Posted on June 12, 2017 by Vicki — 3 Comments

Bathbombs and Specials – The Week in Soap: 11th June ’17

I don’t know what the weather’s been like with you, but it’s been absolutely atrocious here this last week. Rain, rain and more rain. It’s beyond the pale, it really is. I keep hearing people referring to that lovely warm spell we had in May and saying that that was our summer – it’s all over now. Arrrghhhh please, no!! Despite living in one of the wettest areas in the UK (and loving it) I adore the sunshine. It brings out my freckles and a sunny disposition that, to be honest, doesn’t often get an airing 😀

Anyway, come rain or shine, there’s always something that needs to be done in the soap kitchen, so I’ll crack on and update you quickly on what’s been happening this week. Four double batches of soap were made: Clarity and Lemon Verbena Confetti (one of the summer specials):

Incidentally, remember the last batch of Lemon Verbena Confetti that featured in the post about Fragrance Oils going rogue? Well I received loads of tips about more things to try to avoid it happening, which I put into practice and got NO acceleration. I’m in the process of putting together an other blog post about it which I’ll share soon.

I also made Welsh Rose and Yr Wyddfa. Yr Wyddfa is the Welsh name for Snowdon – the highest mountain in England and Wales, and after which this area, Snowdonia, is named. Yr Wyddfa was first made last year, and I always said I would bring it back as a summer special. I’ve made a couple of changes to the design, and I can’t wait to cut it tomorrow:

I also made up a big batch of my facial soap. I’ve had a lot of positive feedback from the trial bars that went out, and many more queries from people wanting to buy it, so I’ve gone ahead and made up a batch in my tall & skinny mould:

I cut it couple of days later, and was very surprised to see I’d got a double partial gel! I don’t usually gel my soap, but clearly this got much hotter in the centre of the mould than it did on the outer edges. I actually don’t mind the effect at all, and it makes no difference to the finished product other than appearance, so I’m embracing it. Don’t think I’ll be able to recreate it though!!

This week also saw me making LOADS of bathbombs, some of which are heading out with a wholesale order today. Clockwise from top left we have Oatmeal, Milk & Honey, Welsh Rose and Luscious Lavender

In other news, thanks to the rain, there’s been far less work done on the garden than my optimistic post last week may have anticipated. Dean did manage to make the frames for the raised beds, and place them in situ, but that’s as far as we’ve got:

Oh, and the kids and I made some DELICIOUS chocolate chip cookies. To be honest, they were SO delicious, they didn’t last very long and we had to make a second batch. Ooops!!

I may well post the recipe sometime soon!

I’m off now to make that wholesale delivery, so thanks for reading – I’ll be back soon!!

Posted on June 8, 2017 by Vicki — 3 Comments

Goals for June

I am fully aware that we’re already a good quarter through the month, but I’ve been meaning to post this for days. I’ve not set any goals for a few months, and I kind of miss them. So with no further ado, this is what I hope to achieve this month, business-wise.

Research, and make some test batches, of lip balm.
Finish making the summer special soaps – I’m halfway there, still another 90 bars to go.
Create a ‘Core Range’ post for bathbombs, much like this one that I did for soap. I recently received my first wholesale bathbomb order, and I need to have an easy link to send to potential customers.
Post at least nine times here on the blog.

Just four specific goals – fingers crossed they shouldn’t be too difficult to achieve – I’ll post an update at the end of the month.

And, just because this is such a short, photo-free post, here’s a picture of one of those summer specials, just cut (and bevelled) Traeth Craig Du (Black Rock Sands), that I wrote about and showed in the mould in my last weekly update.

Thanks for reading, back soon!

Posted on June 6, 2017 by Vicki — 1 Comment

Slate and Things – A New Stockist

I first met husband and wife team Jon and Gill a few years ago when I started taking a stall alongside them at the monthly Porthmadog Craft Fair, and I’ve seen them almost every month since. Jon is a photographer by trade and he prints his images of local scenery (amongst other subjects) onto slate, turning them into very popular gifts:

Gill also sells her extraordinarily cute handcrafted items:

Just some of Gill's crafty creations — Just some of Gill’s crafty creations

They recently took the exciting step of opening a gift shop on the High Street in Caernarfon:

Slate and Things, 38 High Street, Caernarfon — Slate and Things,38 High Street, Caernarfon

and I was thrilled when they asked me if they could stock my soap. Of course, I said yes, and a week ago I delivered a selection of bars AND bathbombs, which are now available to buy:

Please do pop in and have a look if you’re passing / in the area. Jon and Gill are two of the most genuinely nice people you could meet, and it’s a pleasure to be working with them. I wish them every success with their new venture. Slate and Things are also on Facebook

Posted on June 5, 2017 by Vicki — 3 Comments

A Surprisingly Productive Week in Soap: 4th June, ’17

It’s June! Flippin’ heck I love the summer. Mind you, while we basked in some wonderful weather during May, June seems to have other ideas and has been a little wet so far, to say the least!

Anyway, I wasn’t expecting the last week to be particularly productive as far as soapiness goes. Dean (my other, some would say ‘better’, half) was working away most of the week and it just happened to be half-term so both kids were off school and I wasn’t able to get into the office for any decent period of time.

