LuminousBoutique

I have a wedding order for 640, but its not until July.. so I'm doing 100 or so every weekend. Not so bad. I hate them, but I'm not in a position to turn down any orders right now. edit- and yeah, they are beeswax and unscented so they take much less of my time and effort than soy, they cool SO much faster, I can pour twice as many in half the time with half the space.

looks great! I did this with a bathroom vanity that had a wood top, it really will stand up to years of wear, we're on year three and its still chugging along! I havent been brave enough to do my whole kitchen, and I've been considering going with dark dark stained butcherblock countertops.. but if we rule that out I was thinking of it again the other day. The problem for me is that our countertops are only 4 years old. When we made an offer on the house they were old faux wood ones and we were just going to replace them ourselves when we moved in, but in the meantime they put in green laminate. I feel wasteful replacing it when its functional but I have to design around it, the color is obnoxious to me.. it doesnt go with anything I want in that room. Now you have my mind spinning again, hehe.

agreed- bring everything you can. You dont need to display it all, I always keep a bulk of it under my table and restock as needed- and it is true that people often feel some urge to buy if they feel like things are running out... It always happens that when I'm down to my last 3 jars of a scent, those are the jars that sell..

I went through our taxes from years past a few months ago, we made about that as a new family when my husband was in the military.. scary! But we made do. Now with kids, a home, cars.. I cant even imagine trying to live on that. But its true, you'd have to have SALES of at least double that in order to "make" that much per year. Can it be done? yes ... sure... but the trade off is that we have very little time for anything else. I was blunt and maybe bordering on mean with a soap maker I encountered at one of my regular shows. She was bubbling with excitement and questions.. most of which I was happy to answer, but what got to me was her assumption that I didnt work my butt off for the business I have, and that it all just came to me.. and "wowww I must just love this extra income!" I couldnt roll my eyes anymore and literally on a piece of paper broke it down to her. This is what we pay for the booth, this is my display costs, this is what I sold, this is what I made... her eyes got wide as saucers and I never saw her at another show. Harsh? maybe. But in many ways I view it a complete waste of their money to think that making 2-3 batches of soap a month is going to save them from their debt and unemployment. Sure if they have the money and time to invest it can be a great side income, but etsy alone isnt going to make them a millionaire. It really gets to me when people say its an "easy way to make cash" because to me, its my passion and what I want to do with my life.. not just a get rich quick scheme. I've really come to accept that online only isnt working for me, and I have to get back to doing more shows. It does mean I'm going to have to sacrifice some scents, limit my variety and so on.. but I love shows and do better at them.. if my business wants to keep earning its keep, we have to get out to the people more.

yeah ours have been gone for a long time... RedBox and netflix rule the roost around our town Borders book stores are closing, should keep my eye open for displays there.. they might be heavy, but they are good quality wood shelves. I guess some are staying but very select few... also Hollywood video

I use the peels from those "cuties" oranges, because they have so very little pith. I just save the peels, since we can go through a box of those in a few days in my house, and dry them on paper in the sun in the laundry room. Once they are dry (seems to take 3-4 days), I grind them up in the food processor, or even a coffee grinder if I want a real fine grind. I dont find them to be scratchy at all in a recipe, although I do really only use them in a kitchen/gardening soap. I've used lemon and lime peel too, but for those I "grate" them and dry the grated peel instead of using the whole peel.

Hi Tait, congrats on your first batch! Personally, I still use a wood bread slicer and a knife. I have several types of cutters... wire, crinkle, straight blade... but a good old sharp knife and my wood bread slicer still works best for me. For serious soap makers there are cutters like "the tank" which are wire cutters and will cut a whole log all at once, but its really something I think that is nice to have, not need to have. sure it gets better with time, and everyone has their favorite methods

yeah I would hve crocked the bad boy too, but you can rebatch, just shred it down, lowish heat, and time!

