I only flippin’ went and did it! Participation in the Blogtober 2016 challenge was such a random, hasty and last minute decision that, in all honesty, it was highly likely that I would fail. I realised, after mentally committing myself, that many of the other participants had been (sensibly!) planning ahead, preparing and scheduling posts beforehand. I didn’t have that luxury, having decided approximately 8 hours into the first day of October that this was something I could/should/would do.
Decision made, I had to be clear on what on earth I was going to write about every day. I didn’t think I would have enough ‘soapy’ topics to cover, so I made sure I had a rough list of other possible topics. As it turned out, I didn’t need to use many of those off-topic ideas – turns out there is an awful lot to share / write about in the soapy world!
Now, here I am, 31 days later with 31 more blog posts under my belt than I had at the beginning of the month. I did it (!) and it’s been an extremely useful experience – primarily because it’s got me back into the habit of blogging on a regular basis. I’ve discovered during the last month that I really do enjoy writing, but that doing so within such narrow time constraints doesn’t do anything for the standard of what I produce. It has without a doubt been a case of quantity over quality (sorry about that 😉 ) Some of the topics I’ve covered have been done hurriedly and I’ll probably revisit them in greater detail at a later date.
Coincidentally, this post is also my 100th on the blog and I’m determined to keep blogging on a regular basis from now on. More soap pics, more tutorials, more reviews and more personal ‘meet the maker’ posts (Ooh – they scare me :-D).
Thank you SO much if you’ve stuck with me over the last month, and a double/triple thank you to those of you who’ve rewarded me with the odd ‘like’ or ‘comment’. It really has helped spur me on, knowing that there is somebody, anybody, out there reading every now and then. Thank you, thank you, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
As I was putting together yesterday’s ‘Wet Soap Wednesday on a Friday’ post, I was thinking about how much I like soap tops, and remembered that I’d done a post a while back about them. When I went looking, I was surprised to find it had been almost two years ago: Soap Tops from November 2014. I was also struck by how different those tops were to the way I do things now. So today’s post is a quick round up of my favourite soap tops from more recent times.
First up is a dupe of the DKNY fragrance, Be Delicious – appley, cucumbery and absolutely….Delicious:
Delicious
Then there’s a recent batch of Clarity which turned out just beautifully (last night’s batch didn’t look quite as good as this in the mould!)
Clarity
The top of this Oatmeal, Milk & Honey batch swirled really nicely:
Oatmeal, Milk & Honey
And this batch of Florida Sunrise (now discontinued) looked gorgeous as it started to gel:
Florida Sunrise
Another recently discontinued fragrance – a custom blend called Enigma, looked luscious freshly swirled:
Enigma
Finally I just LOVE how this batch of Serenity looked in the mould:
Serenity
I’d be lying if I said every single batch looks like these, but I do tend to add a lot more texture to the tops than I used to, and I think I prefer them that way. I guess it’s about time I revised my header photo!!
It’s a selection of books I’d bought with some Amazon vouchers I’d received for my birthday back in July. At various points in the subsequent comments I mentioned that my degree is in Linguistics, and as well as being fluent in a second language (Welsh), I have also studied French, German, Spanish and Russian. Ever since my teenage years I’ve had a passion for anything to do with language in general, and to this day I have a special interest in the history of language and how different language interrelate.
I was fascinated by the comments this post elicited from other soapmakers – so many are bi- or even multi-lingual, and/or have an interest in history, as well as a huge variety of other interests and hobbies. Soap, soapmaking and soapy social media have a tendency to dominate my life and I forget to take a break and do something completely different. Truth be told I struggle to find the time to stop and do something different. Having a business that is also one’s hobby is not the best combination for a good work/life balance it would appear. In the last six weeks I’ve managed to read just the first 35 pages of one of those books, despite finding it deeply absorbing (I usually manage 1.5 – 2 pages in bed before nodding off, no matter how hard I fight it).
So, go on, tell me what you do in your free time. What are your interests, your passions, and how do you find the time to indulge them?