On Monday night I made the most of Dean’s last night at home to make some soap. This is one I’ve not made since last year, and is one of my summer specials. Traeth Craig Du (Black Rock Sands) is an homage to our local(est) beach. Just 20 minutes from home, we spend long days there in the summer, building sand castles and playing in the waves. The base of the soap has ground apricot stones in it, for a mildly exfoliating, sandy texture, and the fragrance is a refreshing marine scent. Think seaweed, rock pools and a coastal breeze – summer in a soap. Last year I made 15 bars, this year I’m making 60, so I hope it sells! I’ve only got in the mould photos at this stage – which aren’t very exciting, but I’ll post some cut pics very soon.

By Tuesday I had sent off all the parcels in this year’s International Soap Swap, and a couple of recipients have already received theirs. In order to avoid spoilers we’ve agreed not to share any photographs until everyone has received their parcel, but as soon as I can, I will…

Dean arrived home on Friday night, to a hero’s welcome from the kids (I let them stay up a bit later especially). I was pretty pleased too, not least because it meant I got to spend the whole day in the office on Saturday, catching up on wrapping and labelling. Not the most exciting of days, but I needed to make up for lost time.

Last night brought more restocks – Clarity & Lemon Verbena Confetti:

Clarity & Lemon Verbena Confetti in the mould

In other news, and this IS exciting, we spent some time in the ‘soon-to-be-recogniseable-as-a’ garden today. We have some scaffolding boards arriving tomorrow to build three raised beds, and today we levelled some ground ready for Dean to build the beds this week. Because of the incline there a fair bit of levelling to be done, so we’ll probably have to create a tier or two. But this feels like real progress, and I may even have sowed or planted something in there by this time next week – woop!!

It doesn’t look like much here, but it took us hours of digging and carting soil to get just this patch of ground nice and level. Those retaining bricks are only temporary by the way!

A different angle... — A different angle…

Thanks for reading, back soon!

Posted on June 3, 2017 by Vicki — 4 Comments

50 Things That Make Me Happy

And now for something completely different. Sometimes it does a lot of good to take a moment and count one’s blessings. I’ve realised how lucky I am that this really didn’t take me very long to put together…

Making lists. Win-win!
A large mug of tea. Strong, just a drop of milk, absolutely NO sugar (urgh). Oh, and a quiet 10 minutes to drink it!
Gardening. I don’t have much of a garden at the moment – it’s a work in progress, but I even enjoy the heavy, clearing work.
Spotify. Music while I work – yey!
A hot bath. With a good book – often the only time I ever get round to reading for pleasure.
An empty ironing basket. I REALLY don’t like ironing, so I don’t often have an empty basket 😀
Trying new fragrance oils for soap
Making soap. Obvs…
A long shower. It’s my child free, thinking time, so it inevitably goes on for a little longer than it should.
Running. I’ve got out of the habit recently – must get back to it, for so many good reasons!
An early night. Getting enough sleep is rare – must try harder!
Linguistics books. I love language, and languages. I studied linguistics at university and it’s still a passion.
Warm sunshine. Need I say more?
Camping. Just me, the other half and the kids, and NO wifi. Heaven.
Pink / purple hair. I like jazzing it up sometimes. I’m not ready for frumpiness!
Homemade Pizza. My husband makes the absolute best pizza in the world – his pizza dough is the stuff of legends.
A good novel.
Kickboxing. I only started at the beginning of the year, but I’m hooked. Trying for my orange belt in a couple of weeks time.
A glass of good red wine. Malbec is a current fave
Living here. ‘Here’ is Beddgelert, in the heart of Snowdonia. It’s often wet, but it’s also very green, very picturesque, very Welsh, and I never EVER take it for granted. I’ve done city living, now I’m home.
Cheese. Love love cheese. Except for goat’s cheese, bleugh…
Barbecues. With friends, sunshine and a couple of beers.
My filofax. I’d be lost without it. PLEASE don’t let me ever lose it!!
The Archers. I don’t watch any soaps on TV, but I do like my daily 15min fix of this.
A tidy, clear kitchen. It’s rare, but yeah, I like it 🙂
Baking. Cakes, cookies, scones, shall I go on?
Netflix. I don’t watch much TV, but when I do get a free evening, House of Cards and Dexter are current faves. The Sopranos, The Killing & Breaking Bad were just incredible.
Learning languages. Currently it’s Russian. I did a short course at Uni, then did evening classes in my 30s and got to GCSE Level, and now I’ve taken it back up again with the Duolingo app. Now I just need someone to practice on!!
Long walks in the countryside. But at the moment they’re never long enough for me as we’re trying hard not to go too far and put the children off walks for good!!
Days on the beach. With the children. Building sandcastles and playing in the waves.
My children laughing. I could have just said my children. And they do, of course make me happy, but they also drive me utterly crazy at times. But hearing them laugh? That’s just the best
Blog feedback. A little click on that ‘like’ button, or even better, a quick comment, is always appreciated, and guaranteed to make me happy! Unless the comment is to tell me you hate my blog. That wouldn’t make me happy…
Greek yoghurt with fresh berries. Not that horrid low fat rubbish mind – it has to be full fat!!
Fresh bedding. Show me someone who DOESN’T like fresh linen on the bed!
Modern Technology. My fitbit is never off my arm, and I don’t know what I’d do without my bluetooth speakers!
My mum’s trifle. She brought some to hospital after the birth of my first child. Best post-delivery snack EVER. But it mustn’t have jelly in it. Never ever put jelly in it. Maybe I should share the recipe?
Reese’s Peanutbutter Cups. Not a huge fan of peanut butter really, but add it to chocolate and I could eat it all day.
Christmas at home. Surrounded by family.
My husband’s cooking. I already mentioned his pizza up there ^^ But it’s not just pizza. He does most of the cooking in our house and he’s flippin’ good at it. I’m a lucky bunny.
Climbing mountains. It’s been over 7 years since I last climbed a mountain. Not since I was pregnant with my eldest. The youngest starts full time school in September and I’ve already told my husband that he needs to book a day’s holiday THAT VERY WEEK and we’re heading to the top of the nearest mountain.
Swimming in the sea.
Roller coasters and water slides. I’m a thrill seeker at heart.
Adventures abroad. I’ve done a bit in my time – Asia, Australia, Europe, but the last time we were overseas was when I was pregnant with our eldest, and I’m getting itchy feet. Plans need to be made!
The Big Bang Theory. Binge watched it on Netflix last year, and was bereft when we got to the end. Are they making more episodes?
Nutella. My guilty pleasure – I try not to indulge too much!
Star Gazing. I used to be a member of the British Astronomical Association, and I’m fascinated with all things space-related. Another of those hobbies that I hope to pick up again one day.
Waking up really early, and actually getting up…
Good grammar. I’m a Grammar Nazi. I can’t help it, it’s in my DNA 😉
Going to the cinema. These days it’s usually to see kids’ films, but I still enjoy the experience.
Second hand book Shops. Big ones, that I could get lost in.

