Jadryga

Her sets are 64oz each (it's stated in the other cream pages, just not the shea lotion), and can be diluted up to 2:1 water to base. Any more than that and you risk screwing up the preservation. I personally wouldn't even dare go so high up the dilution scale There are dilution instructions on her site, here: http://www.soapersworkshop.com/store/index.php?page=Dilution%20Directions It's pretty simple, really, since her bases can be diluted at room temperature. I'm not sure if she sends recipe sheets, one of the others who've ordered might be able to clarify that...

I'm lucky... my dad's company manufactures solder and stuff, so I just buy small amounts of silica packs from him. I dump them in everything, my clays, my herbs... I do need them though, our humidity ranges from 80-95% all year round.

There, did a few drafts. Just rough ones though, I duplicated your template since I didn't have the original Original & Edwardian script (I uhh.. forgot to center the words for the Ed script) A few other quick drafts, you can see the different effects of different fonts here (Edwardian script is centered here) From L-R: Gigi, Edwardian script, Freestyle, Curlz MT, Kuntsler script, Rage Italic I didn't change much from your original template, cos well, it looked perfectly fine to me other than the "Pink Sugar" font. There's "SAMPLE" watermarked on the fonts to protect your design. If you'd like any of them just let me know and I'll e-mail you the original. I'm also not quite sure what font you used for "CocoaPink" so I used Berling Antiqua :embarasse By the way, are you sure the labels are 1 X 1.5? At a quick glance it doesn't seem to be 1.5" high to me... more like 1.25". The options I made are 1 X 1.5 and you can see a slight difference in proportion.

http://www.thesoapdish.com/bottles.htm Tada!

Let me know how the shea lotion goes, I'm thinking of ordering that! I was thinking of trying out a dilution of 1:1 water to base. Can't help with the slim lippie tubes, I'm afraid... I'm probably getting the mac/jojoba kit from Lindsay

Awkay, from what I've researched, they're mined in Queensland, and are also known as "zeolite minerals" since they're mainly comprised of zeolite. I haven't been able to come up with a different supplier for them, so they're probably only sold in Aus. Aromatics & More (NZ-based) has something of the sort, but it's mainly blended. http://www.aromaticsandmore.com/products/cosmetic_clays.html

Take a look at the Co-op Announcements under the Marketplace section here... http://www.candletech.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=13 As far as I know, it's when a bunch of us get together to order stuff from some place, so we can get bulk prices and things that we wouldn't be privy to if we'd ordered individually in small amounts. I've never participated in one, but I'm thinking about joining in this MP Co-op! It's the SFIC one. Apparently they're like, one of the creams of the MP crop

I'm definitely going to start experimenting then hopefully work my way towards having my own soaps... still haven't found the time to drive all the way to the craft shop, but I think I will this weekend. Was thinking of participating in the SFIC co-op actually, and seeing how MP does. In the meantime, I'll probably start looking for a supplier... now's good, so I won't be stuck when I run out of these soaps I've developed some cleansing grains and masks I'm slowly adding to my line... I sent a sample of "Pink Chocolate Mask" (pastel pink clay, goat's milk powder, cocoa powder) to one or two of my customers and they're liking it - though I think that may have more to do with the "Chocolate" bit

OOH! That WOULD be awesome!

Here you go. http://www.ebodylogic.com/albabotanica.html ($35 per gallon, $124 per 4 gallons) Search tip: "alba botanical gallon" (without quotation marks)

I have no idea what a care package is but it sounds nice

www.soapersworkshop.com has both! There have been a lot of plugs for Lindsay's things... I'm waiting for my friend (*cough* investor) to give the green light, then I'm getting some stuff from there. Just run a quick search on "soapersworkshop" here and you should be able to see what the others say She's even got an option for custom-made bases at reasonable prices and I can definitely say she's very helpful and friendly. Also, her bases are concentrated, so you can save on shipping Otherwise, there's Wholesale Supplies Plus, Essentials by Catalina, Bittercreek North, Majestic Mountain Sage...

They use NZPost or FedEx, you can pick. Maybe you could try e-mailing them or just checking real quickly at the Postage Rate Calculator in the NZPost website. Should give you a rough idea

No, actually, she never offered to replace them or refund me, just suggested trying some of the other milder soaps. As is, I wasn't very impressed with how she handled. They actually suggested that the soaps had gone rancid since they shipped it in January. I had a problem with that explanation because firstly, from what I've researched rancid soap doesn't burn anyway because it's already fully cured - it just smells and looks icky. These things were chalky white from the start anyhow. I noticed it when they sent the bars over (already wrapped in plastic), but put it down to the slight differences you get from handmade things. I offered to send slivers of the bars back for them to examine, but they said not to. That made me frown because I mean, if it was me, I'd probably like to know what went wrong with my batch rather than play guessing games. I think I'll just look for alternatives and gradually phase out of these soaps. DH is in favor of that too, he never liked her from the start. Pity, my customers really liked them. I'd been putting up with the less than stellar service, but this recent display has just convinced me I should find another supplier who knows what they're doing. I'm sure there are equal or better products out there that my customers would like just as well.