Last Saturday I had a stall at a local craft fair. Not any old craft fair mind you, this was important to me for two reasons. First off, it was right here, in my village – the first one we’ve ever had. Secondly, it was the first craft fair that I’ve organised myself. It was the culmination of a couple off months of planning, and, if I’m honest, a fair bit of anxiety. I needn’t have worried – it was a great success, so I thought I’d share with you here a few things to consider if you’d like to organise something similar yourself.
Do your research regarding other markets and craft fairs in the area and make sure your event doesn’t clash with another on the same day. As well as competing for visitors, you’ll also be competing for stallholders.
As soon as you’ve decided on a date, secure your venue. You don’t want to be inviting stallholders until you’ve confirmed your accommodation for the day.
Invite / organise crafters as far in advance as possible. Many crafters book themselves into markets and craft fairs many months ahead. It’s also worth considering asking for a deposit on the cost of the table – this decreases the risk of stallholders not turning up on the day.
Ensure that all your stallholders have public liability insurance.
Ensure you know how many tables you can fit into the available space. You don’t want to ask 20 crafters to attend and then find when you’re setting up that you can only fit 19 tables into the room! It’s definitely worth having a trial ‘set up’ before deciding how many crafters to invite.
Don’t double up on crafts unless it’s a BIG event. There’s nothing worse for a stallholder than setting up at a fair of, say, 12 stalls to find that there are two or three other stallholders there selling something very similar. It’s not fair on any of them.
Don’t try to charge too much per stall / table, especially if it’s the first time this event has taken place. You won’t have any idea what the footfall is going to be and won’t be able to make any claims as to likely number of visitors.
Advertising, advertising, advertising. You want as many people walking through the door of your venue as possible, so this is an instance where too much advertising is never enough. Get your event all over Facebook – on your personal feed (ask friends to share), on local selling pages, and on local community sites. Put a small ad in the local newspaper, a paragraph in the parish magazine, get it listed on’What’s Happening in Your Area’ type websites. Make sure there are posters put up in the area. Don’t forget your local tourist bureau and local hotels / guest houses if you live in a popular area for visitors – local crafts are just the thing that they’ll be interested in.
Have a spare cash float or two. It’s not unheard of for stallholders to arrive at a craft fair without their cash box. Not me of course, oh no… well, only that once a few months ago 😀 and I was both grateful and impressed that the organisers had thought to bring along a couple of ‘spare’ floats for just that eventuality.
Rope in as much help as possible. Setting up, decorating the venue and getting plenty of directional signage outside and in the immediate area can take longer than you anticipate. If you’re also planning on holding raffle / tombola / lucky dip / cake stall you’ll need yet more hands on deck.
A bonus tip – if you’re holding the craft fair or market to raise money for a local cause, consider also having a raffle / tombola / lucky dip / tea, coffee & cakes stall. Just make sure that you put out the call for donations well in advance
I love Instagram. I was a bit of a late adopter, signing up in October 2014, posting once and then posting a second time in November. I didn’t really get the point of it to be honest, and didn’t post again until February of the following year.
However, once I had devoted just a little bit of thought and time to it, I began to see the benefits:
Promoting the business. By actively seeking out potential stockists on IG, following them, interacting with them and even direct messaging them, I’ve gained five new wholesale accounts in the last 9 months.
Connecting with other soapmakers. When you’re as obsessed with soapmaking as I am, following, ‘meeting’ and chatting online with other soapmakers (many of whom are now Facebook friends too) is a joy. I once tried to reach out to a local soapmaker with the hope of soapy chats over mugs of tea (can’t stand coffee lol) but was rebuffed. I have no idea why, but I thought it was a shame – there are absolutely enough customers out there for the both of us but hey ho… I digress – IG has helped me to meet loads of other lovely, friendly and inspirational soapmakers, even if it is only online.