So there you go. A little insight into what makes me, me. Have you ever made a similar list?

Thanks for reading, back soon!

Posted on May 29, 2017 by Vicki — 4 Comments

The Week in Soap: 28th May ’17

Building a business one soap at a time. That’s my blog’s sub-heading, and that’s what I’ve been doing for the last few years. Just like putting one step in front of the other, I’ve been making one soap after another, and slowly growing the business But a lot of the time it feels like I’m flying by the seat of my pants. I knew nothing of business before I started this venture, and it’s been (and still is!) a huge learning curve. I was simply a soapmaking hobbyist who frankly, was looking for a way to make a bit of money when I realised that I really DIDN’T want to go back to the long hours of Project Management when my son, my eldest child, was born seven years ago. Seven years ago today in fact. I’m not sure where I’m going with this ramble, but it’s my gorgeous boy’s birthday today, and I’ve been reminiscing on the passing of time.

Before my boy arrived I loved my job. It was fast paced and I worked long hours, but it was absolutely not compatible with a baby – for me anyway. So I started wondering whether it was possible to build a profitable business making handmade soap. Seven years on and the business grows month by month and I love THIS job. Working my own hours is so family-friendly (and will be even easier when my youngest starts school full time in September) but I’m still nowhere near making the kind of income I had from my pre-children employment, and I don’t know if I ever will. It’s exciting, exhilarating even, and sometimes it makes me anxious. At times I drive my long suffering husband insane by fretting and worrying about how much I have to do in what little time I have available to me, especially when he’s working away and that available time is further reduced. I’m frightened of taking too much on, overstretching myself and letting customers down. I’ve been holding back on launching the website because I really don’t know if I can handle more orders than I’m already getting… A great position to be in, but it means that growth is slower than it could otherwise be.

Well, having said all that, I was lucky enough to secure two new stockists this last week. My soap can now be found in Conwy Art & Craft, 7 High Street, Conwy and Slate and Things at 38 High Street, Caernarfon. Do pop in and check them out if your in the area – both gorgeous shops with loads of lovely items for sale.

Needless to say, I’ve been doing a lot of wrapping and labelling recently, but I also made soap (of course!). Two batches each of Serenity and Botanica: (please forgive the shadows – I thought I’d try some ‘arty’ photos in the dappled sunshine but, erm, it didn’t quite work :-D)

And I even managed to get it cut in time to share some pics with you:

I’ve been inundated with orders for the mini guest bars – plenty of them gone out this week:

I’m STILL in discussions with a couple of companies re boxes for my soap – I’ll be sure to share more when I have something definite to report.

On a personal note, I’ve already mentioned that it’s my eldest’s birthday today. We held a party for him and his friends yesterday, and much fun was had:

He absolutely adored his Minecraft themed cake:

made by the super-talented Julie of Stickytreats – check out her Instagram account if you love creative cake decor…

That’s it for today, thanks for reading, I’ll be back soon!

Posted on May 22, 2017 by Vicki — 2 Comments

The Week in Soap: 21st May ’17

Did you have a good weekend? I’ve no idea where this last week has gone – seemed to fly by! My husband was away for a couple of nights at the beginning of the week, so although I managed to make a couple of batches on Tuesday night, once the kids were in bed, I didn’t manage to get as much done this week as I usually would… He’s away again next week, for three nights I think, and as it’s half term and both kids are off school, it could well be a rather unproductive week soapwise…

Anyhow, back to the good stuff. These were Tuesday’s batches – Clarity and Luscious Lavender:

And, for once, I managed to photograph the freshly cut bars – forgive the rough edges, these were taken just minutes after cutting:

Clarity – brand new & freshly cut

Luscious Lavender – brand new & freshly cut

I’m still on the hunt for soap boxes – I knew there was a reason I put it off for so long, it’s not an easy search! I’ll update when I have something to share.