I never did before, however I've been testing a new blend of PB and container, and I added 10% stearic, I noticed a nice difference in appearance (smoother, less "dip") better release from the burner after a burn (as well as from the molds), and same throw as I typically would experience, not sure about "better"... so I am going to leep those test results in mind as I continue.. stearic isnt a huge expense imo for the better release from the burner.. I do need to test it with other burners however because I tend to use tealight burners which get much warmer than say, scentsy or candlewarmer.com

does the thickness matter? I know you can find something very much like that through deli suppliers, they are typically sold as soup containers http://www.bettymills.com/shop/super_category/list/super_category/Food%20Bins,%20Bags%20&%20Containers/category/Carryout%20Containers/sub_category/Plastic%20Containers.html (page2) those might not be the best price but looks like reynolds makes the 8oz ones

would something like this work? http://www.sks-bottle.com/340c/PlasticHingeTop.html

hey it works on etsy. slap the key words "luxury, spa, exclusive..." on it... get some really beautiful photography, plain labels... voila! $30 candle! works for one of my wholesale customers. 7oz tumbler, she sells it for almost $30.

Yeah, its bad stuff- they banned it in many cities here in Utah months ago. You could only buy it from tobacco stores to begin with, and had to be 18+, to me that says something. It does irritate me they continue to call it "bath salts" it has jack shit to do with bath salts beside the name on the package meant to throw people off.

hello! I cut after 12-24 hours.. depends on the recipe and water discount, also can depend on whether the soap gels well or not. I dont test PH anymore, and testing the ph of a bar of soap is difficult anyways, but I do a zap test on my batches still. You'll know pretty quick if there is an issue with it with that... youch! As long as you are using a good lye calculator you should be fine. silicone can hold onto scents, a bleach soak sometimes helps, just a weak bleach solution, soak for 10-15 minutes. If that doesnt work, I'd wonder if maybe you used a bit too much FO and it leached, and coated the molds the whole time they were molded. It really shouldnt affect future batches though. for colorants- TKB pops used to be the greatest option for me, but they have stopped producing them. These are some colors rated "soap stable" by TKB, http://www.tkbtrading.com/category.php?category_id=44 although the only way to know for sure is to test, unfortunately. an ounce goes a very long way, very little mica/oxide is needed to color a large batch. Some people disperse them in glycerin ahead of time, I just mix real well into either my FO for a solid color batch, or into my batch in cups for mixed color batches

I do make a beeswax and soy blend container candle, but I dont add frag.. took me long enough to wick it as it is. And yes- pulls away from the container, but it all does, so no wet spots, the whole thing is a wet spot!! lol:laugh2: They really are a specialty item, just a couple of customers who favor them.

I HATE THEM lol.. I only do them 20-50-100 at a time.. because uuugh

I only use cold water, gotta make sure the powder is really finely powdered though, shreds dont work... has to be processed.

nice! I figured with a pearl mica I could tone it down too.. or maybe some TD. I read up on carmine and apparently its not PH safe, just poof its gone... so there goes that theory

I havent done any testing yet but did order a bunch of oxides to test, black, brown, chrom green, orange, for non-vegans carmine might be an option, red oxide blue, red oxide 170, red oxide, yellow oxide... im going to give them all a shot, I'll update with results. been too busy to soap lately...

I think its something you have to be very careful about... if I'm charging 5.50 per bar of soap and offer free shipping, thats 2.20 out of the bar, leaving only 3.20 behind- not counting listing fees, paypal fees, supplies.. well, thats not much left over but.. I have run promos where 6 bars purchased at full price ship free- which only costs me 4.90 (padded flat rate envelope) so works out to a decent sale for me and my customers once a year or so.

my soaps are either boxed, or wrapped in paper- then the invoice is folded and the bars are set into the invoice, so I suppose thats a small layer of protection. Again, I've sent hundreds of bars this way, etsy and otherwise, and only had one bar arrive damaged. It was only damaged because the carrier left it on their deck in the rain. padded envelope wouldnt have made a difference in that case, they said it was soaked. Soap was fine, just wet. edited to add I've also had bars in this packaging make it to singapore, all over canada, australia, UK, and india 100% OK.

I adore CS oils but im just not making candles much right now and it will just sit...

just FYI: with the new bubble mailers, they are flat rate for 4.90ish, and you can fit 6-8 bars in them. Cheap cheap cheap!!

I charge 2.20, and that is one bar shipping in a kraft paper envelope with delivery confirmation- never once had an issue and I've shipped hundreds. The way I figure it is I COULD buy bubble mailers.. but its overkill. Its a waste to the enviroment and my customers. If one out of every 100 bars of soap got destroyed (which hasnt happened) it would still not be worth the waste bubble mailers cause. I can actually ship two bars in the envelopes (I think they are 4x6?) for around 3.20.

noooooooooooo... im broke, i just ordered jars, lids, pumps, and beeswax... damn you CS for having a sale when I'm broke! lol