Which brings me to – Inspiration. Now I’m not talking about seeing someone else’s soap and copying it – that’s very much frowned upon, and rightly so. No, my inspirational browsing is purely revelling in the beauty and creativity that is other people’s soaps. Sometimes I might see something that inspires me to try a particular natural colourant, or give a particular technique a go. Sadly though, I’m usually too busy making my own restocks that I rarely get the opportunity to ‘play’ and experiment.
It’s a vanity platform. Let’s be honest, it’s a rare person who doesn’t enjoy a bit of positive feedback. Once you have a few followers and those hearts and comments start totting up, it’s quite a confidence booster.
The soap that I’ve long called ‘Love Spell’ is scented with a fragrance oil that is a copy of the designer perfume ‘Love Spell’ by Victoria’s Secret. Having recently applied for my bath bomb assessment, which includes bombs fragranced with the same fragrance oil, I was reminded that I can’t call them (or my soap!) Love Spell as it contravenes copyright. I knew this, and I should have changed it ages ago, but to be honest I just didn’t spend the time to come up with a replacement. As it was, when I received the message from my assessor, the new name came to me within a minute or two. Typical! Anyway, it will henceforth be known as Bewitched.
I first made it back in the summer of 2014. You can clearly see where the top portion, coloured with titanium dioxide, shrank more than the rest of the bar during the curing process. The top was simply spattered with leftover soap batter:
Bewitched V1
Soon after that I got into tiger stripe pouring, which I initially made with a flat top (and experimented with some black stripes):
Bewitched V2Bewitched V3
And later with a textured top:
Bewitched V4
Finally I brought it in line with the rest of the range i.e. with a full bar drop swirl:
Bewitched V5
Day 23 of Blogtober 2016. I’m starting to believe I can actually do this 😀
I have a brand new essential oil bar, and it needs a name… This bar is scented with lavender, lemon and lime EOs. Heavier on the lavender and lemon, lighter on the lime, but it’s definitely discernible.
Please give me a name 🙂
I’m offering a free bar to the person who comes up with the name that I eventually select, and you can either enter below in the comments field, or on the competition post on my FB page. It’s open to anyone, wherever you are in the world – I’ll cover postage costs too (last time I did this it the bar went over the pond to the US). So don’t be shy – I know you’re a creative lot!!
FYI The other essential oil bars in my range are called Serenity, Clarity, Peace, Boho Baby, Flowers and Luscious Lavender.
PS – the winning name will be chosen on Saturday 29th October, 9pm UK time.
A spanner has been thrown into the Blogtober 2016 works. This week my kitchen (well, the entire interior of the back of my house) has been ripped out. Right back to the brick:
Renovations 1 Renovations 2
I knew it was coming, but I stuck my head in the sand and told my myself everything would be ok. Well of course it is, and it will be even better, but flipping heck it’s having a major effect on daily life!! Needless to say I’ve not had much of an opportunity over the last few days to just sit and write, so here I am, again, with just 63 minutes of the day left, determined to get Blogtober Day 20 out before midnight.
Fortunately for me, today is Thursday, so I can do a little #throwbackthursday post.
This here soap is one of the very first drop swirls that I made to sell, made on the 15th June 2014. If you know my current range, you’ll know that I’m rather partial to a drop swirl, and here, folks, is kinda where it all started. Things have changed a bit since then:
Black Jack
Black Jack was fragranced with Aniseed and Spearmint essential oils, and although I thought it smelled utterly amazing, sadly Joe Public didn’t and It was dropped from the lineup PDQ. Perhaps one day I’ll make it again, just for me 🙂
I’ll be back tomorrow with Blogtober Day 21. I Will. I WILL 😀
This year I’ve made three seasonal bars especially for the Christmas period. These are limited edition soaps – there are only 29 available of each fragrance – but they’re made with the same luxurious base recipe of highest quality, food grade oils and butters that all our bars are made of.
It still feels rather early to many to be thinking about the holiday period, but these bars need a good 6 weeks curing time, so won’t be ready to buy until mid-November – just in time to start shopping 😀
Without any further ado – here are:
Christmas Tree (Cool herbal fragrance of pine, mint, green leaf and ozone, hints of jasmine and lily and supported by notes of precious woods, amber and patchouli)
Three Kings (A resinous, woody-oriental fragrance with citrus top notes mingling with warm base of frankincense, myrrh and amber), topped with gold mica.