This week saw the arrival of the last parcel (all the way from the US) in the 2017 International Soap Swap. I don’t want to spoil any surprises so I can’t really give anything away until all participants have received their return packages, but oooohhhhh I’m so excited to share. There should have been 15 of us in total, but 6 had to pull out for one reason or another, and the final count is 9. The contents of these boxes are stunning, and will be posted out to their rightful owners by the end of the week. Stay tuned as I can’t wait to share their contents with you….

Soap Swap boxes - woop! — Soap Swap boxes – woop!

My soapmaking routine is taking a bit of a shuffle this week. I’ve always been in the habit of making soap on a Tuesday night, so that I have a batch to cut at my soapmaking presentation on a Thursday night (48 hours later). However, the venue has asked me to move my talk to Wednesday nights (after my kickboxing training – eek!) for the foreseeable future, and therefore I need to make soap on a Monday night from now on. It does however free Thursday night up for soapmaking too, so my schedule from now on will mean soapmaking on a Monday and a Thursday as a general rule.

There you go, that was my soapy week in a nutshell. In other news, we spent most of yesterday working in the garden. Have I mentioned our back garden yet? It was a complete jungle when we moved into the house, and it’s slowly being tamed into submission. This was it last year – just look at those overgrown boundaries :-O (But on a positive note they hid pounds and pounds of juicy blackberries)

A couple of months ago... — Last Autumn…

Then, after lots and lots of hacking, digging etc etc etc we got to this point a couple of weeks ago:

Before yesterday's efforts... — Before yesterday’s efforts…

And by the end of yesterday:

After Sunday's efforts... — After yesterday’s efforts…

I’m starting to see potential, and am getting excited about what we could do with it. It slopes upwards, so it’s foreshortened in this picture, and is actually longer than it looks. I have dreams of a greenhouse, a seating area, raised beds for veg and salad, and plenty of flower beds. I absolutely adore gardening, and can’t wait to get to it properly! And obviously I’ll be sure to share the progress 🙂

Thanks for reading – back soon!

Posted on May 15, 2017 by Vicki — 4 Comments

The Fortnight in Soap: 15th May ’17

Good afternoon from a very wet Monday in Snowdonia! We’ve had some glorious weather recently, but this morning we awoke to pouring rain and it hasn’t let up all day. Ah well, the gardens will be all the happier for it!

I didn’t post a round up last Sunday, as, to be honest, there wasn’t that much to tell you. I’d made one batch of soap – yet another two loaves of Tutti Frutti (I’m selling out as soon as it’s cured, and I need to get stock levels back up):

And last week I only soaped twice – another restock of Welsh Rose:

and the second time was some wedding favours for my friend who gets married at the end of June. I’ll share those in another post as I’ve not got round to photographing them yet.

I’ve been really busy with orders for my mini bars. These are really popular with holiday accommodation owners in the village and the surrounding area. Three lots have gone out over the weekend, and there’s still more to do.

I only sell these on a wholesale basis, with the minimum order being 50, they’re just too fiddly and time consuming to wrap to make them cost effective in smaller amounts. I’m considering doing a selection pack of one of each of the core range, but I need to think a little more about the practicalities (I’m back to whether or not I can make them cost effective again)

The other big thing taking up my time over the last week or so has been trying to get some quotes for soap boxes. I currently wrap in cellphane bags, but I’m looking for something a little more professional, and which will give the bars more protection in transit / on shelves. I’d like plain white boxes with a window, so that the soap can be seen (and smelled!) and early indications suggest that they’re not cheap!! It’s a work in progress, and I’ll keep you updated.

But the main reason I’ve not made soap for a while? I was all out of Olive Oil, and had been for a week. I strongly suspect that there’s a shortage at the moment as, although I could buy plenty of Pomace Olive Oil, I’m struggling to get regular olive oil at a good price. I know many soapmakers use pomace without any problems, but I find it accelerates trace compared to regular olive oil, and that’s no good for my drop swirls. I usually get mine via Amazon’s subscribe and save facility, but they didn’t deliver April’s order, and when I went online to check what was going on, they’d cancelled the order without so much as an email to let me know ARRGHH May’s order is still in place so I’m hoping that turns up as planned. Anyway, I ordered some more from another supplier last Monday evening, and it finally arrived today…

Oh, and this blog was featured in Feedspot’s 100 top soap blogs last week. I’ll be honest, Feedspot was new to me, but it appears to be very similar to Bloglovin’. If you’re interested in soapy blogs (and of course you are, right?!) do have a look through. There I am, right down at No. 62 😀 (and it seems my location is wrong – I’ve not lived in Manchester for over 3 years, so I’ll need to find a way to change that – I’m guessing it’s here in my settings somewhere?)

And don’t forget, if you have a soapy blog yourself then why not join our Soapmaking Bloggers Facebook Group?

Thanks for reading – back soon!

Posted on May 11, 2017 by Vicki — 5 Comments

Facial Soap

It’s finally ready for testing! Back in early April I made up a small batch of what I hope will prove to be the final version of my long awaited facial soap. I’ve been using it myself for the last week, and I have to say I’m really really happy with it. It has a light, creamy lather and leaves my face feeling clean but so soft and not at all tight.

It’s unscented, uncoloured, and alongside the more commonplace ingredients, it also contains argan oil, jojoba oil, evening primrose oil and sweet almond oil. My feeling is it’s suitable for most skin types, but I’m no skincare expert, so I’ve asked for some volunteer testers via my Facebook page. I’m hoping to send out some samples this week:

This isn’t the final shape, and I have some work to do on packaging still, but hopefully I’ll be able to offer them for sale soon, together with a charcoal version for oilier skins.

