arkangel

Take your regular CP soap, and once poured into the mold and slightly thickened, take melted cocoa butter and drizzle it on top, then swirl. Drizzle in very thin lines, so as not to overdose and kill the lather. It remains largely unsaponified and hardens with the soap once cooled. Makes for a very moisturizing bar!

Alton Brown had the quickest and most unique way of drying herbs I've ever heard. You can read it here http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/Season7/Herbs/HerbalPreservation.htm scroll all the way down to Scene 12

Well, I don't have a candle or soap business and it confuses me. Does that mean if you have a strictly candle business, does adding soaps 'get in the way' or if you have a strictly soap business, does adding candles 'get in the way'...or both, or what? I would think if your business is to sell soap and candles, then if they get in the way for you, you're in the wrong business!

Maybe less color w/a partial photo like in an arch??? - The wax color (natural) would show thru where the white is

I've always seen them sold on ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/3n1-BAR-LOAF-LOG-SOAP-MAKING-CUTTER-MOLD-NO-LINER-KIT_W0QQitemZ150119386878QQihZ005QQcategoryZ28116QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

not sure how large of a quantity you need - westco is out of Los Angeles http://www.westcochemicals.com

I was thking as I read this, 'gee I have a great bar right here at the kitchen sink that's coconut/shea/castor and it lathers great! I actually like a little cocoa butter in my milk soaps - especially a coconut milk soap that I recently started making. I think it makes for an extra creamy bar at small amounts! I also tried swirling just plain melted cocoa butter into the top of a finished slab mold to see how it would do. It remained unsaponified, affected the lather only minimally and made for a VERY moisturizing bar. That was my cocoa butter swirl bar - LOL not very original...but it works well!

There are good online printers if you're really on a budget. Maybe not quite as cheap as vistaprint, but they don't try and charge you with extra bogus credit card scams either. Try iprint.com - 250 full color business cards $16.99

Very nice - your product photos are lovely! Very professional! The only think I can see on the home page, your description of your soaps is next to your candle photo and the description of your candles is next to the photo of your soaps. At least that's the way it comes up for me in Firefox.

Yep - probably your superfatting is way too high due to the lesser amount of lye.

DH and I ate at Cracker Barrell this evening and they have an expanded B&B section now, including 'Grandma's Lye Soap' http://shop.crackerbarrel.com/online/shopping/Product.asp?cat%5Fid=14&sku=261826&mscssid=90UMFC0CW9W78NQ6M5HS563SX5FC1VWE Among it's usual uses (laundry pre-treating etc), it said you could cut a chunk off, put it on a hook and use it as bait for catfish. What the heck??? Are they joking?? What kind of fish eats soap???? :undecided

You can order a case or just one of these http://www.meridian-display.com/ProductDetails.aspx?CategoryID=2&ProductID=21143

Good prices or not, I won't order from an unethical printer. I'd rather pay a little more and patronize a local mom and pop printer.

If you have ftp access to your files, a really nice free wysiwig software for websites is Nvu at nvu.com.

I think that much CB is really going to cut down on your lather. Try 80% coconut, 10% castor and 10% shea butter.

as far as a graceful exit, just say, 'gee - it's taken ____ years and ____ dollars so far and still I don't know everything yet. I couldn't possibly package all that up in a lesson.' - then proceed to giving them links to CT and such.

Can you cut down on the white space at that banner on top? Make it not-so-deep? If there's one thing, I'd divide your site up to distinguish the links from products, from Company description etc with grids or background colors. The whole thing is very white right now.

Try this - It should match the perimeter of your round label

Your setup is really nice and well organized. The black background really makes all your colors pop!

I think you've got a good basic start. Websites are hard to put together on your own and take lots of thought. My main suggestion (and I'm a graphic designer having worked on a ton of these things) is you need to get your product in there BIG. Just glancing at that page, it's hard to tell that you make and sell candles. People surf quickly, if your site doesn't reflect what they want...click...they're off to the next page. Maybe a candle montage behind your Heavenly Creations title instead of the brushed aluminum and blue (that kind of looks like a tech industry.) You can also soften things up with a group candle photo in that main white window, perhaps with the type wrapping around it. I'd make the row of links (Airfresheners etc) bold. They kind of get lost between the top row of links and you're description. Put contact info on each page Navigation seems good - simple and quick for the consumer. Think that's all for now - congratulations on getting your site up and running!

I don't know what graphics application you have, but photoshop will be able to change the color in any .tif or .eps logo quite easily. Those are standard files for us (graphic designers).

ummm - Peak comes to mind but ferget about it LOL

Very pretty! Thank you! Where do you purchase a 'plug' from?? :embarasse

There's a tax judgement imposed by the state last month in court records. Maybe they got their sales license suspended? <that is the only figure recorded below - I didn't leave any digits off> 07-9-08572-1 WASHINGTON STATE OF REVENUE VS 07-2-08685-4 SEA TAX 03/14/2007 POURETTE MANUFACTURING CO INC-$6,52

I like the second one, but maybe give the flower a little more dimension like -