Candy Cane (Buttery peppermint and spearmint with hints of vanilla)
Today has mostly been spent keeping the children occupied, made easier by the fact we had a 3rd birthday party to attend this afternoon – 28 small children and a bouncy castle kept the adults on their toes! Once the kids were in bed, wrapping and labelling soap took up most of my evening and once again I’m on the threshold of being late with my latest Blogtober post. Deadline is T minus 80 minutes – eek!
Today I thought I’d share something a bit different. I’ve been baking for much, MUCH longer than I’ve been soaping; I was baking with my mother as a small girl, and I’ve continued to do throughout my adult life. There are undoubtedly similarities between soapmaking and baking, so I thought today I would share one of my recipes and see if I can’t inspire a soapmaker out there to try it.
Sadly, the time to bake just doesn’t seem to materialise these days, and the closest I get to baking is catching up with The Great British Bake Off while wrapping soap. Last week the contestants were asked to make a roulade, which, let’s be honest, is nothing more than a big, fancy Swiss Roll. Homemade Swiss Roll is MILES better than the mass produced ones that you can buy at the supermarket, is really quick to make and has the added bonus of being a fat-free sponge. What’s not to like?
Swiss Roll
Pre-heat your oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6
Take 3 large eggs. Weigh these three eggs (unbroken, in their shells) before you do anything else. Once you know the weight of the three eggs, you then need the same weight of caster sugar and plain flour.
Whisk together the eggs and the caster sugar with an electric hand whisk. You’ll need to keep whisking for a good 10 minutes. The mixture will thicken up and eventually will leave a trail when the whisk taken out of the mixture. It’s very similar to when soap batter reaches ‘trace’. Sift in half the flour, and fold in gently. You don’t want to lose any of the air that has been whisked into the mixture. Once the flour is completely folded in, do the same with the remaining flour. When the ingredients are all combined, pour into a greased, lined 12″ x 9″ baking tray.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the sponge is just cooked. If you go over, it’ll be difficult to roll.
Place a clean (!) tea towel over a cooling rack and dredge it with caster sugar. Turn the sponge out onto the tea towel, and immediately, while still piping hot, roll it up in the sugar coated cloth. Allow the sponge to cool down a little, for about 10 minutes, then very gently unroll and remove the cloth. The sponge will hold much of the ‘roll’, without cracking. Spread the ‘inside’ of the roll with jam, chocolate ganache, lemon curd or whatever takes your fancy, and roll it back up again. Ta-da! You could now carefully slice off both ends (just like a loaf of soap!) and make it look really pretty, but the most important thing is to enjoy!
This is the last one I made, filled with lemon curd. I’m now inspired to make another very soon and I’ll try to add some ‘making of’ pics to this post.
Swiss Roll
Right, I’m off to press that publish button. Deadline T -29mins 😀
A full third of the way through Blogtober, and I’ve had a good run of soapy posts (with a single bath bomby interlude for good measure), so perhaps it’s time to share something a little more personal.
Whoah now, don’t get excited. No please…don’t 😀 I’m just going to show you where I live, that’s all. And not even my house – the closest you’re getting is my village. And, if I’m entirely honest, I probably wouldn’t even share its name with you here, except it’s plastered all over my soap labels so I can hardly keep it a secret 🙂
I live in a small village called Beddgelert, within the Snowdonia National Park in North West Wales. It’s nestled in a valley mere minutes away from the foot of Snowdon itself, and surrounded by mountains and rivers, yet only 20 minutes away from the coast and some beautiful beaches. As someone who loves being outside, walking the hills or swimming in the sea, I honestly cannot think of anywhere in the UK I’d rather live (despite the rather high level of rainfall we have to put up with!)