Posted on May 2, 2017 by Vicki — Leave a comment

Calling all Soapmaking Bloggers…

Do you blog about making soap? I’ve created a facebook group where anyone blogging about ANY type of soapmaking (HP, CP, M&P, Liquid etc etc…) can share their blog posts, learn from others and find new soapy blogs to follow.

Please do join, here

I look forward to seeing you there 🙂

Posted on May 2, 2017 by Vicki — 8 Comments

When Fragrance Oils Go Rogue

My hands-down-most-popular summer special last year was my Lemon Verbena Confetti, so obviously I had to make it again this year. It has a white base colour, is crammed with multi-coloured soap shavings and is fragranced with an amazing smelling Lemon Verbena fragrance oil. I LOVE lemon verbena – it’s fresh, crisp and citrussy with herbaceous notes, but sadly, this particular lemon verbena fragrance does NOT behave itself in cold process soap.

I knew from my experience using last year that it was a fast mover, so I thought I was well prepared this time. The soap shavings were ready to go, the oils and lye were at room temperature, I didn’t discount the water, and was prepared to work quickly. It wasn’t enough…

Soap shaving ready to be added... — Soap shaving ready to be added…

I added my titanium dioxide AND the Lemon Verbena FO to to my oils, added the lye water and KAPOW! it solidified immediately. I refused to be beaten. I splodged the stick blender in and loosened it up a bit before adding all the soap shavings. How much soap shavings you use is entirely up to you – I don’t measure it out, I just mix in more and more until it looks like enough <not helpful sorry>:

I mixed as far as I could with a spoon but in the end I had to plunge in my (gloved!!) hands to give it a thorough mix. It was the only way to get everything properly combined without breaking up all the soap shreds with the blender. I also used my hands to get the whole lot into the the moulds (one benefit of making confetti soap – two batches with added confetti makes enough soap to fill three moulds – yey!)

It was only then that I realised that one of my gloves had split and I had the beginnings of a lye burn on the end of one of my fingers – ouch 🙁

Two days later I unmoulded and cut, and the result wasn’t too shabby:

It has a few small air holes here and there, trapped during the mould filling, but it’s pretty good, considering!

Incidentally, the company from whom I bought this FO claim on their website that it causes no acceleration in CP soap, but when I asked in a FB group whether anyone else had had an issue with this particular FO, it seems to be fairly common. Ah well, forewarned is forearmed eh?!

Posted on May 1, 2017 by Vicki — Leave a comment

Another month gone…

I’m in holiday mode again. It’s May Day bank holiday here today, so even though Easter seems like just yesterday, we’re enjoying another long weekend, and I didn’t even think to get my weekly round up post done yesterday. (*Ahem* If I’m honest, it did cross my mind briefly last night, but by that point we were binge watching Dexter on Netflix and enjoying rather nice bottle of red 😀 It’s all about balance eh?!)

This week saw me making a start on the summer specials – Lemon Verbena Confetti. I’ve not got round to taking a photograph of this year’s version yet, but this is a photo from last year to give you an idea…

The Lemon Verbena fragrance oil smells absolutely amazing, but it’s such a fast mover that I was in two minds whether to use it again this year. In the end my (and my customers’) love for the fragrance won out, and last Thursday I made two batches. It was worse than I remembered 🙁 I’m in the middle of writing a post about it, and I’ll definitely have some cut photos of the recent batches by then.

The rest of the week was spent fulfilling orders (inc one for a brand new stockist, Crumpton Hill Farm Shop in Herefordshire), end of month accounts and wrapping & labelling for the monthly Porthmadog Craft Fair on Saturday, including these:

Botanica (Lavender, lemon & lime essential oils)

Serenity (Patchouli, orange, lemon & ylang ylang essential oils)

This week we also enjoyed the fourth birthday of the littlest Soapminer but I’m ever so glad such important birthdays only happen twice a year!!

Oh, and guess what? I actually read a whole book in April! Yep, I managed to finish The Girl on the Train yesterday and it’s definitely whetted my appetite to read more.

Goals. Should I or shouldn’t I? January through to March, one of my monthly goals was to read a whole book. Failed on three counts. In April I had no goals whatsoever and I read a book. In February and March I wanted to create a wholesale linesheet, or at least put all the information into one place for customers to access. Didn’t happen either month, but in April I managed to post about the Core Range. Is it just a coincidence or am I subconsciously sabotaging my own efforts when I have a ‘goal’ to achieve? Why would I do that though? Am I asking too much of myself? Perhaps I should just have the one goal until it becomes a habit and then introduce another… On a personal level that’d probably work well, but I need to be a little more productive and proactive workwise, and push myself a little more, not less…

So here’s the deal – I’ll give myself just one personal goal, and that’s to read a book (I so very nearly wrote ‘two books’ before I realised how utterly ridiculous I was being :-D) My challenge now is to find a book that will grip me as much The Girl on the Train. To that end I did a quick ‘what should I read next if I liked…’ Google search, and I now have 7 books on order with my local library. I’m hoping that at least one or two will arrive pretty quickly and I can make a start.

