kidsngarden

I tried palm very early in my soaping career. Didn't like it much, I know I'm a minority. I love lard for my hard oil and so do my customers. I know that also makes me a minority and brings up a whole bag of other issues. Even though people here and on a lot of other forums told me to bag lard, that no one would by soap with lard in it - it sells! And it sells well. So like others said, go with what you know and what works for you! I don't want to be lush...

BB Aqua mica morphs into lavender in CP.

I would worry that people not being able to smell the soap well would hurt sales. I did glassine bags for awhile too. People could open up the bags and smell, but the disadvantage to that was they couldn't see the pretty swirls!

once I started making bombs I stopped with the salts but they sold well in those paper coffee bags with windows in them. I put a scoop inside.

I prefer liquid bath and body dyes, but they generally do not get as bright as micas. Be sure to blend in the mica with your oils or you get clumps of color.

I personally have never seen it, I'm wondering if it's in powder or some other concentrated form?

Wowza! I really need a slab...

I have found Sunflower to smell off after a year or so. I generally go through that pretty fast though...

I use the Dan's bands and it works well.

Very nice!

A lot has changed in just a month for me! My business is still "there" but now scaled WAY back. My site just says to call me...I don't do online orders at all, only via email or phone call. I don't keep anything specific in stock. My customers call me and say "whatcha' got?" and I've gotten soem custome orders and bath bomb orders. Circumstances being what they are for me right now I am really loving it. I will still do my two Christmas shows and my regular holiday gift set orders, but not having to keep up with a website has already been fab! And my kids are totally excited because this summer we won't be spending every Wed. and Fri. at Farmer's Market - We can actually do stuff! As for income, obviously it's not happening. We cut way back on stuff so we could do without my working the business - which was at least 60 hours a week. got rid of the satellite, even the internet - I'm on a library PC right now, we only use our cell phones, no land line. It's a squeeze but so far totally worth it. I still have some hardcore loyal customers which is nice. It's a lot more fun just to pretty much make what you want and not have to have an inventory!

Anyone store FO's they won't be using for awhile in the fridge? Does it help them stay true? Thanks!

For glassine (like french fry bags) bags got to Uline.

I use a kitchenaid for lotions. And it makes a big difference in how full your bowl is compared to your mixing equipment. I like them at least half full.

Ditto to what everyone else has said! I love them!

It has been said on other forums that possible the wood may absorb some of the moisture where as HDPE can't. I do prefer wood as it can tolerate heat better.

I use the coffee filter thing, tissue paper too, but that is more labor intensive. The only deal is that you can't see the pretty swirls so you have to have a bar out naked at markets. The BBW soap looks similar to the coffee filters.

totally love it! But maybe you can have your cake and eat it too...save some, chunk some??? I guess that depends on how many bars you have....

I have never had a problem with this either. I keep some unscented a lot too. Be interested to see your findings. Are you sure it's not the particular fo's you are using? Your above experiment should lay that out.

I use the dans bands at www.thesage.com open ends, perforated. Totally love them!

I never caught that you were his ex. You must have been the gal who helped me when I first signed on with getting the colors right - thanks! Well, frank is not as quick with the CS as adam for me, but it's not terrible. Maybe I'm just a lucky favorite or something - though I really have no idea why that would be...

I didn't get to read the deleted posts on this thread from Adam and Frank so I really don't know the details, but I do know that it was Adam himself who emailed me advising me to go back to Frank, out of fairness to me since I was paid up with him and a definite time this whole thing was to end was not in site. Very good guy, Adam, I think to do that... And Frank is a very good buy too for honoring the lifetime subscription that I figured would be void after I left his hosting for a supposed "custom site" that was a total disaster. I do not think it is Frank who filed this complaint. I don't really get the whole let's gang up on Frank and HCM thing. he did help me tons when I set up my site. But now he doesn't have the time for new sites because it does require a lot of time for newbies.... Things change. There was brief moment I was scared for my site when he sold, but there were no issues after the sale at all. Again I was scared when it was time to host again because everyone was making him out to be such a bad guy, but that really has never been the case at all for me so it was silly of me to think that way. I totally cannot fault him in the slightest for his service to me. He is still helping me out a lot with this transition even fixing the mess my designer did trying to put wordpress over HCM hosting. Kudos to him I say. never ever had a problem.

Adam said the soonest would be Feb 9. After learning my lifetime sub was still good at HCM I am back with Frank, who I've always had no problem with in the first place. At least my old site was still there so now I am updating... sure feel bad for Adam and for those of you who have no back up plan...it really stinks...

, Mizz MaryI don't know where you got the impression that Adam had his own server. I've known that he was using hostgator for his server.

Since I've scaled back on my business and haven't been promoting it much lately I'm patiently waiting. And I love Adam and graceful hosting! I sent out a newsletter (and really, you all should back up your addys on an excel file just for this reason!) so my regulars know I'm still around. This sucks....