Beddgelert Beddgelert
This river runs right through the middle of the village and is ideal for a dip on hot days:
The River
Or we can walk a little further downriver and spend some hours messing about in the water here:
River Glaslyn
A lot of the time though we try to get up high. The six year old seems to have boundless energy, but the three year old is still somewhat limited in how far and/or high she can go so we’re slowly increasing the length and elevation of our walks.
View of Llyn Dinas Cwm BychanView from the Miner’s Track (up Snowdon)On the Watkin Path (up Snowdon)
I was brought up here, but spent a good 25 years of my life studying and working elsewhere, latterly in Manchester. There’s no doubt in my mind that moving back home to bring our children up in this area was one of the best things we’ve ever done.
My my, these blog posts are getting later and later – this one I’m publishing with just 2.5 hours to spare, but Blogtober, you’ve not beaten me yet!!
A couple of months ago I began supplying my soap to a local retailer, Glosters in Porthmadog. Glosters is a beautifully curated gift store, stocking handmade items made in-house, locally and further afield in the UK.
They took a selection of my regular range, but also wanted something exclusive, just for them.
One half of the Glosters team (Tom) is a potter (who sells his ceramics in the store) and the store also has a nautical feel to it. It made sense therefore when Myfanwy (the other half of the Glosters team and textiles whiz) said that she would like a ‘Potters’ soap and a ‘Sea’ themed soap. I sent away for some sample fragrances, and in due course Myfanwy chose her two favourites.
This is the Potters Soap, fragranced with a fresh, clean scent of green florals and citrus, on a base of amber and musk. The dark blue reflects the colour of the Glosters’ logo, and for this one I kept an element of my signature drop swirl:
Potters’ Soap
And this is the Sea Soap, fragranced with a refreshing salty sea fragrance (of course!), designed with the sea in mind and topped with real sea salt from Halen Môn:
Sea Salt Soap
Both these bars will be available exclusively from Glosters very soon.
Did you know Wet Soap Wednesday is a thing? Certainly on Facebook and Instagram it is anyway. Today’s post is a quickie – the fruits of last night’s soaping session.
From left to right: Three Kings, Luscious Lavender & Christmas Tree
I posted last year about the first bar of soap I ever made and I’ve shared the ‘how’ post again below. But WHY did I make that first batch of soap? It’s a question I’ve been asked many times and the answer is quite simple. Curiosity. A friend came to visit, and proudly showed me some soap that she’d made. I was intrigued. How on earth did one make soap at home? Up until that point I’d assumed that it was some kind of highly technical laboratory process and I don’t think I’d even wondered whether it was possible to make it at home. It was just there. Soap. From the shop.
Had I ever suffered from sensitive skin, or had problems using soap I may have looked into it earlier. It’s more likely however that I would have gone and bought soap ‘for sensitive skin’ and left it at that. Nor did I try soapmaking because of ecological or environmental concerns *blush* (yep, I know a whole lot more about that side of things now!) No, it was pure curiosity. I did a bit of internet research, and became more and more excited. There was a whole big soapmaking world out that and it was fascinating.
My very first attempt was with a soapmaking kit. With hindsight I could easily have bought what I needed separately and just got on with it, but if I’m honest I wanted to MAKE SOAP NOW and the kit sped things up for me a little. I made soap, and I loved it. So what next?
I bought some books. Okay, I’ve bought a lot of books. One of my first was Smart Soapmaking by Anne Watson. A great book, though I did find that I had to tweak the recipes slightly when I ran them through Soapcalc. In those early days I also bought The Everything Soapmaking Book by Alicia Grasso, The Natural Soap Book by Susan Miller Cavitch and The Handmade Soap Book by Melinda Coss. Since then I’ve bought many more – I’ll have to gather them together and write a round up of soaping books I think.
I also did a lot of internet research. I don’t recall too many forums or Facebook groups back then, but there were an awful lot of Internet articles offering their soapmaking advice.