Workwise there are a few things I want to achieve, alongside the regular restocks, and I don’t think I’m being over-ambitious here either:

Get my facial bars out to testers
Make trial batches of lipsalve
Get back to posting on the blog at least eight times during May

I also have another 200 mini guest bars, for three different customers, to be cracking on with this week and my regular Tuesday (tomorrow) night session has been hijacked by an meeting that I’m expected to attend, so I’m having to bring my soaping session forward to tonight in order to have soap to cut at my regular Thursday night soapmaking presentation. Juggling, always juggling, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Thanks for reading, I’ll be back soon with more soapy updates.

Posted on April 24, 2017 by Vicki — 6 Comments

The Week in Soap: 23rd April ’17 – A rainbow, a birthday and a rather good read

After a lovely couple of weeks off for Easter, the kids went back to school today and we’re almost back to normal. I say almost as today was the little one’s fourth birthday, so nothing normal about that :-D. We threw a party for her and her friends yesterday (Sunday) so today was a little more low key. I picked her up after her two hours at school this morning (she won’t be full-time until next September and neither of us can wait haha!) and went into town for some mum/daughter time and a BIG bowl of ice-cream. Do you think she enjoyed it?

I usually get to go to work for an hour or two at four o’ clock when my husband finishes work, but today my mum came over with a birthday gift so we had some birthday cake and played with kinetic sand (that stuff is AMAZING – I wonder if the recipes on Pinterest are any good?). We’ve had lots of fun but tomorrow is definitely ‘back to normal’ day and I’m looking forward to getting back into the swing of work again.

I only managed one evening of soapmaking this last week – a double batch of Tutti Frutti. It was these batches that I photographed to use in my rainbow drop swirl tutorial:

Tutti Frutti ready to set up — Tutti Frutti in the Mould

Tutti Frutti mid-cut:

In other news, I’ve finally found a novel to end my reading drought and I think I’ll actually be able to say I’ve read a whole book by the end of the month. Now this is a big, huge, MASSIVE deal for me given that I’ve been whingeing on to anyone who’ll listen about how much I miss reading, but what’s at the back of my mind? Oh, only the fact that I didn’t bother with that perennial ‘read a book’ goal this month – gah!! Anyway, I’m a bit late to the The Girl on the Train party, but I picked up a copy for pennies at a table-top sale recently and I’m LOVING it. It’s an easy read, but it has me hooked, and I find myself glancing over at it at various times of the day, wondering if I could get away with hiding in the corner for half an hour for another fix…

Thanks for reading, back soon!

Posted on April 21, 2017 by Vicki — 27 Comments

Rainbow Drop Swirl – A tutorial in pictures

There’s been a lot of interest in my rainbow drop swirl (Tutti Frutti) soap recently, so I thought I’d put together a little pictorial tutorial for anyone who’s interested in how it’s done (I really, REALLY should start making videos shouldn’t I?).

Many of you will already know how big a fan I am of the drop swirl technique. Almost all of my core range is made using either a full or partial drop swirl, and Tutti Frutti is no exception. I made another couple of batches recently, and took some photographs along the way…

**Please make sure you’re familiar with the basics of soapmaking before you try any advanced swirls (Soap Queen is a good place to start) and always wear protective clothing / gloves / goggles. Safety first!!**

I generally make soap at room temperature, so I’ll mix up the lye solution in advance and put it to one side to cool down (I don’t discount the water for this one). I’ll also melt the hard oils and butters and combine them with the liquid oils and butters and allow them to cool down to room temp.

Next I measure out the seven different micas straight into the pouring jugs (actually here you’ll see six different micas and one liquid colourant. It’s notoriously difficult to get a good red in CP soap, but I use a liquid colour from Gracefruit which is rather good. They appear to be out of stock of the red at the moment, but hopefully it’ll be back in soon.)

colourants ready for mixing into the soap batter

Next I add my fragrance oil to the room temp oils and butters. Many people add their fragrance AFTER adding the lye and tracing the soap, but my preference is to add it before.

I then add a couple of teaspoons of the fragranced oils to each jug of mica and get them well blended. I know it’s common practice to skip this stage and simply add the traced lye batter directly onto the powdered mica (or add the powdered mica directly to jugs of traced batter), but I don’t always use a stick blender and this way I know I can get the colour incorporated well just by giving it a good mix with a spatula.

Pre-mixed colourants, oils and a jug of lye water

I get my moulds ready – notice my high-tech method of stopping the mould sides from bowing inwards 😀

And then we’re ready to go… I mix the lye water into the tub of (already fragranced!) oils and butters, and share the soap batter out equally into the seven prepared jugs. It would appear I forgot to get a photo of that stage – sorry! What we’re looking for is a really light trace as the soap will thicken up during the pouring process. Personally I don’t stick-blend this soap AT ALL. I find that by the time I’ve mixed up all the colours thoroughly it’s already at a light trace, but this will very much depend on how quickly your particular soap recipe traces and which fragrance you’re using. I’ve even found that certain micas can inhibit trace, so there are many different factors involved. It’s a case of using your judgement and, to be honest, trial and error.

Next comes the pour. First in this time was yellow:

First pour - yellow — First pour – yellow

What’s crucial for a nice drop is the height from which you pour the soap in to the mould. At the early stages my jug is quite close to the bottom of the mould as I pour a line of soap along the length of it. Here’s the next couple of pours:

Once the bottom of the mould has been covered with soap, I start to raise the jugs a little higher as I pour, so that the soap drops into the previous layer, rather than sit on the top of it. It’s very hard to give a precise height as it very much depends on how thick your soap batter is (the thicker it is, the higher you’ll need to drop it from)

I try to make sure I pour from the jugs in the same order on each round of pouring, and also try to make sure I’m not pouring a colour on top of the same colour in the mould.