:laugh2:Yeah, shampoo, don't worry! I'm just amazed at the ingredients she uses. Like her honey, beer & egg shampoo bar has virgin hemp, unrefined shea, jojoba, wheat germ, mango butter, cocoa butter, rice bran, aloe, honey and eggs among other things in ONE bar. Just makes you go Whoa One day, I wanna make stuff like that Until then, I'll be happy with just enjoying them

Oh hmm... always had the idea that salt soap bars were drying for your skin. Interesting, now to browse for nice salt bars to buy and try

I was thinking of an Etsy site too actually, for the exposure... do you pay a one time fee or is it per item?

Well, from what I see there are some people who create their own blends, though honestly I wouldn't be able to tell since I'm not an fo person... I was a little unclear about the argument at first, but sweetiepie's last post finally cleared it up and I actually understand it now Yeah, I agree there should be no griping if the big companies get miffed about the same name being used. In a perverse way it's a compliment, though I completely understand. My mother's a fashion designer, and we had a custom order done for a pair of hand-embroidered high-grade cotton pants based on a color scheme our designers came up with. A few months after we put it up in our boutique, we went to a mall and saw a small stall selling the EXACT same design, but of a much lower quality (cheap polyester fabric, stiff machine embroidery, etc). Some local person had apparently gotten a hold of a pair of our pants and copied the whole thing. My first reaction was to burst out laughing. My mother on the other hand, was fuming. It's potentially damaging for us, actually, since we're supposed to be selling exclusive items. It's bad if a customer comes into our shop, sees a design and goes "Oh, I saw something like that selling for cheap at some random stall at *** mall." On a side note, one woman actually came to us and asked us to alter a pair of knockoffs (we used to offer free alterations for our goods) and she couldn't understand why we said NO. Her reasoning was "It's the same thing, isn't it?". Geez. ...Awkay, sidetracked enough. Back to fo's.

A few months ago I stumbled onto http://www.chagrinvalleysoapandcraft.com and was really intrigued by the soap and poo bar selections there, so after a long while I finally was able to go through with my order. The soapies arrived yesterday in a really fragrant flat rate envelope. My order: Rhassoul Yogurt Complexion Bar Carrot Honey Complexion Bar Herb Garden Shampoo Bar Extra Honey Beer & Egg Shampoo Bar Herbal Mist (Free sample) Used the Rhassoul Yogurt and Herb Garden. Holy guacamole! It felt a little weird at first... a little squeaky, which freaked me out, but a strong vinegar rinse set that right. Amazingly, I still smelt like Herb Garden, not vinegar, but then the vanilla powder I add to my vinegar rinse mutes the sharp tang somewhat anyhow. My hair dried completely this morning and it is SO soft. Even DH was impressed. I ran up to him and said, "Hun, my hair's so soft! Feel! Feel!" so he ran his fingers through and said, "Wow, it is! Your hair's better!" I know I haven't tried a lot of other soaps out there, so maybe this isn't really out of the ordinary, but this SO makes me want to start soaping on my own!

You'll actually see me more in the B,B&C section, but welcome to CT! I've never made any CP, but I did a lot of research on it before realizing lye came under the poisons act in this country Cure time seems to take 4-6 weeks, depending. HP soap has little to no cure time (just thought I'd toss out another option for you) but I think the results are slightly diff from CP as to looks. Not sure, some of the other techies might give you more info. Someone here successfully swirled MP though, so it's possible! I can't quite remember who, it should be in the gallery.

Oooh! Foal! I'd love to too! We don't really have farms here, not the horse and cow type, at least, so it's always been fascinating for me... of course, like every other girl, I love horses. I used to ride my ex's horses at the polo club, was going to learn polo, but we ended on pretty bad terms. It's sad for me cos he doesn't ride his horses, so they're just sitting in the stables His groom rides them for exercise of course, but still. One of the horses died recently... some sort of arthritis that made it too painful for him to even stand, much less walk. He was my favorite, so my ex's dad called to inform me about it. Seems they tried to call me to be there when the vet put him down, but I missed it. RIP Kompatido

Hmmm... clear label would make it a little hard to read, methinks... especially since it's 1 X 1.5 Katshe, I think the business name is CocoaPink, it's in her sig, though there's a slight code error there. http://www.cocoapink.net EDIT: Just checked out her range, most of her stuff isn't out yet, but I'm liking the concept so far!

I think it looks fine actually, quite upscale. If you'd like something more exciting, maybe add an abstract design of some sort to the label? A photo background may just be too busy for such a small area. Alternatively, you could play around with the font. Right now your font is simple serifs and sans serifs. Maybe something curvy for "Pink Sugar"? I could do a few drafts for you, but probably not at the moment... it's 6.49am, need to get some shuteye!

:awww: I completely feel you.

Oh hmm... it mentions magnetite, so that's probably the mineral. Here, Aromatics & More has a "Magnetic Blue Blend" with magnetite, that's probably it. A&M is based in NZ, but they have no minimum. I love browsing there http://www.aromaticsandmore.com/products/cosmetic_clays.html I'm thinking of getting some washed blue from www.soapcraft.ca though.