So having made that first batch of soap out of pure curiosity, and doing a LOT of reading on the subject, I was hooked, and I’ve never looked back. (Well, apart from when I was pregnant with my second child. The smell of all fragrance oils made me feel so violently sick that I had to have all my soapmaking stuff – including ALL handmade soap – put away where there was no chance I’d catch smell of it – for months… They were dark days :-D)
I’m pretty sure I should be doing this every month – having a list of goals would probably lend focus to my work wouldn’t it? October is going to pretty busy even without this daily blogging malarkey, but this is what I’m hoping to achieve by October 31st.
Get my website up and running. This has been a goal for so long, it’s become a bit of a joke, but I know what needs to be done now and I want the website live, even if it’s not perfect to begin with.
Finish organising, and successfully hold a craft fair in my village. This is a biggie – not something I’ve done before and it’s a bit of a learning curve.
Prepare a wholesale linesheet. I’ve managed so far without a formal linesheet, but wholesale enquiries are increasing, and it’s no longer good enough to be directing interested parties to my Facebook page to see photographs (especially given that I don’t even have a website yet).
Prepare a stock of bath bombs. I’ve finally perfected my recipe, and applied for my assessment so that I can sell them. I’m hoping the paperwork will come through so that I can start making them in readiness for the festive season.
Post at least 31 blog posts – eeeek!!
So much to do, so much to learn!
Thank you for reading – I’m off now to make as start on that lot up there ⇑⇑⇑
When I woke up this morning, I reached for my phone (and my glasses – not sure when exactly THAT became a prerequisite for reading my phone screen but it’s now automatic – arghhh) and checked my Twitter feed. At 6.30am I had no idea that such a thing as Blogtober even existed but by 6.45, I was doing it.
The Blogtober Challenge is all about blogging every day, for a month. You may know that I recently committed to update the blog more often but I’m still struggling to do so, mostly due to time constraints. So how on earth I think I’m going to do this, I’m not really sure, but hey that’s what a challenge is all about eh?!
As far as I can tell, many, if not most, bloggers out there are following a set list of prompts for each day of October, but I didn’t want to be quite so constrained, so I’ve created my own list of potential blog post topics. So as well as the usual soapy stuff I’ll also be writing about more personal topics and day-to-day life. They may not be long posts (in fact, they’re very unlikely to be!) but If nothing else, you’ll get to know a little more about the person behind The Soap Mine!
If there’s anything particular from this list of topics that you’d absolutely like me to write about, please let me know in the comments below and I’ll be happy to oblige.
Goals for October
Soapy (and related) stuff
My (non-soapy) daytime job
How/why I started making soap
Where I live
World Smile Day – things that make me smile
Weekly wrap-ups
If I could go anywhere in the world…
A day in my life
Instagram tips
Favourite IGers
Recently read, currently reading, want to read…
Favourite recipes
Book reviews
Pet peeves
My garden
Other crafts
My pinterest obsession
Anyone else committed to doing this or done it before? Please do share any tips, ideas or advice you may have (and leave a link so that I can follow you too)
I’m finding it hard to believe that it’s been a whole year since I last shared one of these. It’s been a busy year, and I’ve posted less often than I’d hoped I would, nevertheless, I managed 50% more posts in 2015 than in 2014 – onwards and upwards 😀
In 2016 I aim to post yet more often. The more observant among you may have noticed a change to the blog tagline to ‘A Soaping Life’. I want to broaden the range of posts, just a little, to give me the opportunity to post more than simply what soaps I’ve made that day and/or week. I’m not sure exactly yet what direction this will take me, but I’m looking forward to exploring my options.
Lastly, I’m really grateful to those of you who take the time to read and comment on my posts – thank you! I didn’t do enough during 2015 to find the time to reciprocate, but I will endeavour to try harder in 2016!
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2015. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
In my last post I gave a little hint of what was to come in the two subsequent posts, so here, without further ado, is (the first half of) what was shared in the 2015 International Soap Swap.
Six out of the twelve participants are based in Europe, and they are the ones I’m showcasing in this post. We had one soapmaker from Ireland, one from Austria, one from Germany and three (including myself) from the UK.