I keep pouring until the moulds are full:

By this stage the batter is quite a bit thicker than when I started to pour, and looks none too tidy, but it doesn’t really matter once I start adding texture to the top:

Mid-texturing the top — Starting to tidy up the top

And the finished item:

I generally leave soap in the mould for 48 hours before I unmould and cut:

And that’s it. It’s cured for 4 weeks, bevelled and tidied up, cured for another 2 weeks then released for sale.

Some time ago I started using the Instagram hashtag #dropsaretops for some of my photos – please use the tag to share your own drop swirls and make this drop swirl junkie very happy 😀

Posted on April 16, 2017 by Vicki — Leave a comment

Happy Easter!

Hope you’re all having a happy and peaceful holiday weekend. This week has been fairly quiet on the soapy front – not an awful lot going on other than restocks, blah blah… Don’t get me wrong, I adore making and cutting soap, restocks or otherwise, but it’s not so exciting for you dear readers to be seeing the same thing over and over again 😀

I took the children to visit friends over night on Tuesday, which is generally soaping night, so I brought it forward and made two double batches on Monday instead. These are First Kiss & Luscious Lavender:

First Kiss & Luscious Lavender Handmade Soap

I’m in the process of trying to rename ‘First Kiss’. It was so called because it’s so sweet (groan!!) but I’m pretty sure that some people are put off buying it as a gift because of the name. If you have any thoughts pleeeaaase share – it’s a dupe of Aquolina’s Pink Sugar, and is a a rather delicious sweet, vanilla-y / caramely fragrance.

My second soapy session was today – two double batches of Scrubby Peppermint and Botanica.

Scrubby Peppermint & Botanica in the Mould

I’ve said before that Botanica’s blend of Lavender, Lemon & Lime is my current favourite, and today the fragrance of the essential oils together was literally making my mouth water, they blend stunningly well together.

This week we finally got to make a start on the EPIC project that is our back garden. It’s pretty big, but as we’ve been focussing on doing up the house since we moved in, the garden’s not had a look-in. It’s been totally neglected for the last 20 (30?) years and making it beautiful is going to be a real labour of love, but we’ll get there.

Here are a few ‘before’ photos to give you an idea of the hard work we have ahead of us!!

The Garden - Before — The Garden – Before

I’ve called these ‘Before’ photos, but believe it or not these photos were taken after we’d done a fair bit of clearing already. We did take some photos when we first moved in, maybe I’ll try to hunt some out for a future post – I’m sure there will be regular updates as and when we make progress 😉

That’s it for now. It’s Easter Sunday evening and I really must go and spend some time with my (mostly) ever-patient other half! Thanks for reading, back soon!

Posted on April 10, 2017 by Vicki — Leave a comment

The Week in Soap: 9th April ’17

A day late, but better late than never eh? Anyway, this weekly update will be super-short. The kids are off school for the Easter break, and I have even less time than usual to get all the things done…

I only managed one night of soaping in the last week – I made double batches of Boho Baby and OMH. I tried using a mica called ‘Arctic White’ instead of Titanium Dioxide for the white portion of the OMH, and I really wish I hadn’t, but hey ho, it’s good to try something different occasionally (shan’t be trying that one again though!):

Last week I also managed to hastily put together a post outlining the core range of soaps. It’s a poor substitute for a website, but at least now when I’m asked what I have it’s all listed in one place and I can just send a link. It has however highlighted the fact that I need to do some work on product descriptions and on photography (though luckily my husband just bought a DSLR camera so that might happen soon) before I launch the website.

The second bit of news is that I made facial soap – finally! It was on the goals lists for the last two months and while I’ve been working on the recipe for quite a while, I just never got round to actually making it. I put a lot of research into this one, and while it’s colour and fragrance free, it’s chock full of some other amazing ingredients. I’ll post separately about it soon.

Now I’m (kind of) back on track goals wise, I should be thinking about April’s goals but you know what? We’re already 10 days in and I’ve got 14 days of school holidays to get through – I’m cutting myself some slack and not setting goals for April. I’ll just keep on building inventory (starting to feel a little more comfortable with the numbers on the rack now), wrapping / labelling, fulfilling orders and doing my weekly soapy presentation / monthly market.

Thanks for reading, back soon!

Posted on April 8, 2017 by Vicki — 10 Comments

The Core Range – Soap

This is the core range of soaps. Each bar retails at £4.50, please contact me for wholesale prices. I have two main core ranges – soap fragranced with pure essential oils only, and soap made with fragrance oils.

Each bar weighs minimum of 100g, but in reality most are around the 110 – 120g mark.

Please be aware that as these are handmade items and no two bars will look alike. Fragrances will remain constant, but designs may vary slightly from bar to bar.

Essential Oil Soaps

Clarity

Fragranced with Lemongrass and Clary Sage essential oils, Clarity is a real unisex fragrance, and one of my best sellers.

Blodau

A feminine, floral scent comprising of a blend of Lavender, Ylang Ylang and Rosewood essential oils.

Botanica

The newest variety in the essential oil range, Botanica is fragranced with a gorgeous blend of Lavender, Lemon and Lime essential oils. A fresh scent, reminiscent of summer days.

Luscious Lavender

Simply fragranced with pure Lavender essential oil, loved by all ages.

