn't soft like these batches were.

Thanks for the heads up... Coconut is an impossible scent to stick! I wonder how they make it so great in the soap that you can purchase in HI?!

Thanks Meridith.

Jennifer

In my experience with florals... it is VERY important for your lye to be at room temp. I will normally mix mine the night before I make soap. Dealing with hot lye or even very warm lye will cause a lot of FO to seize even if they normally do not.

HTH.

Jennifer

Herbal Essence is a very fresh and clean scent. It smells nothing like coconuts to me. I have purchase the dupe from 3 different suppliers but my favorite is from Brambleberry. It is wonderful! I do a white and light green layered bar with a variety of ground herbs mixed in the green side only. I have renamed it and it is a very good seller.

As far as coconut, I just ordered some of Peak's Coconut Milk. I have not soaped it yet but have plans to this weekend. It is great. I hope that it will hold up in CP soap. All of the other coconuts that I have tried do not.

HTH.

Jennifer

I think a lot of it depends on where you live... Our Walmart does not carry coconut oil. They do have it at Fred Meyers in the organic foods section.

Jennifer

I think that most use Photoshop. IMO- It is the best for pictures, esp. on websites.

HTH.

Jennifer

I think that if you are selling your soaps covered it will be just fine. If you are selling naked it may be a bit of a colorless display.

Have you ever thought of coloring a solid color? Just a few scents. The rest you can add additives or let the FO turn it.

Some of my best sellers like Lemon Peel and OHM have no colorant added.

I just do some with swirls to add visual appeal since I sell them unwrapped.

Jennifer

I love your site! Very unique and the stripes add an 'upscale' feel to it.

I love the natural girl logo...

I wish you much success!

Jennifer

You could always use someone locally also. I had my logo created by a graphic designer. She knew the local market so it really helped.

The swirls looks like toile... It is quite beautiful.

Good job! :highfive:

Very interesting and different! I love it!

I wish the picture was bigger... I want to see the details!

Jennifer

That could be a great opportunity once you check your local market.

The only thing that would scare me is the amount of space. That is a HUGE store. It seems to me that most people start off small and then increase with demand and available funds to reinvest in your business. As stated by another you have to invest a HUGE amount of money for fixtures and products, let alone everything else... that is a large space to fill.

I wish you the best!

Jennifer

I purchased from them several years ago and they were weak.

There are so many other suppliers out there that offer really nice and complex FO. I have found other suppliers that I couldn't live without!

Being a former addict myself I have a simple practice now that really cuts down on all of that stuff that you really want but don't really need....

Wait. I bookmark it and wait a week. If I still feel like I need it in a week I will buy it. Most of the time I look at it again and I do not feel that urge.

I have one small bag of small Malibu tubes that I bought last fall thinking that I would have time to make some lotion... it hasn't happened yet but that is all that I have for excess that I do not use on a regular basis.

HTH. :rolleyes2

Jennifer

It doesn't matter if the soap gelled or not... if the lye was calculated correctly and you used bath and body safe FO then it will be soap. I never let my soap gel. I do not always get ash either.

It sounds like you may not like the look of it but if you swirled at thick trace it sounds like it was well on its way.

It doesn't make sense that it would lather for you and not them. If you didn't use coconut oil then that would attest for the lack of lather with salt bars... but since you got it to lather.... that wouldn't explain it.

Maybe you were really working it and they were not?

Shaped molds are tricky to get out... I know that most use the freezer method if using shaped molds with CP. It makes them pop right out.

HTH.

Jennifer

Yep, the post office gives free ones that are flat rate boxes which means you can ship anywhere in the 48states for the same price.

The price is actually the same for flat rate to ALL 50 states, don't forget about us here in Alaska and Hawaii!

I have read that a lot of people use it to also color bath bombs. I haven't tried it myself but I do know that some suppliers sell it for bath and body colorants... It makes sense because it is water soluble.

Just don't use in soap because it will probably not end up the color that you are wanting.

If you are having problems with acne, blackheads or really oily skin I highly suggest that you do some research on the forum and also google on the 'oil cleansing method'. It really is amazing and does work.

I have tried soap on my face for years and started using this method. It is truly amazing...

HTH.

Jennifer

I would find a replacement. If it wasn't a good seller I would probably just discontinue it but since there is a demand I would find another.

Ask the board what they suggest for a comparable scent. There are enough FOHO's here that have probably used the same scent from the same company and can offer suggestions.

A similar thing happened to me... not the whole supplier drama but two of my favorite scents were discontinued by a supplier. I eventually found replacements that I like better and actually sell better.

When and if you do change you can let your customers know that it has been reformulated.

Jennifer

Beautiful, as usual.

I always love how straight and clean your bars are... mine are more like chunks!

Jennifer

vicky, funny you should bring this up. I am at a make or break point with my business, and I am truly considering tossing in the towel. Not because sales are bad, they are fantastic, I have cornered a great market here where I live, It just doesn't seem fun anymore. I constantly feel under pressure, I feel a lot of isolation from the outside world and I would love to be able to do it just for myself some days. I am also finding that the bigger companies are catching on to what the small businesses are doing and offering products that look more handmade. Also I am at a point where I just don't have the room to do the production I need to do, so if I am pouring all day, or soaping all day, before I go to bed at night, I have to rearrange everything for what is on the plan for the next day. And yet I am not at all feeling like dolling out a ton of money , to rent a space, and all the stuff that goes along with it. Just what I have been feeling lately.

It seems that a lot of us that have been doing this awhile get to a point where you have to self-reflect and ask yourself the hard questions.

My business also started as a hobby years ago. When I started soaping I knew that I had found my calling and this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I have never considered giving it up but I do ask myself sometimes why I continue to work 40+ hours a week at my day job and spend 20+ hours a week continuing to restock product. I sometimes feel like I am killing myself.

I decided that I am in the do-or-die stage of my business. I cannot continue to work full-time and continue to expand my business. I have recently submitted an RFP for a cabin concession in a historical park in town. It has 30+ historic houses/cabins for rent that cater to tourists and locals. There are no soap makers. If I get accepted I will be quitting my job on May 1st and running the store front from the end of May to Sept. I am going to see how it goes.... worse case scenario, I have to go back to a real job.

The only advise that I can give is follow your heart and your dreams but do it with some common sense.

Jennifer

This is the question that I want answered.

Why does everyone insist on selling?

What happen to this just being a hobby?

I know what you are saying... IMO- it seems like people think that you can make a ton of money quickly from a soap and or candle business so they jump on the bandwagon make a few products, open a website and wait for the millions to roll in.

Jennifer