First up were these bars from Celine of i am handmade If you’re a soapmaker, or a fan of handmade soaps, you may well be familiar with her gorgeous work. I was incredibly lucky that Celine sent an extra bar as a little thank you to me for hosting, and these were the two that I ended up with:
I am Handmade Love + Kisses and Cottontail
And here they are unboxed:
Love + Kisses / Cottontail
I chose not to use a single bar until I knew all the participants had received their soapy packages, but as soon as that happy moment arrived, the first one I opened was Celine’s Love + Kisses:
Love + Kisses in use
I didn’t think I was making a conscious decision when I picked up one of Celine’s first, but I’ve been a fan of hers for a long time – more or less since I first started to make soap – so perhaps subconsciously I was draw to them.
Love + Kisses is divine to use. It’s super hard, creates a lusciously abundant lather, and the fruity fragrance lingers softly on the skin. I can’t wait to start the second bar 😀
You can buy Celine’s via her website or checkout her FB page If you enjoy watching soapmaking videos (and there are an awful lot of us that do :-)) then you should definitely check out Celine’s Youtube channel.
Next up is this beauty from Vinvela, of Dandelion Seifee:
Amber-Lemon by Dandelion Seifee
Vinvela really is an absolute master of swirls, and creates beautiful, fine patterns that I can only dream of. This bar is scented with a blend of amber and lemon which give a deep and complex fragrance which is also refreshing and bright. It’s SO lovely.
She also creates her own packaging – how cute is this? The soap nestles perfectly within the box, and the box is surrounded by the colourful outer band which details the fragrance, ingredients etc.
Dandelion Seifee packaging
If you’d like to see more of Vinvela’s skillful soapmaking, just take a look at her blog here
The third soap I received from my European colleagues was ‘Bite Me’ from Wendy of Heavenly Bubbles in the UK.
Heavenly Bubbles
I just love this packaging. There’s often a compromise between protecting the soap while ensuring that the design can be seen and the fragrance experienced, but Wendy appears to have achieved the perfect balance here.
Bite Me – Heavenly Bubbles
Bite Me is part of the Heavenly Bubbles luxury silk collection, and the fragrance is delicious. It’s described as citrus, berries and cherries on a vanilla base and to me it’s a sophisticated, grown up twist on cherryade. Finding a true red colour for soap is a bit of a holy grail for soapmakers, but Wendy has cracked it in this bar. Topped with a fine sprinkling of glitter and a perfect little cherry on each bar, it’s clear that a lot of thought has gone into the design of Bite Me. I love it!
Coincidentally, our second British soapmaker is also a Wendy. Wendy Jones runs Soapy Jones, a handmade soap company based in the Midlands. She created this fabulously appropriate packaging for our international soap swap:
Soapy Jones
It’s just perfect, even down to that postage stamp on there!
The soap inside continued the theme – take a look at this amazing landscape (or, more correctly I think, seascape soap)
Soapy Jones Seascape
I LOVE the creativity that’s gone into the design. Unless you’ve ever tried to create a landscape soap you probably don’t know how difficult it is to do, and how much skill is involved it getting it just right like this. The fragrance, a fresh green scent called Earl Grey & Cucumber, is the perfect complement to the design.
You can find Soapy Jones on Facebook, follow her on Twitter and Instagram, and take a peek at more of her beautiful creations on her website
The fifth European participant was Zacil of Soap & Soap based in Germany. Zacil doesn’t currently sell her bars so I consider myself very lucky to have had this opportunity to try her soap. And not just one bar. Oh no. Zacil was incredibly generous and sent me FOUR to try. This was the bar that all participants received:
Soap & Soap
Each bar’s packaging was handcrafted and personalised with each participant’s name, and was really well designed to protect the soap whilst allowing a tantalising glimpse of what was within. Here it is unwrapped:
Soap & Soap
Just look at those amazing colours and swirls! This bar was made with some really interesting ingredients including Babassu, Argan and Cottonseed oils which I’ve not used in soapmaking. There were also one ingredient of which I’ve never even HEARD before – Konjak flour. Turns out it’s a starchy flour popular in Asia. I can’t wait to try this bar out for myself!