Serenity

‘The one that smells like a spa’. That’s how customers describe Serenity, and with good reason – the heady blend of Patchouli, Lemon, Orange and Ylang Ylang essential oils will have you relaxed in no time.

Peppermint Scrub

Fragranced with pure Peppermint essential oil, and chock full of oatmeal (to soothe) and ground apricot stones (to scrub), this soap is PERFECT for gardeners or mechanics who might need a bit of extra oomph to get their hands clean. Also great for feet which need a little attention before sandal season!

Fragrance Oil Soaps

Sugar Drops

A sweet, warm, caramel, vanilla fragrance, reminiscent of Aquolina’s Pink Sugar designer perfume.

Bewitched

A fruity, floral fragrance with notes of peach, cherry blossom and white jasmine. Reminscent of Victoria Secret’s Love Spell perfume.

Oatmeal, Milk & Honey (OMH)

The ultimate comforting scent, OMH has strong almond notes with honey and creamy oats.

Tutti Frutti

Tutti Frutti is fragranced with a juicy jellybeans scent. Loved by children and adults alike.

Welsh Rose

A classic fragrance, the luscious scent of fresh rose petals.

Locally Themed Soaps

Eryri (Snowdonia)

A stylised representation of the hills and mountains of Snowdonia, under blue skies and whispy white clouds. It’s fragranced with my own blend of pure essential oils, including rosemary, peppermint, lime, patchouli and a touch of eucalyptus, which give a fresh, outdoorsy scent to the bar:

Traeth Craig Du (Black Rock Sands)

As well as the mountains, Snowdonia has plenty of coastline and beaches too. Traeth Craig Du is named after the beach closest to where the soaps are made – Black Rock Sands. It’s scented with a marine, sea-salty fragrance, with hints of ozone and salt encrusted driftwood. The bottom third of the bar contains ground apricot stone, to replicate the exfoliating benefits one gets from walking barefoot on sand:

Posted on April 2, 2017 by Vicki — Leave a comment

The Week in Soap: 2nd April ’17

Excuse me… where did that week go? March flew by in the blink of an eye, and this last week seems to have done so too. Thursday evening saw the first of this season’s weekly soaping presentations at Craflwyn Hall. I’ll be there every Thursday evening from now until the start of November, describing the process of soapmaking and enthusing about my obsession. It’s always a pleasure to get out and spread the word about handmade soap.

That was really the only remarkable thing about this week in soap. I managed two soaping sessions – firstly making a double batch of Welsh Rose and a double batch of Castile:

and secondly making double batches of Blodau (Flowers) and Delicious:

And a closer look at the Castile in its mould, just because…

Tutti Frutti has been out of stock for a couple of weeks thanks to a couple of large wholesale orders a last month, but this week it came off the curing rack and I made a start on wrapping and labelling. Not before taking this photograph though –

which proved to be the most popular of all the photos I posted to Instagram this week.

You may have noticed a few recipe / review posts sneaking onto the blog occasionally, and you’ll definitely see more in the future. It’s just my way of expanding the focus of the blog a little, to include more of my day-to-day life, but don’t worry, it will remain predominantly a soapy blog 😉

And that’s it for today. I’ve got quite a few posts lined up (in my head) so I hope to be back very soon. Thanks for reading!

Posted on March 31, 2017 by Vicki — Leave a comment

March Goals Revisited

Is anyone else incredulous that we’re a quarter of the way through 2017 already? I’m still recovering from Christmas, really should be thinking about my summer specials, and yet I’ve been so busy this last few months that I’m still playing catch up, stock-wise… March also saw the first of my monthly craft fairs, and the first of my weekly Thursday evening soaping presentations… I may be setting the scene here for what’s coming next 😀 😀

Right, so, at the beginning of the month I set out my goals for March. February wasn’t the most successful month goals wise (though rather good business-wise, so who’s complaining?) and I was convinced I could do better this month. I intended to:

Create a wholesale Line Sheet. Wholesale enquiries are increasing and this is a high priority ‘must have’. ASAP…
Make a test batch of facial soap
Post 8 times on the blog

I’ve not got round to the Line Sheet. It’s been on my mind constantly, and I’ve come up with a workaround for the time being – within the next week or so I’ll write a blog post outlining my core range. Once that’s posted I can send the link to anyone enquiring, and then when the time comes to design the Line Sheet I’ll have all the info in one place, ready to go.

Nor have I managed to make the facial soap. Oh, this one is frustrating me. I REALLY want to get down to it, but each soaping session I manage to carve out of my week is devoted to core range soap and getting stock levels up. It’s going back onto the goals list for April, and I think I have a chance of actually doing it *crosses fingers*

But the third goal? Write eight blog posts? Phew – including this one, I wrote ten – yey!!

My personal goals were to run 30km and to read. Read anything, and for any length of time. I only managed to run 24km, but considering I’ve not been for a run since the 19th of the month, I don’t think that’s too bad. I’ve spent some time this month training for (and earning) my yellow kickboxing belt, so I’ve not exactly been idle lol.

I have read. Not a lot, but on the few evenings I’ve managed to get to bed before midnight I’ve picked up a book and got through a few pages before my husband gently lifts the book away and switches of my bedsight light because I’ve fallen asleep… I’ve realised that I’m not Superwoman, I can’t do everything that I’d LOVE to do, never mind the things that I’d like to do, so if I can, I will, but reading is coming off my goals list.

Thanks for reading, April goals to follow soon.