The three other bars which Zacil sent me are pictured below, named, from left to right, Midori cocktail, a fruity melony fragrance (with a dinky little soap fruit on top), Juicy Hearts (the colours are amazing) and Century, which has white wine listed as an additive.
Soap & Soap Extra bars
You can see more of Zacil’s work on here on her Facebook page
The last participant from Europe was of course myself. Now, I’ve wittered on enough on this blog about my own soaps, so I’ll keep it very brief here – these were the two bars that I sent out for the swap – each participant received one or the other of these:
This Summer I was lucky enough to host an international soap swap between myself and eleven amazingly talented soaping friends from Europe, America & Canada. There was only rule: Each participant was to send me eleven full sized bar of their soap by 31st July, together with their postal address for the return package.
Once I had received all eleven packages (and boy was that like Christmas!!) I created twelve piles of soap – one for each participant including myself – consisting of one soap from each package (omitting each participants OWN soap of course) and one of mine. I then boxed up all the piles of soapy goodness and sent them back out to their rightful owners.
Given all the things that could have gone wrong, it all went remarkably smoothly. We had a bit of a delay as one box was a few weeks late arriving (despite being posted in PLENTY of time by the participant – it took almost 8 weeks to get from North America to the UK!) but the return packages all (bar one) arrived at their various destinations in good time, and even the last one arrived within 10 days.
The only down side really was the postage costs. The parcels weighed approximately 1.7kg each, so international postage both ways was never going to be cheap. Once I’d packaged up the individual boxes I weighed them at home, and used the Royal Mail website to try to ascertain what the cost was going to be to send out each parcel. Each participant then paid me via Paypal what I had estimated the cost to be. As it turned out, each and every parcel turned out to be marginally cheaper to post than the website quoted, but it was a simple task to refund each participant the difference.
And now to the fun bit. There were 6 participants from Europe (including myself) and 6 from the USA and Canada. Rather than have one crazy long post, I’m going to post a few pictures here of MY Christmas in July – when the soapy packages arrived. In Post 2 I’ll share my European haul in much more detail, and in Post 3 I’ll do the same with the loveliness from our friends over the pond.
In case you missed my earlier teaser, here’s the full line up in all its glory:
International Soap Swap 2015
If you are remotely a fan of handmade soap, or even just like surprises, you’ll have some idea of the excitement I felt each time the postman handed me one of these parcels. Do bear in mind these are just teasers for the main events coming in the next two posts!
First to arrive was this package from Pam of By The Sea Soaps in the US:
By The Sea Soaps
and she was so kind to put together a special goody bag for me as a thank you for hosting the swap:
Goody Bag from Pam
After that I’ve kind of lost track of what arrived when, so these next nine packages are in no particular order:
From Vinvela Ebony of dandelion SeiFee in Austria:
dandelion SeiFee
From Wendy of Soapy Jones, UK:
Soapy Jones
From Barbara of Moon Goddess Garden, US:
Moon Goddess Garden
From Melinda of Melinda’s Naturals, US:
Melinda’s Naturals
From Celine of i am handmade, Ireland:
i am handmade
From Wendy of Heavenly Bubbles, UK:
Heavenly Bubbles
From Zacil of Soap & Soap in Germany:
Soap & Soap
From Emily of Shieh Design Studio, US:
Shieh Design Studio
From Zahida of Handmade in Florida, US:
Handmade in Florida
And finally, an admission and apology – there was one parcel that, in my HUGE excitement, I forgot to photograph whilst still in its outer box. So, even more of a tease here from Louise, of Soga Artisan Soaperie, in Canada: (There will, of course, be pictures when I cover them individually in Post 3, and you can find them here if you can’t wait that long)
Soga Artisan Soaperie
Don’t, whatever you do, miss the next two posts. There will be naked bars 😀
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